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2014 Screenwriting Contest Finalists

By Screenwriting Contest Results

Grand Prize Winner – $20,000 Hexen by Alex Ross Runner-up – $1,000 Externally Yours by Elizabeth Rogers Finalists Animal Heist by Aneesh Chaganty & Sev Ohanian Blood Milk by Amy Levy Black Ox by Joe Halstead Dead River Girl by Morris Long Dreamaholics Anonymous by Romi Moondi Finndale by Lloyd Ohls Freeze by Soloman Gray The Friend Zone by Aaron Marshall Hunter’s Moon by Adam Slutsky & Mark Rogers Monster by Erik Schill Patient 36 by Hank Hoffman Tehran by Alex Fazeli The Memory Sphere by Kevin Sluder The Scoundrels Club by Jeff York The Shift Manager by Matt Tassone & John Ott Unwritten by Kurt Conety Valedictorian by Jimmy Mosqueda Will Gardner by Max Martini

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Top Comic Writer and Script Pipeline Finalist Option Script

By Uncategorized
Script Pipeline Screenwriting finalist Craig Weeden and comic veteran Jimmy Palmiotti (Ultimate Spider-Man, Jonah Hex) optioned an adaptation of Palmiotti's Painkiller Jane in March 2014 to production company Solipsist Films (Sin City: A Dame to Kill For). Craig is also in development on other feature and television projects. His previous work includes the children's illustrated book Mia's Gift and the feature crime/thriller Diamond Payback, which placed in the 2011 Pipeline competition. SUBMIT A SCREENPLAY
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Mad Men – Pilot

By Essential Reading - Screenplays and Pilots

It’s a show that defines an era. Only not our era. Mad Men drips with glossy 1960s charm–or shameless 1960s indulgence, depending on your perspective. A soap opera, ironically, for the 21st century. The series perhaps over-dramatizes the evolution of the mid-century advertising world, but offers something in terms of unique character development that breaks our notion of what to expect in a period drama. If you’re a part of its fan base, you have the benefit of retrospect when reading the pilot, and will immediately recognize how well Don Draper is established from the start, setting us up perfectly for what will be an intimate and profound character arc. Is Mad Men nothing more than an exaggeration? A hyperbole of those living in the most tumultuous decade of the modern era? Sure. But it’s the type of grounded glamorization that rips it out of the cliche, a style we…

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June 2014 Script Sales

By Script Sales

A somewhat slower month. . . . In true retro fashion, Dreamworks developing an animated Felix the Cat film. Even more retro: Medusa, another animated comedy coming from Sony Pictures. Wasting no time at all, as the news of his release broke less than a month ago, Bowe Bergdahl’s story will become a feature in America’s Last Prisoner of War. Fox Searchlight taking the helm. Will Smith set to star in the as-of-yet untitled NFL concussion project, bringing to light the injuries sustained by ex-football players. And Oliver Stone writing/directing a film about the notorious Edward Snowden. Other script sales include: – Featuring an all-female Delta Force, the action/thriller The Athena Project, based on the novel by Brad Thor. MMA fighter Ronda Rousey attached to star. – A remake of the 1980s thriller War Games is back on track. – Ken Jeong will star in the political road comedy (yes,…

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Game of Thrones – Pilot

By Essential Reading - Screenplays and Pilots

For the lavish, and often-times hopelessly brutal, HBO show Game of Thrones, the pilot is surprisingly rather timid–a word no fan would quickly associate with the most epic television series in recent memory. The writing is direct and descriptive, lacking unnecessarily flourish, yet maintains a vivid sense of time and place without falling into the common trap of many period (or pseudo-period) pieces: overwritten narrative description and equally overwritten dialogue. Not the case here. It’s a script that’s accessible to the most casual of script readers, a remarkable achievement given what must have been a knee-jerk inclination to glean too much from the George R.R. Martin spectacle. There are, of course, many ways to successfully pull off a script of this nature, stylistically speaking. But for such a sprawling fantasy/adventure, introducing us to Westeros in the most straightforward way possible without losing the unique energy of the plot is a…

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May 2014 Script Sales

By Script Sales

Script Pipeline Screenwriting Competition winner Evan Daugherty (Divergent) will write and direct an adaptation of the of the supernatural thriller Ink and Bone. Lee Clay (Beautiful Boy) to produce with The Weinstein Company and Dimension Films. Quvenzhane Wallis (Beasts of the Southern Wild) might have another shot at an Oscar nom in the teen drama Counting By 7’s. And continuing the epic parade of sequels: My Big Fat Greek Wedding, World War Z, Independence Day, Spring Breakers, Mission: Impossible, V/H/S, and The Bourne Legacy. That’s a lot for one month. Other script sales include: – Based on a Salon.com article, the self-explanatory romantic comedy The Craziest OkCupid Date Ever. Offspring Entertainment producing. – Because it’s never too early for a LeBron James biopic: a story about his days as a top high school basketball player. Terence Winter (Boardwalk Empire) co-producing. – Will Ferrell co-producing an animated feature of The Flintstones….

