Exclusive Screenplays

Criminal genius Brainpan is formulating the perfect heist, but to pull it off, he needs a gorilla with a transplanted human brain- fortunately Brainpan is also a skilled neurosurgeon.

Type: Feature

Status: For sale

Page Count: 89pp

Genre: Action, Comedy, Sci-Fi

Budget: Shoestring

Age Rating: 13+

​

Synopsis/Details

Danger Gorilla is a gonzo heist script intended for Ultra Low Budget production.

Criminal genius BrainPan wants to steal the Hitchcock Diary which is on loan to the Metropolitan Museum. The Diary allegedly contains confessions from director Hitchcock that he never made the movies for which he was credited. The diary, locked in a polycarbonate case, has never been read by anyone living today.

 

For BrainPan to grab the diary he has to get past the most severe security measures ever put in place by a museum. He devises a way to get the diary, if he can successfully transfer the brain of Charley the janitor into a gorilla that BrainPan has kidnapped from the local zoo.

 

The script has 5 principle characters and only 3 locations. It is full of absurdist, underplayed humor (think Buckaroo Banzai) and has a satisfying double twist ending.

Kung-Fu Hipster Detective Trace Dickey is up to his fedora in trouble, when his arch nemesis kidnaps the entire Portland professional soccer team plunging the city into chaos.

Type: Feature

Status: For sale

Page Count: 94pp

Genre: Action, Comedy, Sci-Fi

Budget: Independent

Age Rating: 13+

Based On: Dick Tracy comics

​

Synopsis/Details

This script is a parody of Dick Tracy style comics, updated/relocated to reflect the hipster (and sometimes absurdist) culture of Portland, OR. While satisfying, the film is open ended, leaving room for a sequel or multiple followups (franchise), and extensive merchandising opportunities.

​

Portland Detective Trace Dickey spends his time battling the city's Rogues Gallery of colorful villains including his arch nemesis Flatnose Smith. Smith is tired of Dickey's interference and decides once and for all to put an end to the detective's heroic capers. Smith fashions a plan to capture the entire Portland professional soccer team and hold them for $8.75 billion ransom. Dickey, who is already exhausted from multiple fights with all the city's other villains, must devise a way to rescue the soccer team while not letting Flatnose get way with the ransom cash.

Andrew, a billionaire heir who has been told "enlist or be cut off," begins a downward spiral that ends up with him homeless and fighting for his life on the streets of Portland, OR.

Type: Feature

Status: For sale

Page Count: 98pp

Genre: Action, Drama, Thriller

Budget: Independent

Age Rating: 13+

Based On: The prodigal son

​

Synopsis/Details

Andrew is a third generation billionaire, and spoiled beyond belief. His dad is a responsible man who cannot stand to see the way his son is approaching life. A near fatal auto accident that puts Andrew in the hospital is the last straw for his dad. His dad tells him, "enlist or be cut out of my will."

 

Andrew reluctantly enlists, and washes out of boot camp. He calls his dad, who tells Andrew that he cannot come home. Andrew ends up trafficking illegal substances, involved in an illegal fight gang, running for his life after the death of one of the illegal fighters, and homeless on the streets of Portland, OR. He sinks into bitterness and despair. His dad prays for his sons redemption, as a Portland outreach ministry tries to aid Andrew, and one of the fight gang leaders tries to track down Andrew for payback and revenge.

 

“Learning to Crawl” is a Christian action/thriller that is “not for church-going audiences”. The hard-hitting drama (repurposing the story of the prodigal son) contains themes that some church-goers may find objectionable (language, sexual assault, drug use, murder).

Rose Pinn must endure racial prejudice, outflank her five bounty hunting brothers, and resist a forbidden attraction to gunslinger George Bittercreek Newcomb, if she is going to make anything of her life.

Type: Feature

Status: For sale

Page Count: 95pp

Genre: Action, Biography, Drama, Western

Budget: Independent

Age Rating: 13+

Based On: 

The Dunns of Oaklahoma

​

Synopsis/Details

Rose Pinn is the youngest of a black-American family in the Old West. Rose has 5 bounty hunting brothers (based on real life western bounty hunters, the Dunns), who promised their mama they would look after Rose as mama passed. Bill, the eldest, is tough, decisive and quick with a gun. Bill is seconded by brother George- quiet and deadly, with an unquestioning loyalty to Bill, and a soft spot for baby sister Rose. Middle brother Dal is the family intellectual, an educated man with refined tastes, but who is also skilled with firearms, and is unapologetically, a Pinn. Family clowns Bee and Cal make up the rest of the family, and are usually found together, causing trouble.

