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Genre: Drama
Title: Where Loyalties Lie
Logline: The loyalty of a college graduate is put to a life-or-death test when he rescues his corrupted friend from a criminal kingpin by countering the deceit and betrayal that first got him into the crisis.
Synopsis:
The drama starts when Jeremy saves his brother from an abusive environment. To support him, Jeremy delivers for a drug syndicate. However, after a brutal robbery that reeked of foul play, his life hangs in the balance. Andrew tries to free Jeremy of his debt. Yet, Jeremy’s reluctance to accept help rivals Andrew’s eagerness to offer it. As a result, Andrew swears to secrecy. Unfortunately, his promise to Jeremy clashes with his loyalty to his loved ones, who notice the toll the burden is taking. Ultimately, they depend on the wise advice of Andrew’s parents and the sympathy of his friends/love interest. After some brilliant plans of deception, they partake in a high stakes game of chance in which the opponent is the leader of the drug cartel. In the end, Andrew realizes, though a surprising act of disloyalty got them into this predicament, only a supreme act of loyalty can get them out; Jeremy learns not only does crime not pay but it also may cost him more than he can afford to bear.
Title: Pecksie and the Sweet Elf
Logline: A time for rebels and a time for dreamers: the Romantic Age engulfs the whirlwind relationship between Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin and radical poet Percy Byssche Shelley. Based on extensive research.
Synopsis:
This dramatic account captures the eight year atypical relationship between two untraditional forces during the Romantic Age, Mary Godwin and unconventional writer Percy Shelley. He called her, "Pecksie"; she called him, "my sweet elf."
From the creation of "Frankenstein", to the emerging eternal friendship with Lord Byron, to coping with tragic deaths of infants, to recording intense feelings in literary pieces, to the unforeseen fatal death of Percy, a tale of impending triumph and relentless tragedy unravels. When Percy wrote "Adonis" as a tribute for the untimely death of Romantic poet John Keats, Percy unknowingly wrote his own insightful personal epitaph.
Title: The Price Of Fame
Logline: Lossing both her parents at birth, Molly Parker Evans is raised by her Grandparents. She soon heads to L.A. to pursue her dream of becoming a star. only to find out that stardom will cost greatly!
Synopsis:
After the death of her mother during childbirth, and her father dying on the way home in a car accident, her grandparents raise Molly Parker Evans. She soon becomes too much for her rural grandparents to handle, and at twenty-one, packs a suitcase, and heads to L.A. to pursue her dream of becoming a movie star. She find out, that stardom will cost her everything!
Title: Coveted Son
Logline: An Asian billionaire unknowingly fathers a child and embarks on a desperate mission to the US to retrieve what can be his only biological heir from his entrenched American family.
Synopsis:
Yeung “Billy” Kim, who, in his younger days as a cadet in the South Korean army, unknowingly fathers a son. Later, as a successful businessman he learns he is sterile and can’t have any children. This personal news is exposed on national TV throughout Korea and eventually the world.
Eva, Billy’s former girlfriend, is shocked of this news and approaches him with the even more shocking news: that although he can’t have any children in the future, he already has a biological son in the world who was given up for adoption several years earlier.
Billy is ectastic about this development and embarks on a desperate mission to the United States to retrieve his only biological heir from his entrenched adoptive family.
After learning of his son’s whereabouts, Kim uses his power and financial prowess to tempt the boy’s financially struggling adoptive family into considering giving up the child for an unspeakable amount of money.
Title: The Advocate
Logline: When he's on your side, he's the best friend in the world. When he's not, there's no place on earth to hide.
Synopsis:
"The Advocate" uses a real-life story of an EMT in San Francisco, who was hired by Social Services to intercept potentially bogus 9-1-1 calls, as a jumping off point to a fictionailzed vigilante drama. He often arrives on the scene before the ambulance, offering the caller temporary housing or treatment options, instead of a costly ride to the SF General ER. After his fiancee chokes to death while waiting for an ambulance, he embarks on a murderous crusade against the very population he had once dedicated his career to helping. As the story progresses the citizens of SF begin to see the killer as a quasi-folk hero. He is simply doing what the politicians and law enforcement have been unable to do to; clean up the homeless problem. There is also a battle for the lead character's "soul" by two female influences in his life.
Title: A Regrettable Twist of Fate
Logline: A top-notch NBA player falls in love with a star player of the WNBA at the same time they compete for the national championship.
Synopsis:
As an author, screenwriter and freelance writer, I am seeking representation.
Tapping into the idea that bad boys always get the girl, A Regrettable Twist of Fate validates that premise by revealing that sometimes what repels her also entices her.
Jay Byrd, NBA champion, is charismatic, witty and is just as outstanding on the court as one might expect. He makes a promise to his dying mother not to break the heart of his first love, Cindy. With every intention of honoring that promise, Jay’s plan is soon halted by his attraction for Jessie Winters, WNBA champion.
When Jessie and Jay first meet, sparks sizzle immediately. Though Jessie is somewhat put off by Jay’s arrogance, she doesn’t dismiss him totally. To make matters more complicated for Jessie, Jay vacillates between his first love, Cindy and the woman he always wanted to love—Jessie Winters.
Torn and driven at the same time, Jay soon learns that not making a decision can sometimes be the worst decision of all.
Title: Eulogy
Logline: A lost young man leaves the island home where he never belonged, only to discover a disturbing world marred by Christian fundamentalism. Little does he know what darkness awaits him there.
Synopsis:
All was not well in paradise. Like many white kids, or haoles, Joshua never felt at home in Hawaii. So, he leaves the islands after high school to reunite with Beau, the charismatic cousin who visited him once several years earlier. However, Joshua is ill-prepared for the strange new world he has decided to enter. What he discovers is an offbeat cast of characters in a community crawling with Christian fundamentalists, and a dark rebellious cousin who now feels like a stranger to him. Since they last met, Beau has had a psychotic break and spent time in a mental hospital. He now copes with the help of alcohol and marijuana, and lashes out with wit and sarcasm at the fundamentalists he has grown to despise.
Will Joshua come out of his shell with Beau's help, or will he remain a passive witness wandering through his life like a lost soul? Will Beau deal with his troubled past successfully, or is he destined for another dramatic breakdown?
Title: Lipstick and Rouge
Logline: The story of greed and corruption in the real estate investment world.
Synopsis:
Real Estate investor Kat Pierce is newly divorced from Danny Wade. Danny has joined forces with her arch enemy Mitch Wheeler. Kat discovers that Danny has stolen her identity to finance one of their deals. Then Kat meets Jack Larson (who later becomes her love interest), a builder who is losing his unfinished lakefront home to foreclosure. She masterminds a plot to save Jack's home, but to do this, she needs Danny. She feeds him enough information to entice Mitch to outbid her at the auction and complete its construction before taking title. Although her plan worked, she's angry that Danny betrayed her to Mitch and she turns them into the Attorney General. In the interim Mitch completes Jack's home, but things go awry the day before closing when Jack files bankruptcy. The court then lifts the stay on his home and Jack sells it to Kat's buyer for a huge profit. The A.G. has Mitch and his gang arrested and in the end, Jack and Kat ride off into the sunset, happy and wealthy.
Title: A Thousand Days
Logline: Her husband died over a year ago. Her mind has yet to catch up.
Synopsis:
Taylor and Connor James are a loving, devoted couple celebrating their anniversary this coming weekend. The romantic getaway Taylor had planned, is suddenly interrupted when Connor is called away on business. Disappointed, she takes advantage of her pre-arranged plans and decides to make the trip alone.
While staying at a picturesque bed and breakfast, she finds herself drawn to a shy, young widower named Aaron Michelson. Though their relationship is purely platonic, the two find solace in each other – filling a void in both their hearts. But their friendship is brought to a halt when the two realize they share more in common than either ever imagined as Taylor learns that her husband died over a year ago. It’s the story of lost love and the oftentimes incomprehensible behaviors associated with death.
Title: No Worries
Logline: Take a leap and the net will appear. A laid off Phoenix executive and trio of illegal Mexican immigrants band together in a small business to reinvent themselves and achieve the American dream.
Synopsis:
A sudden layoff combined with bankruptcy and subsequent divorce leaves a Phoenix executive with no money, experience or place to live. Thrown together with a group of illegal Mexican immigrants, they start a business and overcome constant obstacles and risks in their journey from failure to triumph.
Running from job to job, living check to check, hiding from immigration police and smuggling workers across the border, the pace is hectic and comical as they communicate in broken english and gringo spanish while learning the others culture.
With money tight but belief in themselves, they band together and risk all their money on one last event to save themselves. If it works, their success is guaranteed, if not their leap will not have a net.
This screenplay runs 118 pages and is registered with the WGA East. It has universal themes and dreams for all ages and cultures and appeals to a global audience.
Title: Saying Goodbye to Joy
Logline: A calculating conman uses a deadly elixir on a spiritual woman. He increases his wealth preying on those sympathetic, as she dies. Inspired by actual events this is the crime unpunished.
Synopsis:
Inspired by actual events, this is the fictional story of a conman before he found the perfect crime that put him on the FBI’s most wanted list. These are the missing years, in the history of his cons. Through the use a deadly elixir, he slowly poisons his victim and takes over her life. The conman uses the inflicted illness to his advantage, increasing his wealth, getting only enough medical care to keep his victim alive to collect more money from the sympathetic. He does this all in the name of a higher power and proclaimed love, making the spiritual woman believe she has given up her life and loved ones for her soul mate.
Title: The Mancini Way
Logline: Good and evil are joined at the hip for three brothers, a mafia boss, a cop, and a priest.
Synopsis:
Brothers Joseph, Johnny, and Frank Mancini were born into a notorious Baltimore mafia family with a long history of brutality and corruption. Joseph, the head of the Baltimore Family, laments that his only son wants to join the mafia. Johnny, a 20-year veteran of the police force, struggles with the guilt of working with Joseph to bring down drug dealers. Frank, a priest, wrestles with his faith as he discovers the deep ties between the mafia and the church.
The brothers come together to end a growing feud between the Italian mafia and the Greek and Russian crime lords who are threatening to take over. Two warring gangs, the Crips and the Bloods, are used as pawns in this bloody struggle for power. As the dust settles, the survivors in the Family declare their loyalty to the Mancini Way, but it is an uneasy peace.
Title: UNDERGROUND DREAMS
Logline: For Frankie, it was just another Tuesday morning subway ride to work in the Big Apple. In just a few hours, his world and the world around him will be forever changed.
Synopsis:
UNDERGROUND DREAMS(WGA # 1263459)is a true life story of subway passenger,Frankie(29), whose life was forever changed on September 11,2001.
On that day,like any other day, FRANKIE leaves his apartment in Hell's Kitchen and heads to work. FRANKIE gets on the Number 9 train filled with a cross-section of society whose lives are about to become intertwined. Without warning as the train begins to fill with smoke.
FRANKIE begins a series of underground dreams, reflecting on his life. He remembers days with his alcoholic and abusive father, RAY. While many memories evoke heartache, there are also tender moments. FRANKIE reflects on the love of his life,JULIA.
FRANKIE and the other passengers finally escape the horrors of the subway tunnel, bursting to the streets above.
All aboard for UNDERGROUND DREAMS, as Dito Montiel's "A Guide To Recognizing Your Saints" meets Oliver Stone's "World Trade Center."
CONTACT ME BELOW:
GOODPICKS@GMAIL.COM
D. MATT
702-883-3905
Title: Nickel Mines
Logline: The Amish forgive the killer, but can they forgive Rachel?
Synopsis:
Nickel Mines is a screenplay based upon the true events of the Amish school shooting. The story revolves around Rachel Smucker, a 30-year-old single mother who was excommunicated & shunned due to an out-of-wedlock pregnancy. Rachel is still living in Pennsylvania Dutch Country at the time of the shootings, and she's come a long way since the excommunication of 12 years ago. Now a woman of the world, Rachel has earned a degree and established herself as a popular local singer/songwriter. The tragedy of the shootings at Nickel Mines One-Room School and the death of Rachel's youngest sister prove to be a powerful catalyst that launches Rachel into a fearless search for forgiveness, family, and faith, as she struggles to reconnect with her family and to find healing.
