Mucho Congratulations to Breanne Mattson!

Reviewed on STS back in March 2014 , her script A Day With Death was subsequently discovered by Asurf Oluseyi and Asurf Films, Ltd. The film was shot in Lagos, Nigeria – bringing terrific cultural flavor to an already charming script.

As of today’s writing, Day has been officially nominated for Best Short Film for the Africa Magic Viewers Choice Awards!  (AMVC).  Not bad at all – fully deserved! For yet more information, the film’s Facebook page is available here:  https://www.facebook.com/adaywithdeath

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Oh – and then there’s Breanne’s OTHER amazing news…  Her feature length thriller Warning Shot has now officially cast Hollywood fav Bruce Dern in a pivotal role.  Here’s what the press has to say: The character-driven drama/thriller Warning Shot starts filming in Los Angeles in early 2016 with Bruce Dern heading its cast. The project was brought to Dern by veteran Casting Director John Jackson, known for his work on the award winning films The Descendants and Nebraska. Dern, who was nominated for an Academy Award for his performance in the film Nebraska, can also be seen this December in Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight. In Warning Shot, Dern will play a dying businessman whose legacy is in jeopardy.

The story centers on a single mother and her young daughter struggling to make ends meet until they inherit a farmhouse. When a family business rival sends armed men to take the water rights to the farm’s creek by force, the situation spirals out of control.

Written by Breanne Mattson, the script was a Nicholl quarterfinalist in 2011. Dustin Fairbanks will make his feature debut as director with Ross Otterman (Gutshot Straight, Excision) producing. Executive Producing is DJ Dodd, whose film 10,000 Saints premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival.

But WAIT – THERE’S MORE!  (Oh so much, much more…) Directors in search of their next big thing should be aware that Breanne’s got more shorts available. Reposted for your consideration, please find The End in Sight – a gritty crime thriller by Ms. Mattson that’s just aching for the right producer to see it, er, visualized…

The End in Sight

A hired killer tries to finish one last job before going blind.

A bad guy with a soft spot – looking to do something right after a lifetime of mistakes…  What the heck is it about characters like this that captures the imagination?  Because they do. Every time.  They’re just so… more interesting than vanilla good guys. Hit men especially.  Watch the Professional or In Bruges, and dare to disagree.

The End in Sight is a short script that “hits” that exact note perfectly.  Enter Hugo – the consummate hit man.  He’s killed efficiently all his life. Now – unfortunately – he’s going blind.  Which, one could imagine, is really bad ju-ju for a man who relies on visual acuity…

Hugo’s trying to finish one last job before he retires: kill a gangster, and return a wayward prostitute, Winter, to a rival pimp named Skarda.  Needless to say – things get emotionally complicated and go horribly wrong.  Given the setup, this could have been a cliche script.  But The End in Sight does things right; pulling out twists and character beats that make the whole trip worthwhile. So if crime and thrillers are your forte, crack this one open. It’s got a killer ending…

About the writer: Breanne Mattson is no stranger to accolades.  Her feature lengths have made Nicholl Quarterfinalist three times (yeah, that’s three times, beeyotch!) She’s also made semi-finalist in Bluecat, Final Draft and honorable mention in TrackingB.  She’s also received a “worth the read” from Scriptshadow.  Her website can be viewed at www.breannemattson.com (IMDB credits here.)

Pages: 35

Budget: Okay. This one’s no “newbie” script.  Thirty five pages long, it features plenty o’ squibs and bullet hits,  stunt car driving, and both inside and outside locations.  But in experienced hands, this script could be amazing.

READ THE SCRIPT HERE – AND DON’T FORGET TO COMMENT!

FOR YET MORE SCRIPTS AVAILABLE FOR PRODUCTION:

PLEASE SEARCH SIMPLYSCRIPTS.COM

OR THE BLOG VERSION OF STS HERE.

All screenplays are copyrighted to their respective authors. All rights reserved. The screenplays may not be used without the expressed written permission of the author.

Another script for Award Consideration

Concussion – Undated, Unspecified draft script by Peter Landesman – hosted by: Concussion – in pdf format

In Pittsburgh, accomplished pathologist Dr. Bennet Omalu uncovers the truth about brain damage in football players who suffer repeated concussions in the course of normal play.

Information courtesy of imdb.com

Bowel Sounds

A patient experiences malevolent gastric distress…

Ever sit in a quiet classroom or church… and suddenly your stomach makes one of those really loud gurgly sounds? Whoa. How loud was it, you wonder? Did anyone else hear it? Are they staring at you? Grossed out or giggling? And then… it happens again. G-u-R-g-L-e. And again. Sheesh, what are those sounds, anyway? What’s going on inside you that’s making so much ruckus? Could something you ate really cause that much commotion?