​

The story opens as Bill rides hard to get to his mama, before she dies. He arrives moments before her death promising her that he will take care of the family, especially baby sister, Rose. After her funeral, the boys, who have been raising money by bounty hunting and cattle rustling, decide to turn the family home into a roadhouse for Blacks, Asians, Native Americans, and anyone else who can’t find lodging in town. Dal manages, Rose cooks and cleans with the help of Bee and Dal. Bill and George continue to bounty hunt to keep the business afloat until it can stand on its own.

​

Rose becomes bored with the business and takes un unhealthy interest in frequent visitor (and real life western outlaw) George Bittercreek Newcomb. She eventually runs away with him and Bill goes after them. Bill finds them with the Doolin gang (consisting of Newcomb, Arkansas Tom Jones, Bill Doolin, Charley Pierce, Oliver "Ol" Yantis, Cattle Annie and Little Britches) who have just botched a bank robbery and are pinned down by US Marshals. Yantis is killed, Arkansas Tom is captured, Newcomb, Pierce and Doolin escape.

​

Bill takes Rose home. The boys keep a tight eye on her, but the business is demanding and she eventually runs off again to find Newcomb. What she finds is Pierce and Newcomb involved with Annie and Britches. Disgusted, she returns home and she doesn’t protest when Newcomb and Pierce shockingly arrive at the roadhouse to spend the night (Newcomb hoping to make up with Rose) and Bill instantly kills them both. Bill them leads the Federal Marshal to Doolin’s hiding place, killing Doolin and collecting the bounty.

 

Everything seems to be straightening out when Bill realizes he has to manage a confrontation with a local sheriff who has been both friend and antagonist to Bill. Rose begs him not to go, fearing Bill’s temper and fearing for his life.

As a super-powered sociopath lays waste to Detroit, a war vet suffering from PTSD tries to overcome her fear and doubt and engage one more enemy.

Type: Feature

Status: For sale

Page Count: 103pp

Genre: Action, Sci-Fi, Thriller

Budget: Independent

Age Rating: 13+

Based On: 

Original story

​

Synopsis/Details

Marcus Shoji, second in command of a domestic terrorism organization, despises the softness he sees in his boss. After an accident at an experimental power plant, he finds that he can generate spontaneous bomb explosions from within himself- making him a walking bomb. He uses his new found power to take revenge on the people he feels have slighted him.

 

He does what he wants, and goes where he wishes. There is no one to oppose him as he kills off police officers, SWAT teams, organized crime bosses and the National Guard. He seems unstoppable until Jasmine makes a decision to engage him. ​Jazz (Jasmine) is PTSD war vet (non-verbal, isolationist) who lives in the city, in an impromptu homeless camp. She observes and keeps notes on what is happening to the city (severe OCD), and even calculates a solution, but cannot bring herself to act.

 

She is paralyzed by the thought of any attention, and just wants to maintain her anonymity, but she finally brings herself to a decision point, pushing past her apprehension and fears, to take the situation into her own hands, risking her life to eliminate the threat.

 

Jasmine is non-verbal for most of the film. It would be an extremely challenging roll for an actress, but I think it would also garner plenty on accolades for the right performer. Yes, it’s a super-hero vein movie, but it’s a human movie, so much more. It’s extremely grounded, and I de-emphasized the fantastic elements as much as possible.

​

I wrote it when I asked myself the following: why is there always an emerging superhero, just at the time a super villain shows up? What if there weren’t?

When two little girls decide they want to be BFFs, they do not understand when the people, and culture around them, tell them it's not allowed in Jackson, Mississippi in 1969.

Type: Feature

Status: For sale

Page Count: 109pp

Genre: Drama, History

Budget: Independent

Age Rating: 13+

Based On: 

The real life experiences of a woman growing up in 1969 Mississippi.

​

Synopsis/Details

"Diary of a Black Girl" is written along the lines of films like "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" and "the Help". It's a story of two best friends who find their way through life in the South during integration, as a whole new world opens up for people of color. Their friendship faces racism, poverty, and deep heartache. But the two friends also experience faith, happiness, redemption, love, marriage, and children.

​

Mississippi has just abolished segregation as Catherine enters grade school and discovers her new best friend. Sondra instantly bonds with Catherine and their friendship is unshakable through grade school, and into high school. But as both girls head their separate ways in college, they find it challenging to try to stay emotionally close. Sondra meets a University professor and falls in love, but confesses to Catherine that she is pregnant with an unplanned pregnancy. As the ladies work though the pitfalls in a relationship that is closer than sisters, they have a heated, weighty, cultural argument at a party, that threatens to sever the friendship forever. Catherine has to decide if she will work to overcome some lingering societal bias and personal pride, to keep her relationship with her best friend, even as they both face a seemingly unbeatable foe in cancer.