I'm an author/journalist who lives in Pennsylvania Dutch Country, and I have many connections in the Amish community. Info on me and my work may be found on www.lindaoatmanhigh.com.
Title: Illusions
Logline: Two brothers create a religion to make money. They did not realize the impact they had on the souls of everyday man, least of all, their own.
Synopsis:
Orphaned brothers, John and Andrew Taylor, struggle to maintain their lives. In a moment of suffering, John, drunk at their usual watering hole after loosing his job, is helped out of the bar by Andrew, but not before the pair catch the news report of a cult discovered that swindled followers out of millions. They decide to create a religion themselves and reap the benefits.
After five years of growth, the brothers have evolved into prophet businessmen. Their religion has reached the far corners of the globe and gains momentum. Enough momentum to attract the attention of government agencies including the FBI.
The brothers become accustomed to their new lifestyle and work hard to maintain it, even so far as murder. Dodging the government, assassins and each other, the brothers come face to face with the monster they have created. WGA registered #1252222, written by Stan Rubakhin and James R. Johnson.
Title: The Lincoln Show
Logline: Two sex scandals, separated by almost 200 years, collide in this story of pride and betrayal.
Synopsis:
1864…
Abraham Lincoln’s lack of a scandalous past won him two presidential elections. Now, at war’s end, he must fend off the most challenging eruption of his life.
Ward Hill Lamon, Lincoln’s faithful bodyguard, is confronted with damaging rumors that could affect his standing with the president.
David Pyle, Lamon’s resourceful and obedient assistant, holds a secret that could shock the nation.
2009…
John Ray Dobbs will stop at nothing to make sure that he and he alone controls the strings attached to the school he runs, as well as his rebellious family.
Ned Laverne has been a passive observer up to this point… or has he?
TJ Laverne is more than willing to give his life for a cause. Will he be as willing to give the lives of others?
Millard Stark, TJ’s reluctant lover, must choose between his career and a secret life that may no longer be secret.
Title: Potluck
Logline: POTLUCK, a film about learning the difference between making the most of what you've got, and just making excuses.
Synopsis:
The central character of POTLUCK, Grace McKinley, is a massage therapist, single woman, and aspiring writer in her early thirties, attempting to juggle her own quest for love and meaning with her familial obligations. Her relationship with her alcoholic brother, Justin, serves as a catalyst for her realization that she has been using her family as an excuse to avoid taking risks in her life, professionally and emotionally.
I have drawn directly from my personal experiences as a single massage therapist and sister of an alcoholic, as well as the experiences of my friends and family as we all struggle for more meaningful, authentic lives. In this script, as in life, there is no laughter without tears, and there are no true saints or villains- only ordinary people trying to make the most of what they've got.
Please contact me if you would like to read this script. I would be happy to sign a release form. Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Julie Aitcheson
Title: Populous
Logline: A young woman faces the challenge of her life when aids rebels who plan to take down a national committee that controls population growth though limiting births to families that pass strict tests.
Synopsis:
In the future a young woman called Evelyn gets a job with a committee that controls population growth by requiring couples to pass stringent parental tests.
Soon she sees how sinister the committee is as well as having a very evil and demanding boss. Then later feeling guilty when her best friend fails the parental test she teams up with under ground rebels and sabotage the committee allowing the public to have children the natural way without an exam and requirements.
Title: Criminals are Made, Not Born
Logline: When the town votes to raise taxes to build a new school during the great depression, it puts them on a collision course with evil, Alfred King--who blames the higher taxes for the loss of his farm.
Synopsis:
It is the last day of school for the children of a little town--located in the rural countryside. Just as the last morning bell rings, devastation rocks the small town to its core. As the culprit drives into town he spots the school superintendent. He calls him over, and ignites a bomb--killing them both. Investigators find his farm burned to the ground, with all the farm animals dead and all the trees cut down. As they look around the yard, they find the wife burned to an unrecognizable state. Someone notices a board in the fence with writing on it. He reads aloud, "Criminals are made, Not Born".
My name is J.J. Sizemore. I was raised in a small town similar to the town this story is based on. I used to build movie sets for various companies in Los Angeles before starting my own Carpentry by Design business. I have done work for CCH Pounder, Lisa Bonet, Conni Brazelton, and Debbie Morgan. I decided to write this screenplay because I felt the victims needed to be remembered.
Title: The embryo
Logline: Jonathan has to decide whether to give life to an embryo in the incubator and fight for him after his best friends and genetic parents were killed in airplane accident.
Synopsis:
The embryo in the incubator is waiting to be transplanted into Debbie's stand-in womb. This is when a tragic private jet accident results in the death of Ricardo and Joanna his loving genetic childless parents. Jonathan an old army buddy of Ricardo and currently a widower law professor is appointed as guardian and decides to go on with the plan to honor the dead parents. Rebecca who was to become the heir of her Brother Ricardo’s corporation will do anything to remove her only obstacle, the embryo. Debbie and Jonathan fight for the baby to be born. Courts in Canada and Mexico debate basic issues of death, money and life. Does an unborn embryo have legal claim on his parent’s legacy? Is our bond to our mother through her genes or because she gave birth and life to us? Is Debbie going through pregnancy only for the love she had for Ricardo and Joanna? Is Rebecca only after the money her brother left her or will she need this baby to be well and alive in a surprising twist in the tail?
Title: Coveted Son
Logline: An Asian billionaire unknowingly fathers a child, becomes sterile and embarks on a desperate mission to the USA to retrieve what can be his only biological heir.
Synopsis:
Yeung “Billy” Kim, who, in his younger days as a cadet in the South Korean army, unknowingly fathers a son. Later, as a successful businessman he learns he is sterile and can’t have any children. This personal news is exposed on national TV throughout Korea and eventually the world.
Eva, Billy’s former girlfriend, is shocked of this news and approaches him with the even more shocking news: that although he can’t have any children in the future, he already has a biological son in the world who was given up for adoption several years earlier.
Billy is ectastic about this development and embarks on a desperate mission to the United States to retrieve his only biological heir from his entrenched adoptive family. When confronted with the adoptive parents, epic moral issues ensue that ultimately lead to Billy enacting a kidnapping and murder plot because there's no way he's going to return home to Korea without his "coveted son."
Title: Mike and Brenda (sec. draft)
Logline: Story about Mike, moving to Boston to become a professional drummer. In the big city he faces all kinds of adventures, meeting the shy and solitary Brenda in the mixture of all this.
Synopsis:
Mike(18), the main character being followed the first day he arrives in Boston where he found a bachelor apartment and a job as a mail deliverer. Him being an orphan from a small town in Maine he has great difficult in adjusting to the cities rules. He encounters crime, poverty and other chaos of the city's every day life. At his first days work he meets the shy and distant Brenda(23) who's just another face in the crowd in the crowd like no other. After two weeks he has his first audition and immediately blends into a three piece, non ambitious group. The band takes off and starts to take make name for themselves in the local area. When Mike finally brakes down Brenda's wall and they melt together the band is at a crosspoint of taking a step to the next level. A change that only passes by once. Mike has to make a choice between the woman of his dreams and family life or his childhood dream of becoming a professional musician.
Title: 2009 ALCATRAZ LANE
Logline: Two sisters trapped in a horrible housing project are conflicted; one wants to move, the other wants to stay and try to make it a better place to live.
Synopsis:
Two sisters live in 2009 Alcatraz Lane, the worst housing project in the United States. After the death of their parents, and their individual accomplishments, the sisters are torn. One sister wants to move away from the bad element who infest Alcatraz Lane, and move into a decent neighborhood. The other sister wants to stay and fight, and rid Alcatraz Lane of its vermin.
After one of the sisters is murdered by the project bully, the other sister is convinced that she should stay and fight. She believes if you get rid of the “king pin”, all his bullies will follow. She, along with the project wanna-be-voodoo lady devise an ingenious plan to bring down the bully and make Alcatraz Lane a safe place to live.
Title: Black Panther
Logline: It's genetics versus environment in this story of long lost African American twin brothers who re-unite in the court room amid racial injustices and moral victory.
Synopsis:
Fifty-two year old Rufus Braxton, a former Black Panther associate, comes to terms with his past via a long awaited reunion with his twin brother Raymont. Separated in early childhood and raised in contrasting environments, the two reconnect when a young African American girl is raped by two of Connecticut's young socialites. Will Rufus overcome the obstacles set by his pretentious brother, or will what is right lose in the end?
Title: Black Parade
Logline: A modern day adopted son of Christ, rises to the favor of population. The government afraid of a rebellion seeks to "get rid" of the problem. Will modern day people again allow gods messenger killed?
Synopsis:
When David was a baby, he was annointed as an adopted son of Christ. As he grew, he found that he had special healing powers. In his early 20s, David and his two friends embark on a mission to heal the people and teach the people to treat each other honestly and fairly.
Through this crusade his populatity grows until the United States Government becomes afraid.
David at times is frusterated with people and his own life, wishing he could be "normal". David falls in love, and develops a lot of close friends.
The government plots to end his crusade by framing David, using a few of his followers to set him up.
David is arrested and has a trial. In order to set an example the president orders a televised execution, by lethal injection. The president stays at the prison to witness the execution. The president is sure that everything is fine after the execution, however a Black Parade, arrives at the prison. The president steps down and David's work continues.
Title: Catgirl
Logline: A young woman is found unconscious in the gutter. When she awakes she acts like a cat, and the man who found her searches for answers.
Synopsis:
Elk is an intelligent, independent, and hardworking young man going to school out-of-state for his college education. He lives alone, has a job, and gets top grades in his class. Though it appears that he has his act together, he still struggles to pay the bills and put food on the table. Though they would be more then willing to help, Elk would never ask his parents for their assistance. Things only seem to get worse when he finds a woman who believes she’s a cat.
Not possessing the heart to simply turn her away, Elk must discover what has happened to her, where she belongs, and why in the world she acts like a feline. The young man receives unrequested aid from a female med. student Aida, and an ever-curious Engineering Technologies major going by the name of TNT. While the three search for answers, a mysterious man dressed in a black suit seems to appear all too often. Just what are the true depths to the mysteries that revolve around the Catgirl?
Title: the amazing fightingsongs
Logline: The story covers a criminal family in Alaska. One of the sons becomes a cop. One follows in his fathers fooosteps as a hitman for The Devil.
Synopsis:
The amazing Fightingsongs of Alaska are a notorious criminal family spanning into the late 90's. The oldest son becomes a cop after his fathers death. Second oldest becomes a hitman for his fathers former employer, The Devil. The story jumps back and forth between both boys worlds. The relationship of the boys to their family, friends, and girlfriends is explored. It begins in the 80's and touches lightly on the killing of the father. Most of the movie is set in the late 90's as the boys are in their early twenties. You get to see the temptations of a young man living in the fast lane, the strong bond of family, and the difference between right and wrong. The end is a climactic car chase and shootout. Most of the story is straight dialogue. The action doesn't come until the end.
Title: Singularity
Logline: Singularity is a sharp and humorous look at "thirty-somethings" living on Chicago's trendy North Side who grapple with racism, infidelity, sex, and the ultimate singularity or breaking point, death.
Synopsis:
Bo is a charismatic African American--an Ivy leaguer and one of Chicago's rising architects-- who succeeds by force of talent and personality. But beneath his reinforced exterior is a man whose marriage has been gutted after his affair six months ago and whose career gets caught in the dragnet of corporate racism.
Drop is a self-help guru and a source of strength to millions whose pre-packaged answers to life turn out to be ineffectual when his own health starts to fail after a collapse on stage.
Drop and Bo are the two poles of a screenplay that intesects six characters whose lives follow the scientific concept of a singularity, which is when bodies in the universe self destruct, giving way to new life.
I was Writer/Director of The Quiet, 2003 Winner, Best Independent Film, Screen Magazine, and a finalist for the Sundance Film Festival American Spectrum series. I was previously a film critic for the Chicago Sun-Times newspaper group.
Thanks for your consideration.
Title: Pretense
Logline: An idealistic young attorney is almost obsessive in her desire to help her law partner keep custody of his daughter, who despises him.
Synopsis:
Eve Arnell will do almost anything to help her law partner keep custody of his strange, hostile daughter. Until painful memories from her own childhood, plus the mysterious and sudden appearance of an old love, cause her to question not only her own motivations but the motivations of everyone around her.
