WRITERS WOMB:
COMPLETED SCREENPLAY and IN-THE-WORKS
COMPLETED SCREENPLAYS – SAMPLES:
Please Note: These screenplays are available for reading upon request.
DING DONG DITCH:
Genre: Thriller/Dark Comedy; Screenplay
Awards: Page Award, Bronze Award for Comedy 2010; CineStory Semi-Finalist; Screenplay Festival Winner; Slamdance Finalist.
(* Note: This script is currently under option to Amy Salko Robertson)
Logline:
Juvenile therapist Joel Bram is about to lose it all: wife, work, wealth; wound up like a jack-in-the-box on the second to last note, when 15 year old Dashiell and his buddy Sean ring his bell, something snaps—suddenly it’s not fun ‘n games anymore.
Synopsis:
Dashiell and his buddy Sean are fifteen, one foot in adulthood, one in the womb, out playing pranks, ringing doorbells; it’s all a laugh-riot…till they ring Joel Bram’s bell. Ironically a therapist who works with juvies downtown, Joel’s got a dysfunctional relationship with his mid-life crisis, and now he’s about to lose it all: wife, work, wealth. When the boys ring his bell, something snaps. Blasting out like Cujo; suddenly he’s beating on them—maybe not to the point of no return, but enough to lose his license. Dashiell’s mom Lisa is a woman already white knuckling her way through her son’s teens; she confronts Joel…who, in turn sends one of his juvies, a true psychopath named Rueben, to scare Lisa straight. But Rueben’s a kid who always gives extra-credit—he’s an honor student after all. Rueben kidnaps Lisa and drops her at Joel’s house, like a cat with a bird. The boys soon realize that Lisa may be in serious danger. Armed with only a learner’s permit, Dashiell must find a way to get his mother back.
KARMICALLY CORRECT:
Genre: Comedy; Screenplay
Awards: 2009 Expo Screenplay Competition Genre Award; Screenplay Festival finalist.
Logline:
A woman who yearns to be back in her “good old days” gets her wish…
“Young.” It gets old.
Synopsis:
Zoë Wylder wasn’t always wrapped so tight, her job so anally organized, or her marriage to Jeremy so past it’s sell by date. Missing the “us” of old, she longs to be back, back when they both had big hair and a love that flowed as freely as carbs from a keg. Through the miracle of modern homeopathy (and a new technique called “Experiential Therapy”), Zoë wakes up to find herself there: back in tight jeans and big hair, back in 1989. Euphoria gives way to reality, “young” gets old and before she can say “gag me with a spoon” Zoë would give anything to return to present day...except she can’t. “Experiential Therapy” doesn’t exist in 1989. And the rules say no changing “what is” either: experiential, as in the past is experienced, not altered. All anyone has is “the moment.” The trick is to see what’s there.
SHAKESPEARE UNPLUGGED:
Genre: Family Comedy; Screenplay
Awards: American Screenplay Finalist, Telluride Indie-Fest Winner, Key West Indie-Fest Winner; Screenplay Festival Finalist; Family Film Festival Finalist.
Logline:
Desperate to get her daughter into Private School, nervous Nessa Neidleman directs the 5th grade Shakespearean Play to beef up her parental involvement resume. But only when she gets in touch with her inner rapper can she navigate the pitfalls of the dog eat dog worlds of entertainment...and education.
Synopsis:
Set in a public elementary school just bursting with prison-charm, Shakespeare Unplugged is a mockumentary following one mother’s journey from timorous-mouse to in-yo-face-rapper.
Nessa Neidleman has big dreams: she wants her daughter out of the city’s public school system and safely cocooned in a well-heeled, highly competitive, private school. Unfortunately, it seems everyone else has the same aspiration. Short of donating, say, a gymnasium, the family must prove they’re very giving of time and talent. But with Nessa's parental involvement resume consisting of a few burnt bake-sale items, and her husband Josh--an over-worked television 2nd-2nd AD with no disposable time on his hands--it's a tough sell. Desperate to score application points, Nessa volunteers Josh to direct the biggest fundraiser of the year: the annual 5th grade Shakespeare play-- he is a “director” after all. Kinda. But Josh is already up to his ears in showbiz alligators, and he’s forced to bow out. Nessa’s left to both write and direct a musical version of “A Midsummer Night's Dream,” a move which instantly drops the mouse in the high beams of kids, parents, administrators, and other showbiz disasters. Anxious and flustered, Nessa has trouble finding her voice. Help comes in the form of Eddy Garcia, the 5th grade’s resident delinquent, a kid forced to be in the play, but driven by his passion for rap music. Under the influence of Eddy, Nessa not only warms to rap, she writes it into the play. The children’s parents are outraged of course, and on opening night there’s a demonstration to shut the show down. Backed into a corner, Nessa calls upon her inner-rapper to find a way to turn the tide of irate parents…then it's up to the kids to actually pull off the show.