​

About the characters: Sondra, a fiercely independent black woman, who has suffered bias and cruelty, sees a new path in a new culture. She teaches Catherine what it means to have traveled a much different road during childhood. Catherine, a white woman of privilege, almost lets resentments of a Southern past pull them apart.

​

Personal note from Kathleen Mazzanti, the little girl on which the Catherine character is based- "In 1969 I was eight years old in Jackson MS, and I was bused across town to a formerly all black elementary school during integration. I met a girl in my class named Sondra. We instantly had a connection and became best friends. We later lost touch, and I have often wondered what became of her. This story is based on my friendship with her, and with all the women in my life whose friendships uplifted me, challenged me and changed me. If not for Sondra, I’m not sure I would be the woman that I am."

 

The unquenchable friendship and faith in love in "Diary of a Black Girl" will appeal to a wide audience.

While humans hide underground, robotic combatants on the surface fight World War 3. As the war grinds on, the robots send down progress reports. But the reports are lies, to keep the humans as prisoners.

Type: Feature

Status: For sale

Page Count: 100pp

Genre: Action, Sci-Fi, Thriller

Budget: Independent

Age Rating: 13+

Based On: 

"The Defenders" by Philip K Dick

​

Synopsis/Details

Ostensible is an original feature-length script based on the short story "the Defenders" by Philip K Dick. The original story has fallen into public domain. It tells the story of Taylor, a human technician who helps the war effort against the People's Soviet Socialist Republic (referred to in derogatory terms as the PISSERS).

​

Taylor is called by his supervisor for a surface mission to check on the war’s progress. But when Taylor and his team reach the surface they are told by the automated combatants that the human must stay underground for their safety. The team discovers that the war effort is all a sham and that the humans have been lied to, to keep them safe. The team now has to find a way to overthrow the mechanical babysitters, and communicate with earth’s population below which has been cut off by a series of planned, tactical explosions. The mission is complicated by the appearance of a PISSER team that has landed in the USA to investigate the effectiveness of their own attacks.

​

PKD had an exceptional short story here, but then dropped his readers off a cliff with a forced or hurried ending. He either had reached his word limit for the submission, or just didn't know how to end the story (which I would find hard to believe). This adaption is approximately 35% original material and extends the PKD short story into a viable and satisfying conclusion, in a style of which PKD would be proud. The tension between the USA and the People's Socialist Republic is amped up by the introduction of a malfunctioning leddy class which, unlike all the other classes, will kill.

​

Philip K Dick has had a number of stories made into films. Many film adaptations have not used Dick's original titles. They include Blade Runner, Total Recall, Minority Report, Paycheck, The Adjustment Bureau and A Scanner Darkly. Films based on Dick's writing have accumulated a total revenue of over US $1 billion.

Handyman Thomas Cole accidentally gets transported from the 20th century to the distant future, where just his existence threatens the entire galaxy.

Type: Feature

Status: For sale

Page Count: 100pp

Genre: Action, Sci-Fi

Budget: Independent

Age Rating: 13+

Based On: 

The Variable Man by Philip K Dick

​

Synopsis/Details

This feature length script is an adaptation of a Philip K. Dick short novel which has fallen into public domain status. The original story had no characters of color. In my adaption, Thomas Cole is a black American and the lead scientist that aids him is a B/A Hispanic female. Both changes have strengthened the story.

​

OVERVIEW: Terra finds itself in a cold war with Proxima Centauri, trying to find a way of breaking free from their control. Terra continually designs concept weapons to give them a combat advantage, but Proxima Centauri is also updates its defenses, gaining information through spies. Terra calculates their chances to win a war versus Centauri based on output from their probability computers. Terra comes up with a concept for a an indefensible faster-than-light bomb called Icarus. The odds of victory tip in Terra’s favor, and Terra prepares to launch, but the FTL bomb’s delicate guidance system is having problems, and does not work properly.

 

Meanwhile, Thomas Cole accidentally arrives in this future. He has a genius aptitude to fix things, and his presence in the future throws the probability computers out of whack. The Terran security forces, who want to start the war and break free of Centauran control, attempt to hunt down Cole to kill him, and end the variance in the computers. The lead scientist working on the FTL bomb finds Cole first and convinces him to help out. Icarus does eventually work, although not in the way that anyone may have wanted.