I have been a practicing attorney for many years, have taken many screenwriting courses, and have had several short stories published in literary magazines. I would like to submit my original screenplay "Pretense" for your consideration, and can be reached at MaureenAbato@aol.com, 718-769-4021, or Maureen Abato, Esq., 2732 East 21 Street, Brooklyn, NY 11235.
Title: Conspiracy
Logline: Just when a high school athlete thinks he has it all, his life takes a turn for the worst when he’s accused of a sex crime.
Synopsis:
It’s a story about a popular high school athlete who is falsely accused for molesting a young girl at his mother’s daycare. As he struggles to proclaim his innocence, his family breaks apart, the school and community ostracize him. Against his backdrop, his lawyer works to uncover a possible conspiracy…
Title: 20-20 Hindsight
Logline: Sixteen year old Jeremy doesn’t know it but his grandfather is actually his twin brother and his mother is actually his niece. Impossible? Not when you’re a clone.
Synopsis:
Jeremy knows he looks and acts like his grandfather but he doesn’t know that his mother, Jill Nava, a prominent geneticist, frustrated with her father’s gambling, drinking and womanizing, cloned her father sixteen years ago and is terrified that Jeremy will adopt his grandfather’s bad habits. He just thinks his mother is overly concerned with his typical high school pranks and jealous of his relationship with his grandfather. Strained relations are a matter of course in the Nava family, until in a heated argument Jill reveals the truth about Jeremy to her parents. Family dynamics and loyalties suddenly shift and the experiment rapidly begins to unfold. Jeremy discovers his true identity and struggles with his anger, confusion, and sense of betrayal. Medical issues and a real crisis bring the family back together.
Lynette Long, a licensed psychologist, is the author of twenty books, forty articles, and two stage plays. She is a prize winning author and playwright.
Title: Lefty in the Pen
Logline: The true story of a professional baseball player chasing his lifelong dream of pitching in the major leagues while fighting to maintain his sanity after his part in the death of a close friend.
Synopsis:
During his professional baseball career, our main character finds himself consumed by addiction and injury, as well as a strong desire to please his successful father. But one dark and horrific night in the desert will haunt and alter his dreams forever, as baseball, his saving grace, threatens to slip from his grip, and has ended in the death of a close friend and teammate. As he rapidly descends into a world of psychosis, can he find redemption for his past, or will his demons haunt him forever?
Our story is capped off with an inspirational ending that will cause even the strongest man to shed his tears.
Title: New Dawning
Logline: Drama/action about a young boy and girl, separated after their families move away, who are reunited in their 20s and face urban turmoil.
Synopsis:
In “New Dawning”, an inseparable young boy and girl vow to be friends for life until their families move apart. Time passes and life moves on until fate intervenes and reunites the two in their twenties, when Tommy and Felice fatefully meet one day. Felice is desperate to help Tommy but he may be beyond help. Street fights, anger from a hard life, and time in jail will lead to his one big chance. He’s given the opportunity to have his screenplay produced but his impatience leads him back to the streets and back into the Blazing Hearts gang where he meets his premature demise. Think "Rebel Without a Cause" meets "The Warriors."
Panacea Productions optioned new Dawning before they went under a couple of years ago and was also selected out of 300 screenplays to be considered for production by Eagle Eyes Productions. The final selection was between New Dawning, a drama, and a horror. In the end the horror was selected and produced into a well-known movie.
Title: Falling Rain
Logline: With the world ending in a flood, a detective searches for a serial killer.
Synopsis:
Detective Sam Williver must find the will to keep searching for the perpetrator of a series of brutal murders as he faces a recent divorce and a great flood. Within the chaos the investigation takes a series of missteps, which results in the wrong man being arrested and the killer having free reign. The killer, in his vanity, must have credit for his deeds. He begins a series of phone conversations with the detective. By now, the flooding has grown and Sam cannot find the killer. Alone, and traveling by small boat, Sam perseveres to the location of the phone calls where he faces the killer, and the end.
Title: To the Motherstone
Logline: Young traveler Glen Wakeman has a brief affair with May Wells, rising film actress, which causes difficulties for May and her circle of friends.
Synopsis:
On the eve of May''s return from Australia, her unprofessional assistant allows Glen to bunk down in the Guest House. May, initially dismayed by the situation, decides that Glen isn''t much trouble and allows him to stay on. And she soon becomes fond of Glen, finding him a soothing presence as other parts of her life aren''t going so well. Unhappy about the film she was just in, and stalked by the paparazzi, she is still not over her painful breakup with former flame Rory. Finding herself at a loose end because of all this, and becoming somewhat reclusive, she grows close to Glen. But Glen is experiencing difficulties of his own, adjusting to May''s world. He comes from a religious background, which is at odds with his current environment. To additionally complicate matters, May''s agent June Schaeffer takes an immediate dislike to Glen, and then falls in love with him. The subtext is that religious, secular, and demonic forces are battling it out for control.
Title: The Hit
Logline: When his brother is killed by the mob, a successful businessman devises a unique strategy for revenge: he places a contract on himself with the mob boss, stipulating that the same hit man be used.
Synopsis:
Longtime loser Lenny Cartney is on the verge of finally turning things around. He’s just opened his own restaurant and business is good. Unfortunately, the local mob who loaned him the money are making free and easy use of his establishment for various illegal purposes. When Lenny tries to blackmail them for a bigger piece of the action, the mob sends a local enforcer to cancel the debt, and Lenny with it.
Lenny’s brother Michael, a lifelong over-achiever and former Army ranger, now runs his own highly successful consulting firm. When Michael learns the circumstances of Lenny’s death, Michael goes to the mob boss and offer’s Lenny’s life insurance money to place a contract on himself, specifying that the same hit man be used. Relying on his commando training but more on his business skills, Michael manages to stay one step ahead of the hit man while confronting his own guilt over Lenny’s death and pursuing a more elaborate crusade against the mafia chief who ordered the hit.
Title: The Canary Conundrum
Logline: When the gray men of Washington plot the nation’s foreign policy, things can go awfully wrong.
Synopsis:
In the shadows of the Capitol, powerful men meet in private. Very private. With great stealth, some of their schemes worm their way into official policy. The War on Terror was one of those. And that was just the start. When Farhad Hakim, the Deputy Head of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization, is forced into a corner, the gray men play a hand that has disastrous and far reaching consequences.
Title: Pound for Pound
Logline: A flamboyant young boxer on the rise gets caught up in his new found stardom and takes his friends and family for granted leading to his sudden and isolated downfall.
Synopsis:
Delorean "The Gorgeous One" Shakespeare, 27, fights the unbeatable welterweight champion and knocks him out with a devastating blow to become World Champion. Shakespeare''s self-conscious and weight obsessed wife, Savanna, does not enjoy her housewife lifestyle and she gives her husband the cold shoulder. After being repeatedly rejected by her, Shakespeare meets his trainer''s daughter, Jackie, at a night club and they give in to temptation. When Savanna''s friend takes pictures of Shakespeare and Jackie together and gives them to Savanna, she walks out on him taking their daughter with her.
Meanwhile, Shakespeare is enraged by the Heavyweight Champion''s growing fame and popularity. On television, he challenges the champion to a fight to determine who is the best pound for pound fighter in the world. Days before the fight, Colin catches Shakespeare with his daughter Jackie and walks out on him leaving him only with his cut man in his corner for the biggest fight of his life.
Title: Sight
Logline: What if the world we knew around us was a lie? What happens when we get to see the real world that has been hidden from us for the very first time?
Synopsis:
The ability to see your world affects everything in your life. What if the real truth of your world was obscured by darkness? Centered on Paul Edwards, a man that is born blind, "Sight" is a very intense, character driven drama that travels from the world of darkness to the world of light, from what we believe to be real to the harsh reality of truth.
Paul is orphaned at birth. He is adopted by a Preacher and his wife. He follows his adopted father into the ministry, giving his life to the very God that created him blind. As a married father, Paul is given sight through an experimental procedure. Once he receives his sight Paul now comes face to face with the realization that his life and the world he lives in were never what they seemed.
Infidelity, a tragic death, and long buried faimly secrets enter into Paul''s world and remove the veil of darkness that his blindness has long hidden. What he sees pushes him to commit acts his mind would never have dreamed of.
Title: Lefty
Logline: A rookie knuckleballer injured in the war gets back into baseball, finds his girl in Hollywood and takes Cleveland to a play-off with Boston for the American League pennant. Based on a true story.
Synopsis:
LEFTY is the true story of Gene "Lefty" Bearden, a minor leaguer told he might not walk again after his ship is torpedoed in the Pacific.
His odyssey takes him from two years in Navy hospitals to his long lost sweetheart, Lois, now an exotic dancer at Earl Carroll’s Theatre.
Reunited with Lois and working as a grip at 20th Century Fox, Lefty is rediscovered by Casey Stengel--a washed out manager toiling in the minors.
Lefty is called up by Cleveland and his hypnotic knuckleball takes the League by storm. When the secret of his war injuries is revealed, Lefty becomes the toast of Cleveland. But some in the Indian management doubt the rookie has the stuff to make it.
As he struggles with guilt at being labeled a war hero, Lefty goes into a slump. With the Yankees, Red Sox and Indians in a slugfest for the pennant, he must battle back to give the Indians one last shot at the title -- and prove to himself and the rest of the League he belongs in the majors.
Title: Three Deadly Clues
Logline: An Innocent woman and a terrorist duo lives are changed forever by 3 Deadly Clues.
Synopsis:
My screenplay involves several strong characters all pitting their wits against one another in a conspiracy plot. Vio, the terrorist and Jan are about to destroy and over throw a government Military Base. Connie a Government employee becomes a ploy in this cat and mouse espionage as Jan plays the sincere friend manipulating Connie into her deadly scheme thus leading to the meat of the script. You’ll live through each moment of Connie’s terror as she becomes innocently trapped by the person she calls a friend. How they trap Connie is one of the unbelievable parts of this script. How she manages her escape is even more unbelievable.
Connie with the aid of a FBI Agent, Ross, find themselves reenacting places Jan might have inhabited searching for Three Deadly Clues. A dark alley brings climax to the screenplay where Connie encounters Vio’s , too late to hear Agent Ross yell don’t go into the alley.
Title: Odyssey
Logline: The ancient love story of Odysseus and Penelope, the story of the Trojan War and Odysseus adventures in the Mediterranian sea.
Synopsis:
3000 years ago Odysseus, the King of Ithaca (a small island in Western Greece) goes to Sparta (a city/state in central Greece) to marry the promiscuous Spartan Princess Helen. While Odysseus fails to marry Helen he does marry her modest cousin Penelope instead and together they return to his island Kingdom of Ithaca. Soon after Penelope gives birth to their son (Telemachus) war in Troy (a city state in Asia Minor) breaks out and Odysseus is forced against his will go and fight the Trojans. Years later, Odysseus succeeds in winning the war in Troy with his creation of the well known Trojan Horse but while returning home he finds himself, after a series of unfortunate events lost with his men in the Mediterranian sea. After some time has pasted Odysseus is believed dead by Greece and suitors soon transcend upon his island palace in Ithaca seeking to marry his loyal wife Penelope and usurp his family''s royal rights to the thrown of Ithaca...
Title: BIG SIX
Logline: BIG SIX - AMERICA''S FIRST SPORTS HERO. A true story of friendship and tragedy.
Synopsis:
In the early 1900''s, the most recognized man in the U.S. was a scholar, a singer, an author, an actor, a linguist, a champion checker player and - the best pitcher in baseball. While admired for his good looks and athletic achievements, it was his strength of character that made him beloved by millions of people. His name was Christy Mathewson, and the world knew him as Big Six.
John McGraw was his coach, his best friend, his roommate and - his opposite in almost every regard. Together, they produced some of the most memorable games in the history of baseball. Sadly, Christy''s premature death caused national mourning unequalled in a sports figure.
I am a businessman - a Regional Sales Manager, overseeing two branches of a publicly held company. I have an MBA and BS degrees from Cal Poly Pomona, where I also played baseball as a pitcher. If you would like to read Big Six (WGA Registration #I48928), please feel free to contact me. Thank you for your consideration.