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Homeland – Pilot

By Essential Reading - Screenplays and Pilots

Not only a stellar example of plotting and character setup, the script is a paradigm for style–quick-paced, vividly detailed, and absolutely compelling from scene to scene. Claire Danes’ incredible talent as an actress, the character of Carrie Mathison is so uniquely drawn, she almost carries the series on her back, creating a refreshing take on the genre. A female protagonist who is neither an over-the-top stereotype, nor what has soon become a 21st century cliche: putting the focus on a woman cast as a hero previously reserved for males. Because that’s not what this story is about. And this realism (or apparent realism) brings a certain authenticity to the first episode, setting a suitable framework for the tone of the series. As great as its predecessors were (24, most notably), this is a political action/thriller for the next generation, a rare example where, judging by the pilot alone, it’s no…

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April 2014 Script Sales

By Script Sales

It took a while, about 20 years to be exact, but Robin Williams as Mrs. Doubtfire will grace a new generation of audiences in need of a great family (well, family-ish) comedy. Tripp Vinson (Vinson Films) to produce the Universal sci-fi project Terrestrial. Still in its early stages: Brian Grazer co-producing a film about Dodgers star Yasiel Puig’s escape from Cuba to become one of the biggest sensations in baseball. Flash Gordon and Barbie will get adaptations–probably no crossover movie any time soon. And the multi-talented Ellen Page will (thankfully) star in an action movie, Queen and Country. Other script sales include: – Legendary actor John Cleese makes a return to the screen in the spy comedy The B Team. – Masters of the Universe, a draft of which was previously written by Script Pipeline contest winner Evan Daugherty, still moving forward in development with Sony. – Battlestar Galactica made…

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Sideways – Screenplay

By Essential Reading - Screenplays and Pilots

On the surface, it’s a story about relationships and useless babbling about wine. Beneath the surface, it’s one of the most relevant character studies in the history of dramedies, touching upon so many issues plaguing the modern human condition it’s like one, big cinematic therapy session. In a way, Sideways changed how audiences perceived independent film as a whole–that “indies,” for whatever definition you prescribe, can be the best of both worlds. While the film is not quite a romantic comedy, there’s an underlying idea here that romance is, by definition, imperfect. So are careers, and marriages. And life. Yes, that’s all obvious. And a little stale. But the way Alexander Payne and Rex Pickett detail these two men, Miles and Jack, as wayward heroes who are neither heroic nor anti-heroic lends a certain realism to the whole story, and in the process, sort of skews the genre. Each scene…

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March 2014 Script Sales

By Script Sales

Amongst another month full of young adult novel adaptations and remakes, a few original specs cracked through, as well as some classic stories about to become new again. Sofia Coppola set to direct a live-action version of The Little Mermaid, which may stick to the original storyline by Hans Christian Anderson. Summit Entertainment continues to tap into the tween market with Dork Diaries, based on the book series. Rupert Sanders (Snow White and the Huntsman) will direct the Paul Haggis sci-fi/crime script The Juliet. And a reboot of the horror film The Grudge is also in the works. Other script sales include: – An (animated) adaptation of The Pink Panther. MGM taking the helm. – A biopic on pitcher R.A. Dickey, who after years in the minor leagues, finally makes the majors and becomes, albeit briefly, one of the most dominant pitchers in baseball. – The comedy Vacation Friends. Anna…

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Bridesmaids – Screenplay

By Essential Reading - Screenplays and Pilots

Screenwriting 101 teaches you short dialogue is good dialogue. Brevity over talking heads. Dialogue-heavy scripts can only work if the dialogue is. . . well, good. Bridemaids fits the bill–and then some. The film was critically-acclaimed as one of the best in its genre, due in part to an all-star cast that helped (further) advance the careers of its stars, prove the otherwise sobering Rose Byrne (Damages) is an incredibly talented actress, and establish Kristen Wiig and co-writer Annie Mumolo as a legitimate force for female screenwriters. Not only female screenwriters in general, but those who can write broad, mainstream comedies, rejecting the “chick flick” stereotype branding female writers. Acting talents aside, the comic timing on the page is apparent, with each scene consistently showing the wit and heart of its characters. The result: a modern primer for students of screenwriting. Consider this Advanced Comedy Writing 201. Read the Bridesmaids Screenplay

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