​

Philip K Dick has had a number of stories made into films. Many film adaptations have not used Dick's original titles. They include Blade Runner, Total Recall, Minority Report, Paycheck, The Adjustment Bureau and A Scanner Darkly. Films based on Dick's writing have accumulated a total revenue of over US $1 billion.

15-year-old Jess wasn't sure his dad's archaic views on protection and preparation fit into the modern world. Then the world ended.

Type: Feature

Status: For sale

Page Count: 90pp

Genre: Action, Thriller

Budget: Independent

Age Rating: 13+

​

Synopsis/Details

Jess, a home-schooled teen in Wayward, KS, splits his time between online classes and assisting his dad at their prepper store. Fred Berg knows the value of preparation, having family that was held in prison camps in Nazi Germany. He tries to instill a "heads up" type of mentality in his son, but ends up contending with Jess, more than communicating.

​

Jess views the store's customers as fearful, some even paranoid, as they all watch television broadcasts of threats from North Korea toward the U.S. The President assures the country that North Korea will be dealt with diplomatically, and even militarily, if necessary. Then the missiles begin to hit.

​

Seattle, and the nearby Bangor Naval base, according to reports, are hit first. Communications are destroyed by EMP bursts caused by the nuclear detonations. Shortly after, reports begin coming across TV, radio and social media that the Eastern seaboard has also been hit. Accurate reports are impossible to get because of the destruction of communications. Transportation comes to a standstill as the EMPs render any vehicle with electronics unusable. Convinced that they are next, Governors throughout the Midwest enact martial law, using the National Guard to close and secure each state's border.

​

Jess and his dad have to deal with possible nuclear fallout, a run on their store, and figuring out who they can trust, as they try to determine who is a friend and who wants to kill them and take everything they own. The conversations turn from idealistic, to pragmatic as the most important thing becomes surviving.

​

I believe the turmoil Jess has to face as he navigates learning and surviving in a world bathed in nuclear fallout will appeal to a wide audience.

A Downs Syndrome adult finds himself in the middle of a prank gone bad, looking for a way to prevent an armed assailant from killing everyone.

Type: Feature

Status: For sale

Page Count: 91pp

Genre: Drama, Thriller

Budget: Independent

Age Rating: 13+

​

Synopsis/Details

Benji, a Downs Syndrome adult, is trying to finish high school and get his diploma. Loving, and sometimes naive, he is duped by fellow students into going snipe hunting. His brother and caretaker Jim gets wind of the prank and becomes furious. Jim shares his anger with his own friend Jefferson, a hunter and rabid gun advocate. When Jim tells Jefferson of the offense, Jefferson offers to trick the pranksters into taking some of their own medicine.

Jefferson follows the pranksters on their next prank, and sets up a fake "most dangerous game" scenario where the pranksters believe they are going to be killed as Jefferson hunts them. All goes as Jefferson plans, until he accidentally hits one of the students with a mis-timed shot.

​

Benji, unaware of the shooting, finds out from Jim about the payback prank and demands that Jim take him to the forest lands where the practical joke is being played, or he will go straight to the police and turn in Jim and Jefferson. Benji and his brother arrive at the forest lands just when Jefferson is trying to decide if he is going to kill all the witnesses and bury their bodies in the woods.

African-American cowboy Bartholomew Johnson, is fascinated and wary when a stranger offers him a “can’t miss” six-shooter. Now Bat must decide if his gun defines him, or if identity is determined in a higher purpose.

Type: Feature

Status: For sale

Page Count: 93pp

Genre: Action, Western

Budget: Independent

Age Rating: 13+

​

Synopsis/Details

"Once Upon a Time in Old New Mexico" is a Faith-based Western and written along the lines of films like "The Fastest Gun Alive" and "High Noon."

​

Bartholomew Johnson is homesteading in 1880's New Mexico with his wife and daughters, when a bad storm hits the area. The weather strands a stranger in the area, and Bat allows him to stay the night in his barn. As thanks, the stranger gives Bat a beautiful pistol. Bat discovers that the pistol is eerily accurate, and he ends up saving the county sheriff from an assassination attempt. Bat finds that his new efficiency with his pistol allows him some respect and notoriety, but not all good. In a series of confrontations with local gunslingers, thieves, and rustlers, Bat develops a fast-draw gunslinger reputation. He struggles with who society has branded him as, who he has been all his life, who he is now, and who he wants to be.

 

Bat realizes his new reputation is endangering his family, and with deadly outlaws closing in on him, Bat has to decide if he is going to send his wife and girls away to protect them, and spend his life running, or stand his ground and kill again.

I believe the underlying principles of identity, purpose, personal value, fear, redemption and faith in "Once Upon a Time in Old New Mexico" will appeal to a wide audience.