Title: Alcibiades
Logline: Handsome, ward of Pericles, favorite student of Socrates, brilliant military commander, scoundrel, three times traitor, and lecher all were the character Alcibiades.
Synopsis:
Born to privilege and wealth, Alcibiades was a gifted individual who put his talents to work to the strict benefit of himself. Loved and admired by so many he was finally hated and despised by most. His treachery along the way gave him the distinction of being the single person most responsible for the defeat of the Athenians in their war against Sparta. His career shows the vanity of military presumption and the inevitability of eventual defeat as he convinced the people of their imminent victory on the very threshold of defeat. When Socrates is convicted of corrupting the youth of Athens it is of the memory of Alcibiades that everyone is reminded. Things have changed little over time as the currents proponents of easy war still try to convince their followers of the rightness of the deaths of others. Arrogance and military overreach remain the perfect formula for colossal misery everywhere. Iraq comes to mind as the memory of Alcibiades is relived.
Title: TrueBlood
Logline: A member of an all black crime family in the early 1980s conspire to murder his family.
Synopsis:
When the head of a ferocious black crime family uncovers a traitor in the family he must locate an exterminate the conspirator(s) before the family is infiltrated from the inside.
The TrueBlood Crime family was of the most ferocious black crime family in the early 1980s. The family ruled the crime world with an iron fist snd no one dared oppose them. Until, the head of the family is diagnost with a life ending sickness and has to step down, but not before appointing his replacement. His nephew knows he''s next in line to run the family, but decides to take matters into his own hands to assure himself he will be the next head of the TrueBlood Crime Family.
After succeding with his plan, he comes to the realization that everything isn''t always what it seems.
Title: REBORN
Logline: As a young man discovers the secret of his mysterious and controversial birth, he questions his past, present, his relationships, his ability to choose, to love, and even his possibly eminent death.
Synopsis:
Imagine living a life you’ve already lived…but you can’t remember how? Imagine living a life where everybody knows everything about you…except for you? This compelling story examines real people, real relationships, but in unusual circumstances. In a year not to far from our own, society stands violently divided on the subject of cloning, Rebirth. In this thrilling adventure, our hero, Taron, is forced to confront these facts: he will soon be celebrating his second 19th birthday, his loving girlfriend is completely and violently against his birth, his mother has manipulated his being, his father has abandoned the family on his account, his little brother is now his big brother, his friends are now twice as old, and even his death may be lurking in the near future. His world turns upside down as Taron fights to survive, to find himself. Fate vs. free will, nature vs. nurture? Taron discovers the truth about his past and his future realizing all he has is right here, right now.
Title: BAYOU LOCO
Logline: An ailing lieutenant, goaded to attempt murder, reaches an understanding that reopens his future.
Synopsis:
RANSOM has lost his left arm, fiancee, soul. He possseses only a returned engagement ring and an exacting code of honor.
BYRON, a former infantryman, whom Ransom sent to the stockade for killing a civilian, lives on the street enraged at those who judge him.
Six pistol shots of a suicide attempt in stormy bayou landscape open.
Ransom and Byron encounter hours earlier in a Gulf Coast city, equally desolate. Ransom, on convalescent leave and returning early to an army hospital in Texas, is fleeing romantic disaster.
Byron recognizes Ransom on the street and follows him onto a Dallas bus.
Ransom ignors Byron''s goads. Byron is in no hurry to corner him.
Ransom discards the ring in the bus restroom trash. Byron intuitively discovers it. Ransom, minutes later returns to reclaim it, finds it missing, and suspects Byron somehow came upon it.
Ransom and Byron then move irrevocably to the show-down that unexpectedly frees them to begin normal lives.
The suicidal young man?
Title: THE NAZI ATE QUICHE
Logline: A delusional Nazi Commandant can not understand why his Jews want to escape his extermination camp, yet alone kill him.
Synopsis:
A group of older Jewish men are forced to relive their hellish life in the first extermination camp in Poland.
The camp was ran by a beautiful Nazi Commandant who prided himself on taking care of his Jews. He fed them bread and water, allowed them to bathe on occasion, and gave his special ones treats, and even allowed them to serve him. He was good to his Jews, and could not understand why they would try to escape.
Title: Woodley Park
Logline: A single pregnant young woman faces a life and death decision to give birth which may cause her own death or have an abortion. Set in trendy Woodley park, a section of Washington, D.C.
Synopsis:
Beautiful Rachel White is pregnant. Her womanizing boyfriend Dylan and his powerful attorney father try to convince her to get an abortion; to save his future. Disheartened by their insincerity, Rachel turns to college friends Sarah and nerdy Capital Hill intern Sam for support. Rachel finds she has a medical condition that could be fatal during childbirth. Rachel decides at the abortion clinic, at the last minute, to have the child. Through the pregnancy Sam, Sarah and Rachel decide to live as they know best, which is living young. They explore the beauty and culture of the Nation''s Capital. Meanwhile, the womanzining Dylan gets HIV. He is hospitilized as Rachel waits to give birth. Unable to deal with his son''s illness, Dylan''s Father murders his son.
Rachel gives birth successfully. Dylan''s father somehow blaming Rachel for his son''s demise, kills Rachel. In the end, Sam and Sarah marry adopting Rachel''s baby.
Title: The Legend of Cyrus Tony
Logline: An American Life. Epic
Three scripts: Born into slavery in Texas... Cyrus Tony becomes a soldier in the civil war, cowboy, a then a preacher.
Synopsis:
The Cyrus Tony Series
By Lisa Helfer and J.J. Jones
PART I: Blue Sundays: Cyrus Tony escapes to Mexico at age twelve and learns to be a cowboy. Cyrus hops a steamship to New York to join an all black regiment and fight in the Civil War and then joins Texas Governor Edmund Davis’, all black reconstruction era Police Force. © 2006 Jeffrey W. "J.J." Jones and Lisa Helfer. WGA Treatment
PART II: The Saturday Barber: Sadie Tony recounts her life to two journalists. Sadie goes to Texas to marry Cyrus. Loyal to his friend, Pepper Davis attends his wedding. Pepper must save Cyrus from a vigilante mob when the black cowboy is falsely accused of killing a white man. The preacher realizes his lust precipitates the murder, he takes Cyrus’ place and dies at the hands of the mob. © 2006 Jeffrey W. "J.J." Jones and Lisa Helfer. WGA #1159035
PART III: Five Points: Cyrus and Sadie arrive in Denver as the Preacher Bledsoe and fight racism in Denver''s early Five Points jazz era.
Title: The Lady of the Coins
Logline: An adaptation of the novel "Beach Music" by
Pat Conroy.
Synopsis:
The Lady of the Coins is an adaptation of the
amazing novel by Pat Conroy. (Author of The
Prince of Tides, Lords of Discipline and The
Great Santini) The story is about a man named
Jack McCall who runs away from his life and
family to Rome, Italy after the suicide of
his wife. Six years later, a confluence of events
forces him to return home and confront his past
and in so doing finds a way finally move on.
The movie rights are owned by The Ladd Company
and I have contacted them but they stated they
cannot accept a screenplay unless it comes from
a legitimate agent. I am looking for an agent
that hopefully has an existing relationship
with Alan Ladd Jr. and can get him to take a look
at the script.
Title: Twilight
Logline: A junky DEA agent infiltrates his estranged father''s drug cartel in order to track down his partner''s killer.
Synopsis:
DEA special agent Marcos Villanova seeks justice for the murder of his partner and mentor -- a rogue agent known as Wolf -- at the hands of Cuban crime boss Ramon Ortega. The Agency is willing to give him what he wants...for a price: an impenetrable ease built against his father, Arthur" Buddy" Lomax, a powerful New York drug kingpin with secret lies to Ortega.
Marcos arrives at Buddy''s doorstep a broken man, looking for new direction in life. All part of the act, or is it? Isabella Suarez, a smoldering Latina stripper, sees more in Marcos than he lets on. As does Buddy''s underboss, Tony "Ram" Rammazatto, a loose cannon who''ll do anything to keep his spot on the food chain.
The more time Marcos spends in Buddy''s care, the less willing he is to betray him. In the end, Marcos must decide where his loyalty truly lies: with the U.S. Government, his father, or somewhere in between.
Title: Johnson's Pages
Logline: The OC meets The West Wing, Johnson’s Pages is a One Hour TV Pilot set in the world of Congressional Pages.
Synopsis:
When a new class of Pages arrive in Washington, they quickly find themselves embroiled in a power struggle that could change the outcome of the next Presidential election. Led by the cynical and politically savvy Carl Johnson, the Director of the Page Program, the young idealists struggle to balance their beliefs with the realities of life on Capitol Hill.
The series will follow a new class of Congressional Pages and examine the politics of Capitol Hill through the eyes of seven teenagers (16 & 17 year old high school juniors). The opening episode will introduce a new class of Pages as they arrive for orientation and will focus on the conflict between an idealistic Page from Iowa and his new roommate, the cynical son of a powerful Senator.
Johnson’s Pages was developed as part of the UCLA Advanced Workshop: Writing the One Hour Pilot.
Title: My Cherished Blossom
Logline: Two seperated sisters are brought into contact after decades of mutual ignorance and slide into a futureless affection.
Synopsis:
Joan is British. Raised by her mother in England, she was made to believe in being an only child – and that her father had died in an accident at work.
Heather is American. Raised by her moneyed father in the United States, she ran away from home at the age of seventeen – and began to answer the letters her mum had sent overseas.
Heather and Joan are sisters. But they are two strangers who have never met before – haunted by their fate...
A story about the clash between the Great Britain and the United States; a story about the love between two sisters and their exposure to past, sickness and death; a story about the breakdown of a family; a story about the failure of parents – and a story about the rocky way of self-discovery...
Title: Qiblah
Logline: Henry thinks he is the prophet of a new religion. When he becomes a suspect in the rape and murder of a colleague, his only defense is his strange ideas—which have ceased to be abstractions.
Synopsis:
Henry does Comp Studies at an Eastern university, and has delusions. Bukkake, body worship--the things people get off on are ever more removed from sex. Procreation will stop—this is his vision. He binds and gags Pam, and ties her to her bed. Intending only to "venerate" her, he spritzes on her sheets. Shamed, he unties her and leaves. When her ex-boyfriend Kyle rapes and kills her, the DNA on the scene is Henry’s. He’s the prime suspect.
His lawyer, Valerie, decides his odd writings support his story. (“It is more pious to ejaculate outside of a woman than inside of her.”) When Kyle’s bloody shirt is found, their victory in court seems assured. But guilt seizes Henry, and he confesses. Against principle, Valerie urges him to forget what he did—it’s not the crime he’s charged with. But he has opted for martyrdom, taking blame, betraying Valerie, and leaving the killer free. The evidence of his “innocence” comes in the last scene, a flashback of watching Kyle hide the knife.
Title: Vinland
Logline: Vikings, led by Leif Ericsson, discovered America in 1000. This is their story, but not a documentary, rather, an intense drama with action, adventure, romance, conflict & tragedy. Vinland is an epic.
Synopsis:
500 years before Columbus, in a boat with only 1 sail, and not even a compass, Vikings reached the east coast of North America. Their story has NEVER been told on the big screen- or any screen. This screenplay includes vivid action, dazzling romance, breath-holding suspense, heart-wrenching tragedy, and even surprise humor. Vinland (the name Leif Ericsson gave to America) is an epic story in the tradition of Spartacus, Braveheart, & Gladiator. Raised in Greenland by his father, Eric the Red, Leif learns at an early age the difference between the marauding Viking and the exploring kind, and he decides early-on to become the latter. But before sailing west, he sails east to Iceland and Norway, where he finds love and comes of age. Then, when destiny demands that he lead a fateful voyage west, he has all the skills he needs- everything except how to deal with people, including the Skraelings (Native Americans). With passion, emotion, & intrigue, Vinland will bedazzle audiences worldwide.
Title: MARKED FOREVER
Logline: A heinous crime committed on a young boy impacts not only his entire life but those of his two childhood friends as well.
Synopsis:
In 1985, three boys wile away the days of their adolescence in suburban Chicago,IL. At their hangout ,a deserted cabin in the outskirts of town,they find a spot to talk,dream and plan their futures.
