Screenplays
Family Friendly
The Wonder Five
Drama/family, Inspired by a true story
Log-line: Barefoot orphan boys burst out of the hills of Eastern Kentucky to win an invitation to the National Sweet Sixteen Championship - despite not having shoes, a ball that bounced, a court or real coach. What they did have was faith and an indomitable spirit.
(Optioned by Alex Rose Productions, Ashley Judd attached as director. There were three options; the last option has expired.)
Chillipop
Magical realism/family, Inspired by a true story
Top-five FINALIST Creative Lexington Screenplay Competition
Presented at the World Equestrian Games, Kentucky
Log-line: A soul-rapping LLAMA and a lonely REFUGEE CHILD, abandoned at the backside of a race-track, risk their lives to rescue two horses switched before the Breeders Cup.
Looking for Mrs. Santa Claus
Magical realism/family
Second place, Practical Paradox Productions, San Francisco, Ca. Also adapted into a produced stage-play MUSICAL & Children’s BOOK
Log-line: An ELF finds Santa’s soul-mate in a story-telling sorceress who rescues condemned greyhounds.
Smiley Pete
Based on a true story
Log-line: A stray dog (SMILEY PETE) and drag-queen by night/hospital orderly by day (SWEETS) break the color barrier in a town devastated by loss of an entire regiment in the Bataan Death March.
BOOK AWARD, Carnegie Center Lawyers Reading to Children grant recipient
Smiley Pete Visual Pitch
Narrator: Michael Franks / Actors: Patrick Garr, Katie Swim
Dramas
Belle Brezing
A WINNER, WILDSOUND Screenplay Competition, Toronto
Log-line: Somewhere between a paperboy’s first cup of chicory coffee and the memories of the Madam who inspired Belle Watling of Gone With The Wind, there lies a story of sex, secrets and spiritual redemption.
Adapted from stage-play: Produced: Spoleto Festival (Charelston), NY National Opera Theatre, Lexington Opera House (Actors Guild), UK Guignol. Also a novel.
Mirage
Inspired by a true story
Finalist, Austin Film Festival Pitch Competition (top 2% out of 10,000 script submissions)
Semi-finalist, Nashville Screenplay Festival
Log-line: Taken hostage by Saddam Hussein (Iraq) a child passenger on a British Airways flight transforms the horrific experience by seeing the kindness of strangers – and manifests a daring rescue.
Hostage detainment through the eyes of a child.
Tears of the Silver Lions
Based on a true story
Nichols quarter-finalist
Script received positive coverage from MGM (submitted through Kathy Berlin, Marlo Thomas Productions.)
Log-line: An American ballerina in German occupied Denmark rescues Jewish orphans – unaware that the escape is being master-minded by a powerful German officer (later condemned to death.)
Black Magic
Drama, Inspired by a true story
Log-line: A young lawyer and a seasoned former prosecutor defend Haitian refugees in volatile political asylum hearings – igniting backlash when one of the refugees is “murdered.”
Wild Violets
Historical drama
Log-line: Experiencing a mystical flight through time to a Shaker utopia (Civil War, 1863), a reporter discovers a deadly secret that frees her from demons of her past.
Like An Appalachian Wind Come Spring
Drama, True story
Winner, Minneapolis-St. Paul Screenlabs Competition
Log-line: An attorney represents an Appalachian little girl whose mother participated in her daughter’s rape and discovers secrets in a corrupt justice system as well as in her own past.
Soul Blood
Drama/Sci-fi
Log-line: Left for dead in desert beneath the Marfa Texas Mystery Lights, a homeless photographer awakens with the power to heal critically ill children.
The Angel’s Wand
Drama/Sci-fi
Inspired by the real-life story of Robert Rodgers (co-screenplay writer)
Log-line: After the death of his wife in a plane crash, a physics professor discovers gifts of healing and clairvoyance – empowering him to predict a terrorist attack.
Dagmar
Historical drama, Based on a true story
Inspired by the life of Danish Princess Dagmar who became Empress of Russia.
Log-line: An obscure photograph in a NY Art Catalogue ignites a hunt for a missing Faberge Egg (worth 33 million dollars) and ultimately reveals the miraculous survival not only of the Gold Egg but also of the Russian Tsarevich’s dog Joy.
Sweet Evening Breeze
Adapted from Smiley Pete, The Magnificent Moocher, honored as a Carnegie Lawyers Reading to Children award-winning book.
Log-line: Against the backdrop of segregation, a stray dog and gender-bending black musician force the law against “being different” (cross-dressing) to be struck down - inspiring tolerance for all who live on the streets.