Or perhaps something’s eating you!

That’s the premise of the riveting comedy-horror, Bowel Sounds, by Robert G. Newcomer. Sad sack Tucker thinks something’s eating him up – from the inside out. And admittedly, he don’t look good. Even his family physician’s taken aback by his haggard appearance. But after listening with his stethoscope, Dr. Morgan concludes it’s just normal bowel sounds. You know, an undigested bit of beef. Or something Lewis Carroll-ish…

But Tucker ain’t buying it. He can feel something in his innards. Rolling. Squirming. Biting. And when he listens through the stethoscope, he hears an evil voice. Taunting him!

Questioning his patient’s marbles, Dr. Morgan slips from the room to order a sedative. But while he’s gone, Tucker takes matters into his own hands. Literally.

What follows next solves poor Tucker’s problem. But it sure ain’t pretty.

Memo to any doctors who might read this: Don’t leave surgical tools lying around when there’s a crazy person in the room. And one more word of caution: if you see a bloody trail leading to a trash can, and the trash can moves – keep your distance.

Horror directors, take heed. If you remember Reanimator with fondness, Bowel Sounds is the perfect tale for you. Darkly comedic, and bloody fun!

About the writer:  Robert Newcomer recently received his first IMDB credit for another short, Them That’s Dead.  An intelligent writer, he has several other shorts and a horror feature length available for consideration. (IMDB credits listed here.) Other scripts by Robert (also horror) reviewed at STS include:

A Mighty Fire

Someplace Nice and Dark

Pages: 5

Budget: Low. Three actors, a “doctor’s room” and buckets of blood!

About the reviewers: Scott & Paula Merrow are a husband and wife screenwriting team. Since 2006, they’ve written over 50 short screenplays, several of which have been produced. They tend toward family-friendly scripts, but they’ve written a little bit of everything: horror, fantasy, sci-fi, comedy,… the whole nine yards. They’re reachable at scott-paula “AT” comcast.net

READ THE SCRIPT HERE – AND DON’T FORGET TO COMMENT!!

FOR YET MORE SCRIPTS AVAILABLE FOR PRODUCTION:

PLEASE SEARCH SIMPLYSCRIPTS.COM 

OR THE BLOG VERSION OF STS HERE.

All screenplays are copyrighted to their respective authors. All rights reserved. The screenplays may not be used without the expressed written permission of the author.

LES GARCONS

A notorious French thief breaks into a museum and gets an unexpected surprise.

Crime capers. We love them so! Nothing captures a viewer’s imagination more than a priceless artifact, ferreted away by a daring cat burglar. Hollywood feeds our fancy with this genre regularly, treating us with star-studded movies such as The Oceans Eleven series, To Catch a Thief, The Score, Entrapment and of course The Thomas Crown Affair – an art theft film so popular they made it twice!

What do each of these entertaining films have in common (besides the pilfering of objets d’art?) A charismatic anti-hero who relies on style and stealth over violence.

Talented writer Jean-Pierre Chapoteau continues this grand tradition in Les Garcons. His worthy protagonist? The masterful and dashing “Jean-Luc The Great.”

As debonair as they come, our suave “master of all thieves” is blessed with great cunning and flamboyant skill. His daring criminal exploits include pilfering jewels right off the Pope, and “lifting zee necklace off of zee Queen of Spain as she dined in a room of one-hundred friends.” Not bad for a career cad’s resume.

His current target? The valuable painting “The Tree and the Fly”, displayed at a local museum. Unfortunately for this Master of Shadows, his best laid plans quickly go awry.

Jean’s caught red-handed by Tye – a young star-struck security guard. Tye triggers the alarm… then asks if he can have his picture taken with the criminal mastermind.

Have his picture taken? Never! Jean-Luc denies his ardent fan’s request. In a cunning game of cat and mouse, he demands to be taken to the “closest room of rest.” Guided into the break-room, an increasingly concerned Jean-Luc bargains with his captor. Let him go free… and perhaps a picture’s not out of the question.

Footsteps approach. All seems lost. But a clever twist proves the old saying: “never, ever trust a thief!”

About the writer: Jean-Pierre Chapoteau started writing feature length scripts in 2005 then focused on shorts in 2009. Since then he’s had three scripts produced and two more optioned. He has won several awards for his shorts and has become a moderator at the site MoviePoet, who specialize in the craft of the short scripts.  Jean-Pierre was a finalist in the RAW TALENT Competition for his faith based feature length script: ‘Far From Perfect.’ And was also a semi-finalist in the SLAMDANCE teleplay competition and a finalist in the OBSWRITER teleplay contest for his adapted teleplay, Curb Your Enthusiasm: The Guardian.  You can contact Jean-Pierre Chapoteau at:  jeanpierre425 (a) gmail.com

Pages: 6

Budget: Low. Two actors. A few cheap props. A school hall or all purpose room dressed to look like a museum.