Kevin and Jimmy who are black and Joey,who is Hispanic, lose their inocence when Kevin is sexually molested. His life is turned upside down by the incident and their trio is separated as Kevin deals with the aftermath of both losing his mother and being the victim of a heinous crime.
When circumstances occur that result in Kevin having a flood of memories come back to him, he is convinced that his violator is back in his life after fifteen years,.Kevin pleads with Jimmy ,now a Police Detective, to help him seek justice and arrest the man responsible for his pain.Although both his girlfriend Gwen and best friend Jimmy plead with him that he is accusing the wrong person, he is bent on acting out his vendetta.
Title: Mark of Cain
Logline: A father and perpetrator of a hit and run accident, that results in the death of an teenage girl, is forced into a decision whereby he must sacrifice one of his two children as recompense.
Synopsis:
GABRIEL BURKE, the proprietor of a small Northeastern bar, is made to confront the demons of his own guilty conscience when he kills and abandons fourteen year old AMY LINDSTROM in a hit and run incident. PETER LINDSTROM, a religious fanatic and AMY''s chemically imbalanced father, makes it his retributive quest to mete out justice in the spirit of the Old Testament ["an eye for an eye"/"a tooth for a tooth"], when he forces GABRIEL to make a harrowing decision to sacrifice one of his boys. As local law enforcement attempts to locate the identity of AMY''s killer, the illicit secrets and dark sexual past that unite both families come shockingly to light, in MARK OF CAIN.
Title: Odyssey
Logline: The ancient love story of Penelope and Odysseus, Odysseus'' adventures in the Mediterranean sea while returning home to Ithaca and Penelope''s troubles with her suitors.
Synopsis:
The Greek King of Ithaca (an island in Greece) Odysseus goes to Sparta where to compete for the beautiful Spartan Princess Helen''s hand in marriage but fails to do so.
Instead Odysseus succeeds in winning her modest cousin Pricess Penelope as his wife.
Helen''s infidelity causes a war between the Greeks and the Trojans and Odysseus is forced to go to Troy and fight so that Helen can be returned to her rightful husband King Menelaous.
Following the conquest of Troy (Northwestern Turkey) with use of Odyssey''s "Trojan Horse" Odysseus goes to perform one last task in Thrace (Northeastern Greece.)
However, the local people revolt and disaster falls upon Odysseus and his men as they are lost at sea.
In brief, Odysseus then adventures in the Mediterranean (Greece, Egypt, Italy and France) and he is believed dead back home in Ithaca.
There unwanted suitors come to Queen Penelope''s court threatening both his son and his family''s rights to the thrown of Ithaca.
Title: Genesis
Logline: A highschool science teacher is about to lose his job because of the evolution and intelligent design controversy.
Synopsis:
WARNING: This screenplay focuses on a subject even more controversial that Mel Gibson''s "The Passion of the Christ." It debunks evolution and emphatically supports intelligent design. This will produce great support from the Christian community, but the wrath of the ACLU and portions of the scientific community. Science teacher, Mr. Kimball, teaches both evolution and intelligent design. But the schoolboard notifies Mr. Kimball that he will not be teaching at that school next year because he so vigorously supports intelligent design. But after rethinking, they decide to have a mock trial to hear from both sides. The evidence is up-to-date science and overwhelming, but what is the outcome?
Title: Odyssey
Logline: The ancient love story of Odysseus and Penelope, the war in Troy and Odysseus'' 10 year journey back home to Ithaca.
Synopsis:
Odysseus goes to Sparta to marry Helen but ends up marrying her cousin Penelope instead. War then breaks out in Troy and the young couple is seperated. Odysseus invents the Trojan Horse and wins the war. The Greeks head back home victorious. Yet for Odysseus and his men that is when the "Odyssey" begins... Odysseus is believed dead and Penelope''s suitors soon arrive to claim Odysseus'' rights to the thrown of Ithaca.
Title: Twilight
Logline: A DEA agent returns home to take down a drug kingpin, a man who just happens to be his father.
Synopsis:
Embattled DEA Special Agent Marcos Villanova seeks justice for the death of his partner and mentor, a rogue agent known as Wolf, at the hands of crime boss Ramon Ortega. The Agency is willing to give him what he wants... for a price: an impenetrable case made against his estranged father Buddy Lomax, a powerful New York drug kingpin with ties to Ortega.
Marcos arrives at Buddy''s doorstep a broken man, looking for new direction in life. All part of the act, or is it? Isabella Suarez, a smoldering Latin stripper, sees more in Marcos than he lets on. As does Buddy''s underboss, Luther "Sully" Sullivan, a guy who''ll do anything to keep his spot on the food chain. The more time Marcos spends in Buddy''s company, the less eager he is to betray him. In the end, Marcos must decide where his loyalty truly lies: with the U.S. Government, his father, or somewhere in between.
Title: musicLove
Logline: When Video Girl, a new reality show begins, a young woman must decide whether the seduction of the industry is worth losing everything she values.
Synopsis:
In this gritty urban tale, we open at the shocking murder scene of the mother of EVE, 6, and we see that her life is no fairy tale. Eleven years later, Eve, plagued by insecurity, an alcohol addiction, and a genius of a little sister, starts working as a ‘video girl’ to support her sister instead of going to college. She meets SOMO STEVENS, an up-and-coming urban musician, who falls for her then rejects her when he catches her shaking it up wearing next to nothing in a video. When Eve gets word of a new reality show about video girls, offering a management contract, exposure, and a large cash prize, she must decide whether she should risk exposing her secret life or pass up the opportunity to make enough money to follow her real dream of going to college. As tensions build, Eve must confront her past before she loses everything that is important to her, including her own self-respect.
Title: Silver Tides
Logline: A depressed and disillusioned psychiatrist, barely clinging to his own sanity, brings five of his patients on a weekend trip to his beach house.
Synopsis:
Glen Blake''s life is on a downward spiral- his wife has left him, he is drinking heavily and confidence in his therapeutic skills is becoming nonexistent. In the aftermath of a client''s suicide, and amidst contemplation of his own demise, Glen invites five of his patients to his beach house for the Fourth of July weekend. What follows is a chaotic, often humorous three days of conflict and emotional turmoil in which Glen must not only deal with issues from his past, but attempt to monitor the clashing personalities and acute illnesses of his guests. Individual fears and insecurities are put to the test and tension rises to crisis levels before a resolution of healing and understanding occurs. Generous doses of humor and touches of symbolism serve to enhance this drama.
Title: Last of the Gnostics
Logline: This is a story of the Cathars, the Gnostics who were eliminated by the Catholic Church using the Albigensian crusade from 1209 to 1229. It’s an epic with Mary Magdelane’s Gospel as its centerpiece.
Synopsis:
The movie opens with Mary Magdalene seeing Jesus after he has risen. He tells her that she has an important mission to accomplish. She has to go to France and spread his message.
Before leaving Palestine, Mary has a meeting with the Apostles and explains her Gnostic gospel. This meeting delineates the spiritual wisdom between the Gnostics the non-Gnostic Apostles.
The movie then jumps to 1165. It tells the story of the final days of the Cathars. It takes the Catholic Church more than a hundred years to murder the Cathar Perfecti.
Many of the characters are based on historical figures. The main characters are a noble women named Blanche who wants to protect the Cathars and her daughter Joanna who is a Cathar Perfecti. Joanna’s life is the focus of the movie.
The battles in the movie are based on historical fact. The Albigensian crusade was actually a twenty year war. The nobles of southern France were Cathar supporters and defended the Perfecti with their lives.
Title: Lucky Shot
Logline: What if an average guy knocked out the “Heavy Weight Boxing Champion of World”, What would happen to both their lives?
Synopsis:
Dear Agent:
Meet John Booker, a New York City garbage man, but if you asked him he’d say “a sanitation engineer.” While on vacation in Las Vegas with his fiancee, he’s forced into a bar fight with the present Heavy Weight Boxing Champ, Lucius “The Lightening Bolt” Ray, an arrogant, hot-tempered, disrespectful womanizer. In front of a large crowd of onlookers at a busy casino, John surprisingly knocks out The Champ. The media frenzy begins. The incident becomes the talk of every major sports news and radio broadcasts. How can this shamefully embarrassed, ego-bruised Champ, redeem himself from the cruel jokes and polarization of the sports media? And how can John protect himself from thugs who want to fight him for street rep, regain his normal life back, and save his family from shady characters trying to cash in? WGA #R20949.
Title: Patriotic Duty
Logline: Driven by patriotic feelings and a possible financial reward, an ex-white supremacist member spies on and harrasses a loyal citize, he suspects to be an Al-Qaeda terrorist.
Synopsis:
DICK NICHOLS is a handyman working for a Prop. Mgmt. Co. in Los Angeles. The September 11 attack at WTC and the anti-Muslim euphoria, combined witrh a potential financial reward to those who provide an information leading to the arrest and conviction od terrorist suspects, make Dick both -angry and vigilant.
The window of opportunity for Dick to show his patriotism and eventually get some fast cash, opens wide when MOSES TUCKER, a black man and ex-U.S. marine wo served several years in Middle-East, moves from NYC to L.A.
While doing a repair job in Moses'' apartment, Dick "discovers" some suspicious materials, making him a credible terrorist suspect. Dick informs the FBI about it, but disapointed with the official response, he launches his own investigation which ultimately ends up in a hostage situation and a deadly epilogue.
Title: A Season of Wolves
Logline: A skid row pawn shop owner bets his life savings on Denver in Sunday''s Super Bowl XXI. But when he discovers his wife''s affair with his bookie, all bets are off and he is out for bloody revenge.
Synopsis:
Pawn shop owner SAM MARTIN needs a win on Super Bowl XXI. The day before the big game, Sam finds a suspicious matchbook in his back office. This leads him to Denver''s elegant Brown Palace Hotel and his worst nightmare. His wife CARRIE is having an affair with his bookie, the evil SOCKET.
With the help of his clerk, EGGS BENEDICT, they ambush Socket and beat him
senseless. Leaving him for dead, locked in the trunk of his car, they abscond with a suitcase full of cash, what they think are bets on the upcoming game.
Socket survives and desperately wants the money back because it belongs to the Mob. His goons track down Sam but Eggs intervenes with a pair of blazing .45s and a briefcase full of explosives. Sadly, he can''t rescue Carrie from her fate at the hands of Socket.
Their lives altered forever, Sam and Eggs leave Denver behind them. But their wish to bury the past ends when they unexpectedly cross paths with Socket in a skid row pawn shop on a backstreet in Reno.
WGA #962353
Title: Fish Fry
Logline: Fish Fry, also used as a metaphor, is a contemporary tearjerker and religious drama examining what might happen if Christianity’s God, widely perceived as infallible, revisited a major decision.
Synopsis:
Thirty-three year old Yvonne, an Italian American woman, visits her hometown for the church’s annual outdoor Lenten fish fry. Characters central to Yvonne''s exploration of her soul are family members suffering varying degrees of moral corruption, eccentric/flamboyant attendees at the event who have had a direct impact on her personal and professional struggles, and a married actor, twenty years her senior, with whom she has an affair. Outwardly comedic elements shape the story as Yvonne''s secret motivations and deeds are revealed.
Title: Winter Quarters
Logline: O''Reilley''s & Carlisimo''s Continental Show finds luck,love and 1962 Autumn redemption when the last legs carnival breaks down in an isolated mountain town on the wrong way home to Winter Quarters.
Synopsis:
Romantic Dramedy - 1960''s
Collapsing with unknown, divine guidance, Count Carl Colisimo''s carnival runs out of gas & luck on a vacant hay field. The bitter end of a sad season of midway mud and no money to get home to Winter Quarters. The same morning, Sue Edna Bivens announces to her high school English class she will be attending a Masonic convention in Atlanta. She has no idea of the carnival arrival in her family''s field. She has no premonition of the smiling sequence of events that will lead a loving but loveless beautiful heart, to the charms of an unlucky, but wise carnival Count. This magical love story weaves colorful carnival characters and local "rubes" into funny situations leading to the heartfelt outcome. When the carny caravan leaves town with a twistful happy ending, the carnival prize to all is new hope and Autumn redemption.