MINDFIELD
Genre: Thriller/Dramedy; Short Screenplay
Logline:
Years of small hurts like paper cuts bring Maggie’s marriage to husband Murphy to breaking point this night. A tense, psychological examination of the last hours of a family unit.
Recently completed for Nina Corrado for consideration for AFI’s Womens Directing Program.
IN-THE-WORKS
NUTHOUSE:
Genre: Family Dramedy; Novel, fiction.
Logline:
Audrey Owen is ‘ballet-mom-extreme,’ a woman with big dreams…and bigger issues; when her son Henry barters with her for his dream--a chance to play soccer--he winds up in tights instead. Nuthouse plunges the depths of Moscow’s catacombs and the heights of, well, a local Nutcracker production, on a tragic/hilarious journey to the underbelly of parenting.
Synopsis:
The pin is out of Audrey Owen’s inner-grenade. She just hasn’t gone off yet. Even before tragedy, Audrey was always that über-ballet-mom-- the one desperate to super-glue her own dream of ballet onto her daughter. But with the death of her husband, Audrey’s unraveling in every way: bills, booze…Nutcracker. Henry, her other child-- the un-Nutcracker one-- is an eleven-year-old twin who just wants to play soccer. Not that he’s any good, but it’s the only tie left to his dad. However all game plans are hijacked when a boy is needed for a pivotal role in the local Nutcracker and, in the spirit of manipulative giving, Audrey offers up Henry IF in exchange her daughter plays the lead. Henry lands in ballet training under the dictatorship of Valentyn Plevka, an aging Bolshoi star, damaged and living in obscurity now in his own personal Siberia: Los Angeles. As the Russian exile and American family each deal with-- and mismanage-- loss, they ultimately find a way to help each other lurch towards redemption.
Nuthouse is a novel I wrote based on a screenplay idea I had (a writer pal of mine said it would be “Soooo easy.” Bastard.) Currently I am in the re-writing/editing process of the book under the guidance of the incredible Jill Marr, at the Dijstra Agency. But when/if I find myself out of re-write hell, I plan to tackle it as a screenplay.
REVENGE (Working Title)
Genre: Thriller/Horror; Screenplay
Logline:
ROGER WINSTON—Father/Actor/African-American (in that order)—is a guy with time on his hands and revenge on his mind. Hunting down his daughter’s unscrupulous ex-boyfriend becomes his passion project, till he finds himself entangled in the young man’s nefarious dealings himself.
Currently working my way through the first draft.
THE CABIN (Working Title)
Genre: Thriller/Horror; Screenplay
Logline:
With a long resume of bad boyfriends to her name, LILY HOLDEN is hoping for change she can believe in when she hooks up with Lars Haasler, the Nerd from High-School—a kid now well on his way to becoming a Real Estate Tycoon. But go from safe to scary when Lars moves Lily into his newly acquired “foreclosure” fixer in remote Topanga Canyon, where the previous owner has a hard time letting go, and the coyotes aren’t the only tricksters in the neighborhood.
Currently working my way through a first draft.
Untitled Queen Isabel & Her
Dysfunctional Family Project.
Genre: Mini-series; Historical Dramedy.
Logline:
Many have tried to change the world—one woman actually did.
Background:
This is a wildly overly ambitious idea I’ve fixated on for a sweepingly epic historical costume drama-edy series (along the lines of ‘Rome’ only set in 1492). I’ve always been struck by the legacy of Queen Isabel, especially when traveling: the profound impact her remarkable personality had on the world—the Americas as well as Arab nations—and how her powerful reach continues to this day.
Most historians agree, 1492 was the bumper year for world events—the discovery of the ‘New World,’ the Spanish Inquisition, and the end to over eight hundred years of Muslim rule in Spain…all of it coming down to one young woman of enormous charisma and will. Isabella’s personal life—eloping with her second cousin King Ferdinand of Aragon, her fascination/affection for Christopher Columbus, not to mention the insanity which ran deep in her family’s DNA (her daughter became the infamous Juana La Loca)—was dramatic verging on soap opera.
It was a pivotal time in history filled with the exalted glories of adventure and discovery, the horror of atrocities and genocide, and an array of vibrant personalities who rose to the occasion. Set against beauty of ancient Granada, it was a unique world, when three diverse cultures—Spanish, Muslim, Jews--managed to co-exists, however briefly. The reverberations of these events in Muslim-European relations still exist today.
This project is in the development stage (which has involved, among other things, cushy trips to Granada! It’s all a write-off now…)
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