About the reviewer: Gary “Rolo” Rowlands cut his teeth on sketch comedy and was a commissioned writer on Spitting Image, a hugely popular sketch show in the UK that regularly attracted audiences of 8-10 million a week. He has several features available and is currently rewriting his contained supernatural thriller Offline. He can be contacted at gazrow at hotmail dot com

READ THE SCRIPT HERE – AND DON’T FORGET TO COMMENT!!

FOR YET MORE SCRIPTS AVAILABLE FOR PRODUCTION:

PLEASE SEARCH SIMPLYSCRIPTS.COM 

OR THE BLOG VERSION OF STS HERE.

All screenplays are copyrighted to their respective authors. All rights reserved. The screenplays may not be used without the expressed written permission of the author.

Not surprisingly, Matias’ pivotal boxing drama short Win/Lose won… a director that’s guaranteed to bring it all the way to the final round! Which is far from shocking, given Mr. Caruso’s battle-tested writing chops.

But as long as we’ve got you on the ropes, STS now directs your attention to a few more Matias gems. Grab one of these in a head-lock quickly: anything you produce from them is bound to be a knock-out!

Oh – and before you take a gander at these?  Here are a few more things to bear in mind:

• Our dearest Mr. Caruso recently signed onto CAA.  Seriously.  CAA!!
• And… his script Carnival made it onto this year’s one and ONLY BLACKLIST!!

Translation – you DO want to grab these. Don’t you?!? 🙂

Sweet Poison (Noir Horror) – A jaded demon hunter sets out to trap the Incubus who killed the woman he loved…

Like a Moth to a Flame (Drama) – A woman attempts to exorcise her lost lover. But is his pull too powerful to wish away?

About the writer: An optioned and award winning screenwriter, Matias Caruso has far too many accolades to name. So we’ll stick with just one: he’s the 2014 Grand Prize Winner of the International Page Awards Contest. Not to mention an all-around terrific guy. Interested in Matias’ work? Email him at matiascaruso32 “AT” gmail

FOR YET MORE SCRIPTS AVAILABLE FOR PRODUCTION:

PLEASE SEARCH SIMPLYSCRIPTS.COM 

OR THE BLOG VERSION OF STS HERE.

All screenplays are copyrighted to their respective authors. All rights reserved. 

The screenplays may not be used without the expressed written permission of the author.

The Danish Girl – Undated, Unspecified draft script by Lucinda Coxon (based on the novel by David Ebershoff) – hosted by: Focus Features – in pdf format

Copenhagen, early 1920s. Danish artist, Gerda Wegener, painted her own husband, Einar Wegener, as a lady in her painting. When the painting gained popularity, Einar started to change his appearance into a female appearance and named himself Lili Elbe. With his feminism passion and Gerda’s support, Einar – or Elbe attempted first-ever male to female sex reassignment surgery, a decision that turned into a massive change for their marriage, that Gerda realized her own husband is no longer a man or the person she married before. A childhood friend of Einar, art-dealer Hans Axgil, shows up and starts a complex love triangle with the couple.

Information courtesy of imdb.com

Read this and other scripts posted by the studios for award consideration.

Over on the Unproduced Scripts page are 15 original works for your reading pleasure.

– Don

Over on the Scripts Studios are posting for Award Consideration page.

The Hateful Eight – Undated, Unspecified draft script by Quentin Tarantino – hosted by: The Weinstein Company – in pdf format

In post-Civil War Wyoming, bounty hunters try to find shelter during a blizzard but get involved in a plot of betrayal and deception.

Information courtesy of imdb.com

Over on the Scripts posted by studios for award consideration page are two more scripts for your consideration.

Mistress America – Undated, Unspecified draft script by Noah Baumbach and Greta Gerwig – hosted by: Fox Searchlight – in pdf format

Tracy, a lonely college freshman in New York, is rescued from her solitude by her soon-to-be stepsister Brooke, an adventurous gal about town who entangles her in alluringly mad schemes. Mistress America is a comedy about dream-chasing, score-settling, makeshift families, and cat-stealing.

Information courtesy of imdb.com

Far From The Madding Crowd – September 2013 Final Shooting script by David Nicholls (Based on the novel by Thomas Hardy) – hosted by: Fox Searchlight – in pdf format

In Victorian England, the independent and headstrong Bathsheba Everdene attracts three very different suitors: Gabriel Oak, a sheep farmer; Frank Troy, a reckless Sergeant; and William Boldwood, a prosperous and mature bachelor.

Information courtesy of imdb.com