Title: Cousin Jack
Logline: The wife of an English Lord, with the help of her cousin/lover, tries to expose her husband''s treason, unsure who in government is complicit with him.
Synopsis:
This fast paced tale is set in 1895-1899 England. Lady Eleanor Shrewsbury, wife of the brutal member of the House of Lords, Lord Richard Shrewsbury, falls in love with her distant cousin, Jack Barns, an investment banker. In financial trouble, Lord Shrewsbury commits treason, his act overheard by his wife. She flees for her life to Jack, who agrees to help her. With his multiple contacts in White Hall, they try to expose Lord Shrewsbury, only to find themselves pursued by members of Scotland Yard and the Foreign Office. Lady Shrewsbury is captured by government officials, while Jack escapes. His whereabouts are discovered by the murderous Lord Shrewsbury. Jack desperately tries to figure a way out.
Registered with WGA.
Title: Lead The Way
Logline: Several old friends gather for Colonel Richard Stryker''s "retirement" party. The memories shared are exciting, hilarious and even tender. The ending is a surprise double-twist.
Synopsis:
A group of friends from the 30-year Army career of Colonel Richard Stryker have gathered at his antebellum home for a "retirement" party. They reminisce about their experiences with Stryker. His oldest army friend Ellard, now a congressman, begins the story in 1980 as the 2 privates hear the new "Be All You Can Be" jingle while digging a foxhole in Panama.
They all share favorite stories that cover everything from combat training, Desert Storm, Panama and the Global War on Terror to relationships and raising children. Chip (now a State Department operative) and Crews (now a chemical engineer) were young officers together. Tex Steiner, currently commanding the Ranger Regiment, tells stories that span the entire career. The anecdotes are exciting, humorous and very tender. The ending is a surprise double-twist.
Title: Blue Skies Realized
Logline: What happens when you meet someone who redefines you? How does your life change when you realize you are as talented as Michelangelo?
Synopsis:
My name is Michael Raymond and I have just completed a screenplay entitled "Blue Skies Realized". It is a story about the most unlikely of men, Ray hastings, whose interest in the works of Michelangelo combined with the acceptance of a wounded woman uncovers his buried secret. A staggering artistic talent. A chance meeting links the lives of Ray, Carmen and her son Evan and allows for each character''s transformation.
Although this is my first screenplay submission it is not my first experience writing for film. I have written, produced and directed two independent films. I received high marks for my writing at World-Fest Houston where Francis Ford Coppola verbally recognized my efforts.
I look forward to answering any questions you may have regarding this drama. Contact me at:
Michael P. Raymond
93. S. Whtman School Rd.
Buckfield, ME 04220
Title: The Talkin' Tony Shalhoub Blues
Logline: A suicide bomber''s mission to blow-up Times Square during New Year''s Eve is averted by a midnight kiss.
Synopsis:
Arab Terrorist, Abdu is poised to obliterate Manhattan when a chance encounter with
co-ed Sara changes everything. Foiled in the bombing, Abdu uses the girlfriend as a cover to prepare for his next assault while flashbacks to the Middle East trace his conversion to radical politics. Caught between the opportunities of the new world and the harsh realities of the old, Abdu and Sara collide on an eclectic ride ending with a twist which will leave everyone talkin''.
Title: September Seventh
Logline: Sept. 7, four days before 9/11. 3 three friends discuss among themselves and with several women, the roots, causes and present day status of violence in America and around the world.
Synopsis:
Singles night, Max, Tony and Peter are out at their favorite watering hole. Throughout the evening they enteract with two sets of women who have, in their past experienced various forms of violence. Physical abuse, rape by fiancee, wife of victim of a workplace massacre and other situations. Dialogue discusses violence throughout the world, around the country and how it has affected each of the male leads. Throughout the piece Tony laments about the departure of his wife and spirals into a drunken hell. Tony, with Vera, a man-hater, scores in the bathroom, Peter fails to perform in the back seat of a car and Max and April, a cocktail waitress, flirt all night. Eventually Elise, Tony''s mother-in-law appears in a drunken snit and it is revealed Tony''s wife was tortured and murdered by some punks. Tony ends up hitting Elise, is arrested and taken away. Max and April end up at her uncle''s house on the beach, talk, have a drink and end up in tender embrace.
Title: Crisisboy
Logline: While trying to find out who he is, a teenage boy discovers that a mad scientist has implanted a device in his brain that has connected his emotions to the end of the world.
Synopsis:
Sam is a seventeen-year old boy who thinks he already needs to know what his purpose in life is. During his search, Sam discovers that when he was a baby, a mad scientist named Dr. Mechatron implanted a device in his brain that has connected his emotions to the structural stability of Earth. Dr. Mechatron informs Sam that if he becomes too depressed he may literally cause the end of the world. Not sure whether to believe Mechatron or not, Sam must also deal with the challenges of young adulthood, including his bickering friends, his single mother, and the love of his life.
Title: The Creator
Logline: Blair finds past methods of intimidation and manipulation are no match for another''s compassion. This "Partner" steals Blair''s gem from under his nose. Blair is enlightened trying to retrieve it.
Synopsis:
Robin Blair, a wealthy San Francisco Real Estate Developer, has a passion for cars and recognition, but lacks compassion for people. He succeeds at almost everything, until he meets someone whom he has met. Unknowing to him , this ever surfacing visionary, leads him through life''s experiences. Now confronted with the unfamiliar territory of regrets, Blair realizes that his past has not prepared him for what he never envisioned in his future.
Drama, Romance and Comedy
Title: Three
Logline: Who says relationships have to only be two people? When Johnny and Greg meet Poe, their worlds are turned upside down, putting everything into question.
Synopsis:
At first glance, JOHNNY, seems to have it all. But panic attacks have left him virtually housebound, fearful to venture outside. In fact, in the past five years, he hasn''t been further than a half hour away from his house, in case he needs to return quickly.
On a rare night out, Johnny and Greg meet POE, a young, HIV positive dancer. He''s a free-spirit who''s hunger to live serves as a strong contrast to Johnny''s reticence. Johnny finds himself drawn to Poe and the manner with which he leads his life.
As the three men develop a friendship, Johnny starts to become more aware of what''s not working within himself. He finally begins to recognize that what gives him the most stability – his life with Greg, is also what''s preventing him from becoming his own person.
Johnny is then forced to make an impossible choice: will he give up the only thing that''s ever made him happy to finally become what he knows he should be?
Title: Grapevine
Logline: May''s internalized homophobia results in the loss of her daughter. When her son comes out as gay and her husband dies, she gets a second chance to be honest with herself.
Synopsis:
May's dream for a "normal life" is torn apart when daughter Lee comes out as a lesbian and is thrown out of the home by May''s alcoholic husband Bert. Middle child Fiona is barren and suicidal. Years later, youngest son Gary comes out as gay giving May one more chance to confront her internalized homophobia.
May redefines "normal" when Bert dies and her life-long friend Etta, who has been in love with her since childhood, invites May to return to the intimate relationship they began in college.
Title: The Measure of a Man
Logline: The past of a popular newspaper columnist comes full circle as he discovers the true measure of a man is not how he is perceived but how he perceives himself.
Synopsis:
Secluded in his mountainside retreat, is where Kevin Green creates his popular newspaper column entitled “The View from Here”. He possesses the gift to inspire his readers with heart warming, witty and true to life experiences - helping others solve the problems he finds himself continuously plagued with. This weekend is no exception.
In less than 12 hours, Kevin will journey back to his childhood home of Havenwood, New Jersey, for a memorial tribute to his older brother Ben. Though some ten years have passed, the details of the accident are still fresh in his mind, as are thoughts of Hanna Barnes, the girl that captured Kevin’s heart while protecting his brother’s secret. The man with all the answers to his adoring fans, will find himself face to face with a past he still blames himself for. Only this time he’ll discover the true measure of a man is not how he is perceived but how he perceives himself.
Title: Crime Line
Logline: A father and son attempt to steal 45 million dollars to secure his son’s spot in their Irish Mafia business, however, his youngest son also plans to steal the money at the same time.
Synopsis:
After doing two years in jail Cedric Callaghan returns home where his father, Donald Callaghan, has planned to hand down his Irish business down to his oldest son. Donald introduces Cedric to a job in which Cedric and two family-loyal members plan to steal 45 million dollars from an illegal Russian bank transaction. Tony Callaghan, Cedric’s younger brother has other plans. After failing to bribe his older brother to take over his father’s position as a team, Tony allows his emotions to get to him. He murders an innocent man only two nights before the crime. Donald then leads Tony to believe the family is no longer interested in the project due to the current murder. Tony and his two friends copy the paperwork of the crime and plan to do the job on their own and take over the business. Little does Tony know that his father and brother both still plan to attempt the job. Cedric’s team of three and Tony’s team of three meet the very night of the crime, expecting to execute the same plan.
Title: Upon This Rock
Logline: UPON THIS ROCK is a turn-of-the-century drama about revenge between Irish immigrants who are building one of the first skyscrapers in New York.
Synopsis:
In UPON THIS ROCK, several immigrant friends desparately take jobs on one of the earliest skyscrapers in New York. However, the owner of the building discovers that one of the friends is a childhood enemy involved in the banishment of his family from Ireland.
To exact his revenge and create a new type of banishment, the owner tries to turn the group of workers on their friend through a rash of ultimatums and violence. As the worker seeks answers and survival, he and the owner discover the lies their parents told them about the banishment in Ireland.
This is a suspenseful, action-packed story set against the perils of early skyscraper construction and the brutality of the era for immigrants.
Title: STONE LIONS
Logline: On the last bus out of a hurricane-bound Gulf Coast city, two disabled overseas veterans with an unresolved dispute, encounter by chance.
Synopsis:
RANSOM has lost his left arm, his talented finacee, his soul, and wants no part of the past; but BYRON, an agressive infantryman whom Ransom sent to the stockade for killing an unarmed civilian, wants to settle up. There is time yet to Shreveport. Byron takes up with smart sexy ANNIESSE, and her willful son, FRANCIS; old rancher ZITHERS tells the young poet, SAMMY, his hard life story; BERNICE adds Ransom''s story to her "treasure of confidences"; Two Mexicans try to out-macho each other; dotty MRS. ASHWORTH, enroute to rendezvous with her gentleman lover, primps her smuggled spaniel, ROXY; and WYATT, the driver, bearish but tolerant, has his thirty-year experience tested to its limit. Lost across dark storm-wild bayou country, the travellers pick up a mysterious stranded motorist, Ransom and Cartwick draw knives, and a cottonmouth snake advances toward Wyatt''s ankle. It''s a long night''s journey toward day, a bad night for a frog, and need for mercy becomes very strained. What a trip!
Title: Project 7
Logline: When you work for Project 7, if you leave, you die, its a rule. But can one man walk away from his country and all that he is, for the love of a perfect stranger?
Synopsis:
Project 7 is a dark, thought provoking drama that sandblasts the luster off of what Americans think they know about their government. From murder, cruel experiments, and a developing love story, it stimulates the mind to explore its furthest corner and put the pieces of the puzzle together. Could the nation ever imagine funding the government’s largest mass murder organization of their own people?
Project 7 is the secret intelligence agency that performs inhumane experiments to see just how far the human population can go. By learning how to break down individuals defenses, they can further strengthen their own nation and army. But what will happen when a new employee who has full intentions of bringing the firm down, suddenly falls in love with everything that she despises?
How will one of the leaders of this secret organization walk out on the firm that owns his life, to save the life of a stranger he suddenly falls in love with?
Title: Indifference
Logline: When just being alive isn’t enough, a depressed, recent college graduate decides to apply for a pistol permit.
Synopsis:
In the game of life, John is the favorite. Young, white, American male. But after graduating from a four year college with nothing to show for it but a useless diploma and a heap of debt, he returns to the only job he’s ever known; working the customer service counter at a supermarket. College was not what he had expected. His grades weren’t good enough. He wasn’t prepared for the few interviews he could get. Life is not how he wants it to be. He thinks about killing himself. He feels like the whole world is out to get him and maybe it is. He applies for a pistol permit. His daydreams become more and more violent. All of his anger and frustration builds up inside him. He meets a girl and falls in love. He learns what it feels like to lose what he never even had. And he comes to the harsh realization that there is only one reason why we all live. Hope.
Title: The Clowns of God
Logline: One man's search for forgiveness and redemption ends up as one of acceptance, surrender and self-sacrifice.
Synopsis:
Sonny MacIntosh has just been paroled after doing 17 years in a New York State maximum security prison for murdering four people when he was 16 years old. He returns to his old neighbourhood in Hell's Kitchen where he developes a relationship with a professional caregiver and her 6 charges,"The Clowns", who inadvertantly teach him how to live and love again. But Sonny's new found idyllic existence is short lived as Sonny's enemies past and present conspire to put him back behind bars in order to take their revenge. The unlikely alliance of a sadistic warden, a powerful mafia godfather, a vengeful detective, a crooked parole officer and a vicious street gang threatens Sonny's freedom and life and when they attack the only thing he truly loves Sonny is forced to protect that love.
Will Sonny vanquish his enemies and protect the Clowns from harm or will he succumb to the overwhelming forces against him doomed to play out a destiny that he is powerless to predict or control?
Title: Old Money
Logline: I just finished ironing out OLD MONEY, the dramatic - sometimes comedic - story of a 70-year-old con’s quest to recover a huge pile of loot he stole years ago.
Synopsis:
Ed “Money” Rothman doesn’t have much left in his post-prison life, but he’s determined to unearth the $6 million stashed below a cruel mob boss’s house – in a nearly impenetrable vault. He battles the mafia and eludes the government with a series of clever tactics that keeps the plot moving. He’s as charming as he is devious. In the twilight of his life, Money wrestles with his past sins and seeks redemption – unsure if there’s any to be had.
This isn’t my first stab at writing. I’m a former newspaperman who wrote about real-life mobsters in my hometown, Cleveland. I’ve finished three other feature-length scripts, and I’ve also penned three short screenplays for movies that recently screened at film festivals in Portland and Seattle. One, HANGING CHAD, even won a Best Screenplay Award. I appreciate that these are relatively small achievements, but they’re all stepping stones leading me to where I am. I think I have intriguing ideas and I execute them well on the page. WGA# 1076661
Title: Chickadee
Logline: An Immigrant Italian girl is the center of a landmark rape trial that unites a town in rural New York State, 1923. Based on a true story.
Synopsis:
LAURINA, 12, and her sister, MINNIE, 13, wait at the gates of a Catholic orphanage to be reunited with their mother, CARMELLA, 30, an Italian Immigrant.
Carmella marries the charming PIETRO, 35, and the children are removed from the orphanage. They relocate to a farm in rural New York, but there, met with the hardships of poverty and racial discrimination, Pietro falls into decline. He becomes abusive to Carmella and the girls and forces them to work long hours in a textile mill to support his gambling and drinking.
Laurina blossoms into a beautiful young woman and becomes the object of Pietro’s sexual obsession. He brutally rapes her resulting in her pregnancy.
After months of terrified secrecy, she finds the courage to go to the authorities.
What ensues is a landmark trial that unites an entire city lending inspiration to a generation of silent victims.
Title: The Winner
Logline: A man, who at the lowest point in his life, wins the largest jackpot in lottery history and is swept away, unprepared, into the world of glamour, fame & the super rich.
Synopsis:
Joe DiPalma has hit rock bottom. With no job, no prospects of one, and deep in debt to many people including his own parents, Joe gambles away the last of his money. He is a broken man. Until he discovers his forgotten winning ticket to the largest jackpot in lottery history. Salvation delivered, Joe can finally make good on promises made. Or can he?
Joe is catapulted into a world where he mingles with celebrities, can buy anything he wants, fulfills his sexual desires, and dates a beautiful Hollywood actress. He ignores his mothers requests to visit his dying grand mother & becomes consumed with his new life-socializing with the likes of Brad Pitt, Tara Reid, Hugh Hefner, Donald Trump and forgetting about the people he's left behind. But when his sick grandmother dies, he must return to his family & his mother, whom is angered by Joe's failure to make good on his promise to say goodbye before she passed away. He must now deal with a situation he can't buy his way out of.
Title: Onus
Logline: With the world in disarray, one boy finds out the truth about himself; he is the son of God, as well as the only one who can stop the demise of mankind.
Synopsis:
Religion has predicted the return of the messiah for ages, but no one could have predicted the truth of which he would bring with him; the end of the human race. As hope begins to fade within the minds of those who once believed, the devil finds the moment a perfect opportunity to make his way back to earth for his final attack on the gates of heaven. With him, he brings the four horsemen of apocalypse and his minions for the war with God to come. With tribulation at hand, and the crumbling of the human race, the only one who can save them and prevent the devil from entering the gates of heaven is one boy who can't even save himself.
Title: Life Forgotten
Logline: Unread letters from the past surface revealing a dying mother's final wishes for her children; causing each to contemplate what they could've been as opposed to what they've become.
Synopsis:
A family is shattered by the untimely death of Deb Sinclair,she is gone and the perfect family that was is no more. Deb Sinclair lies in a hospital bed dying of breast cancer. She writes to her children about her hopes and expectations as she wonders what life will be like for them. The children turn to their father for structure and comfort only to find him too busy with work. Life goes on for everyone but not as smoothly as expected. Distance and circumstance drives the family apart. Seven years have passed and Deb's old school is dedicating the new library in her memory. A two-day journey home has Eric, Beth and Daniel remembering just how different life use to be. Nobody is eager to reveal what their lives are like now. Letters from their mother surface causing each to contemplate what they could've been as opposed to what they've become. Confrontation leads to the Sinclair's struggling with memories and past regrets.Can what drove this family apart bring them back together?
Title: Kazredlaw
Logline: Everyone has a purpose; you just have to choose what it is.
Synopsis:
Kazredlaw is the story of the tumultuous relationships of a twenty two year old. Andrews, the protagonist of the script, is convinced that his past relationship failures are much more than what is on the surface. He is convinced that he possess a purpose that is to change the people around him. This feeling leads him to write his two week notice, however not to an employer, but to God. This letter propels the story that looks closer at the life of Andrews. In the end, the reader will be left with a choice to make: believe in Andrews theories about his purpose, or to interpret them as a way to cope with his failed romances.
Title: BEYOND EDEN
Logline: Adam and Eve struggle to adapt to a world where evil has been unleashed.
Synopsis:
Adam and his helpmate are pushed past the limits of human endurance with no experience for the sufferings that they have brought upon themselves. Satan launches an unmerciful physical, emotional and sexual attack on them until they seek death to escape the torture.
Unwilling that His creation be destroyed, the Word of God promises to return them to their intended place with Him in paradise but they must wait until the time has been fulfilled and fight the continued onslaught by the adversary.
Once their children are born, Satan turns his attention to corrupting their offspring. He eventually convinces Cain to murder his brother and start a nation of unrighteous people.
Adam must persuade his offspring to remain seperate from the children of Cain until God fulfills His promise and returns them to the garden.
Title: Free God
Logline: Long ago Satan Fools the Angels to kidnaping and sadating God. The put him in a prison below the Grandcanyon. Now Peter has to find a way to Free God from the Grand Canyon
Synopsis:
Long ago After Satan was banished from heaven. He Fools the Angels into kidnapping and sedating God. They do this by convincing God to send Jesus to earth to help calm down the humans because they have started to do bad thing they put him in a prison below the Grand Canyon. Now Peter has to find a way to Free God from the Grand Canyon. After that happens all the Angels that have helped Satan turn into gruesome demons and are forced to be Satan’s Slaves. Peter was spared for a reason. He could transform back from demon to angel. And he could not be forced by Satan to be his slave. Of course Satan does not know this. Peter has to find a way to free God. He finds Jesus on earth and they go near the Grand Canyon where god tells them that Jesus has help. He has 4 other brothers names were Muhammad, Moses, Abraham, and Buddha. With their help each of them now have to find a chosen one of their religions to form their army’s to fight Satan’s Demon army. And “Free God”.
Title: Nine
Logline: God replaces the leaders of the US and UK with a nine-year-old girl, giving her supernatural powers and a mission: end the war in Iraq and bring the troops home.
Synopsis:
A girl praying for US soldiers held captive in Iraq is endowed by God with supernatural powers and given the mission to end the war and bring the troops home. To do so, NINE must navigate her way through "Desert Bud", a sanitized video game version of the war invented by the leaders of the US and UK (CHESTER CHURCHILL) which is being used to hold everyone in Iraq hostage.
At the behest of God, Nine replaces Chester and exposes "Desert Bud" as a dangerous fantasy while learning the facts about the real war in Iraq. Using her powers, Nine travels to Iraq and meets the spirit of WWII GENERAL JOSEPH STILWELL, a man who always tells it like it is. Stilwell helps Nine reveal numerous war crimes in Iraq committed by US-UK forces, including the use of radioactive weapons and the imprisonment of Iraqi children.
Can Nine convince the Iraqis to forgive the occupying soldiers for their crimes? Nine does that and more, healing the soldiers’ wounds and securing their safe passage back home.
Title: The Garden Club
Logline: The Garden Club is about the people who inhabit the great mansions of Natchez, Mississippi. It is not a story of bliss and serenity, but one of greed, infidelity, murder and extortion.
Synopsis:
In this Southern drama, a group of prominent women have used their power for decades to control the town of Natchez. Rod Farshall, an eighteen-year old boy, gets caught up in the competition for power, his love for his girlfriend, and his seduction by Shereen Summerville, the wife of the club's financial advisor. It also involves a great fire which destroyed one of the town's magnificent mansions and how the club's resulting actions set the stage for retaliation from Bart Summerville, one of the most prominent men in Natchez. It details the story of three books kept by the local madam, and a plot to kill Rod Farshall, whose name appears in the books and who accidentally discovers the identity of the killers of two prominent Natchez citizens. The screenplay is based on Robert DeBlieux's novel, "The Garden Club." Robert DeBliuex is the club's former CEO. All rights have been obtained. I appreciate your consideration.
Payne Williams
willwill@cp-tel.net
WGA #- 1081815
Title: PUSH CAME TO SHOVE
Logline: Miserably trapped, Oscar Thomas Lansing the 3rd, longs to become a member of the outside world and escape the grasp of an overbearing, eccentric father and their heritage of upscale status and wealth.
Synopsis:
Can having it all, ever become a burden too large to bare? It has for Oscar Thomas Lansing the third. Opting for a life of his own, he enrages an extremely wealthy, overbearing, and cold father. Feeling he has completed his final obligation by becoming an attorney, his fate is sealed by refusing to practice and handle the family's vast fortune. Now disinherited, Oscar is forced to survive on few resources and fewer life skills. In a world once fed upon a silver platter, he ventures now on to a path of fateful twists and turns, near death experiences, highly unlikely relationships, and resolution of years old crime. WGA NO. R04786-00
Title: A Window of Hope
Logline: Three teenage friends living in a small New Jersey suburb, are torn apart by a secret kiss, an untimely death and a love that can not be denied.
Synopsis:
KEVIN GREEN is a journalist living in Southern California. Kevin travels on assignment back to his native New York roots to meet a world renowned author named EDMUND SKYLER, staying with his mother who still resides in the same New Jersey suburb he grew up in. It is his first return home since graduating high school six years ago and as his taxi pulls up to his childhood home, he finds the past is still very much alive and well.
Upon entering the front door, Kevin is flooded with memories of the past and still struggles to understand why his best friend BEN committed suicide six years earlier.
While on assignment, Kevin runs into his childhood friend and secret crush, HANNA BARNES, whom he shared an intimate kiss with before high school graduation. Hanna and Ben were dating at the time and the kiss divided the three friends forever. No matter how much Kevin and Hanna try to deny their feelings for each other, it’s clear that a window of hope still exists for love.
Title: Badwater
Logline: It’s the most grueling foot race on Earth, spanning 135 miles across a desert and up Mt. Whitney. This is Badwater and 100 of the world’s bravest runners will sacrifice everything to conquer it.
Synopsis:
A documentary film crew sets off to record the extraordinary conditions of the Badwater ultramarathon. The crew joins a few dozen men and women at the starting line deep in Death Valley at the height of summer. By noon the temperature soars above 120 degrees. The competitors’ rubber-soled shoes melt upon the asphalt. Contestants battle cramps, blisters, dehydration, exhaustion, hallucinations and their own limitations while pushing their bodies up Mt. Whitney. Most runners succumb to the spirit-breaking gauntlet and never reach the race’s end. Those who do finish the race receive nothing but a simple belt buckle to commemorate their feat.
Yet all who complete Badwater agree that the agony was worth it. These diverse athletes are united by a common pursuit of personal accomplishment. There is no money to be won or fame to be gained at Badwater. The only reward is a towering feeling of achievement. Badwater is a reminder of the true essence of sport and competition.
Title: An Unfinished Life
Logline: A striking love affair between two aspiring college students becomes a whirlwind of mixed feelings as family and friends put their two cents in.
Synopsis:
My screenplay is about an 18 year old girl named Korie who leaves home to attend college. Her mother has dreams of her becoming a successful journalist with the New Yorker and to stay focused in school. Her mother is living vicariously through her daughter. While at school Korie meets Donovan James (a Sophomore) and everything changes for her. Korie and Donovan soon fall in love and she becomes pregnant. They decide that they will have the baby and become a family despite Korie's mother's feelings. Aside from the pregnancy she finds out Donovan has an incurable heart disorder and needs a transplant. Family and friends are interfering in their lives telling them what they should and should not do. Korie's mother telling her to have an abortion, Donovan's mother telling them to have the baby. Her mother will now stop at nothing to keep them apart by using the one thing Korie has always wanted in her life, a father.
Title: SIGHT
Logline: "SIGHT" is the story of a man who is given the gift of sight only to learn, through drastic events, that sometimes your greatest wish could be your greatest regret.
Synopsis:
Sometimes we see things with our eyes that forever alter our lives. Just a momentary glance can leave an impression on our minds that will last a lifetime. "SIGHT" is a very intense, character driven drama that deals with the extremes of human emotion. Paul Edwards is born blind and adopted by the Rev Carl Edwards and his wife Rebekah who raise him as their son. Paul follows his father into the ministry and the work of the church. Later, as a married father of three, Paul is given the opportunity to receive the gift of sight through a remarkable breakthrough in gene therapy. Paul must now wrestle with the sometimes painful reality that although some of the things that he sees in this world are truly beautiful the ugliness of what he also witnesses can become overwhelming. What we see can brighten our hearts and lift our spirits but occasionall what we see pushes us to commit acts that our minds would never have dreamed of before.
Title: The Runner-up Syndrome
Logline: A journalist and his accomplices fake a kidnapping to write a Pulitzer Award winning story and get ransom money. Their plan succeeds but real terrorists find out the truth and punish them.
Synopsis:
A fictional screenplay inspired by a true story.
Three Romanian journalists were kidnapped in March 2005 and freed on May 2005.
A journalist angry that he failed again to get the Pulitzer Award, stages his own kidnapping in Iraq along with two other journalists (who are not in on the plot). He hopes this story will earn him the Pulitzer. His accomplice, an Iraqi-American businessman in big financial trouble, has his own hidden agenda: to ask for a substantial ransom. They concoct a very ingenious plan. The Iraqi gets the money and the newsman gets the publicity. The journalists are freed, but the real terrorists find out the true story and act to punish those who planned it. They kill the Iraqis involved in the fake kidnapping but the journalist barely escapes. He flees to a country that does not have an extradition treaty with the U.S.A. (Andorra) where he lives in fear for the rest of his life.
Title: That Feeling of Flying
Logline: A thrill ride and roller coaster junkie diagnosed with cancer, his long-time companion and their friends take a road trip, strengthening their relationships in the face of tragedy.
Synopsis:
Special Note: This screenplay was awarded Best Screenplay at the San Fernando Valley Film Festival on 4/17/05.
"Flying" is a heart-felt drama, the story of Christopher Aldrich, a thrill ride junkie, his long-time companion, Jimmy Barnes, and their three best friends, Fredy and Lynette De La Hoya and Kimberly Jones. When Christopher is diagnosed with lung cancer, he and his friends seek to leave their problems behind them by taking the ultimate road trip to ride their favorite rides and coasters throughout the country.
Through a series of highs and lows, literally and figuratively, Christopher and his "family" live, love and grow as he slowly starts to acknowledge his own mortality. As their trip progresses, Chris' health declines and he and his friends must come to terms with his imminent death.
"That Feeling of Flying" is an emotional ride, full of tears and laughter on the roller coaster called "life".
Title: The Artful Codger
Logline: Cowboys and Indians in New York City? Sometimes the best advice comes from the most unlikely sources in this tribute to a generation and lifestyle that is all but gone, but hardly forgotten.
Synopsis:
Seth and his recently-divorced mother, Jeanne, are starting out on their own, and are both a little unsure of their place in the world. While the timid Seth's main worries include fitting into a new neighborhood, Jeanne feels her entire purpose in life as a caretaker to her husband has been snatched away.
Seth soon befriends a withered West Texas cowboy, his Osage companion and an elderly grocery store owner who introduce him to a world of the past through their own life experiences. Jeanne's problems, however, can't be solved so simply. Her first "real" job outside the home not only tests her ability to rely on herself, but places her on the bad side of a mentally unstable, potentially dangerous coworker.
Bouncing from the present-day plight of Seth and Jeannie to glimpses of early Twentieth Century America that exists primarily through the memories of our elders, "The Artful Codger" pays tribute to the perseverance of the human spirit that spans all generations.
Title: The Ivory Tower
Logline: An unloved Columbia freshman finds validation in flashy organized crime.
Synopsis:
A naive young man from Ohio attends Columbia University and feels socially outclassed by his wealthy, cosmopolitan peers. His creative and academic efforts are constantly outshone. He falls into the company of an older, suave hustler and gets drawn into some shady enterprises, eventually starting a prostitution ring on the Ivy League campus.
Our protagonist abandons his creative aspirations for the lure of easy money. His fortunes rise, but soon he is caught in a morass of moral bankruptcy, failing grades, botched deals and dysfunctional relationships. He then must struggle to clean his mess and regain his integrity.
The story is like SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION meets RISKY BUSINESS.
WGA Registration #: 942907
Title: CRY WITHOUT SIN
Logline: A humanistic drama about two kids from culturally diverse backgrounds that form a bond of trust and friendship while having to deal with abuse and prejudice that they witness in their lives.
Synopsis:
CRY WITHOUT SIN tells the story of two culturally diverse families, one American and the other East Indian, living in a farming town.
Olivia comes from a lower-middle class white family. While having to "walk-on-eggshells" in her home-life due to the effects of a self-medicating mother's unrealistic expectations on her, she witnesses the daily physical abuse of her little brother at the hands of her father. Joby comes from an Indian middle-class family. He is a quiet child who spends his days drawing in his sketchbook while witnessing a cultural clash between his abusive alcoholic father and his older sister.
Through the course of a school year, we see these two children build a bond of friendship while facing the ramifications of living in environments of prejudice and abuse.
CRY WITHOUT SIN reveals the incredible ability of children to find beauty in the most difficult of circumstances. May I send you a copy of the script?
Sincerely,
Title: OFF THE ISLAND
Logline: A father-and-son tale of two generations of Cuban baseball players who struggle to escape their communist homeland.
Synopsis:
"Ritmo" Torriente never wanted to be a baseball player -- until the Cuban boy was abandoned by a father who fled their communist homeland in pursuit of his big-league ambitions.
The vengeful young man found himself consumed by a desire to outdo his father and follow his own dreams to America.
Off The Island is the tale of a father and son whose antipathy towards each other masks the reality that they are consumed by identical passions and inner demons.
From post-revolutionary 1960s Cuba to the modern-day U.S., this chronicle of harrowing escape, of family and freedom is unlike any other baseball story ever told.
It is America's national pastime seen through a global lens.
By way of my own introduction, I am the senior political correspondent for The Canadian Press making my first foray outside journalism and into fiction-writing.
The storyline came to me earlier in my career when I covered the Montreal Expos.
Title: Hi, I'm Lily
Logline: A teenage girl with unpredictable behaviour and extraordinary thinking has her life changed rapidly when her family migrates from one country to another and she changes schools almost every year.
Synopsis:
Lily is a pretty, gifted adolescent, who lives in different countries and changes school almost every year. Each new school affects the girl and she on the other hand makes a significant difference in people. Lily is an independent girl. She thinks differently and acts unpredictably. Lily doesn’t have any fear towards anything. In her last school teachers discovered she’s dyslectic. Lily is a teenager looking for friends and finding only misunderstanding because of her behaviour and extraordinary thinking. She often feels as a loser, not fitting to the new surroundings. But she is ready for challenges in life and always becomes a winner in the end. She plans on living an extraordinary, fun and full of adventure life. In fact she believes that her whole life was, is, and gonna be just an adventure.
It'll be a fantastic teenage movie for girls who want to become leaders and make their way and for parents who want to understand how school can change their children. Based on true story
Title: September's Camera
Logline: September's Camera is the graphic account of 9-11 first responder Jeff Scarborough, the WNBC New York cameraman who arrived at Ground Zero just two minutes after the second plane hit.
Synopsis:
As the enormity of the attack unfolds, Jeff Scarborough, NBC's first cameraman on scene, immediately takes over, making decisions and taking actions that result in saving lives. At the tip of the NBC spear, he directs the other responding crews to stay safely back, periously remaining the lone live camera at Ground Zero. He is there for the jumpers, both collapses, explosions, and ensuing aftermath. Live when the first collapse happens, he is feared dead at NBC. Running from the debris cloud, Jeff rescues his TV truck operator, then nearly passes out as it hits. He videotapes the second collapse; then police gunshots erupt behind him as the debris cloud hits, sucking the air out. Found wandering out of the dust clouds by a NBC crew, Jeff is struggling to breathe, covered with dust, and in shock. Through more building collapses and explosions, he returns to NBC, where he receives a hero's welcome, medical attention, and is interviewed. He later receives a 9-11 award from WNBC.
Title: The Red Book
Logline: A novelist is given one last chance after discovering an old journal about two lovers whom disappear and he must find.
Synopsis:
It is 1951 and a once popular novelist, Jordan Anderson, is about to lose everything he owns. Traveling to his cabin hideaway, he comes to the crossroad of his life. Through intervention, he discovers a thirty year old journal in an abandoned house. Desperate for material to rejuvenate his career, he uses the journal and its writing from a twenty year old woman, Olivia. She tells her story of romance and her affair with an older married man, Ben. The entries into the journal suddenly stop and in order to finish his masterpiece, Jordan must find out what happened to the two lovers only to be shocked by the outcome.
Title: Exude Your Class
Logline: A professional horseplayer and a beautiful prostitute save a pregnant race mare from being destroyed by a bloodthirsty maniac who runs a corrupt equine slaughter-for-profit operation.
Synopsis:
After an emotional, self-revealing epiphany, Joey Bender decides to become what he was meant to be - a professional horseplayer. However, he almost loses everything. Luckily, Joey discovers a book entitled "The Class Horse" and begins to win - big.
Joey's profits enable him to buy a race mare named Survivor. Joey's handicapping prowess then takes him to Las Vegas for the World Championship Horseplayer Tournament. There, the story turns as Joey and a beautiful prostitute must save a now pregnant Survivor from being butchered and processed into pet food by a perverted maniac who runs an equine slaughter-for-profit business.
"Exude Your Class" is not about gambling or horseracing. It's a drama with a highly suspenseful climax about finding alternatives and adapting to how the race of life unfolds.
Over years, I've acquired extensive knowledge about horse racing, breeding farms, and slaughter houses, which are the means that move "Exude Your Class" from beginning to end.
Title: Tongues of Men and Angels
Logline: After years of struggle, a stutterer gains fluency and gives a superb nomination speech at the Democratic Party's Primary for his old friend and first African-American candidate, in the year 2008.
Synopsis:
Two sensitive loners--Peter Benedict who stutters yet dedicated to becoming fluent and to helping the environment, and Edward Stevenson, a proud African American with lofty political ambitions—bond together in the mid 1950’s, Louisville, Ky. Both discover inner strengths—Peter’s diligence to speech therapy and Edward’s ability to gain acceptance within the white political community. Edward, with Peter’s help, becomes a state representative and Peter becomes a skillful speechwriter.
Peter marries, mo | |
