“What would you do, if you could…?” – A Stan Lee tribute
WriteMovies Director Ian Kennedy explores the works of Stan Lee and why superhero stories unleash our imaginations better than any other kind of fictional stories… (more…)
Pitch meetings, success stories, and more VFX-driven scripts wanted for a 2x Oscar nominated director!
We’ve been hard at work lately having pitching scripts to industry, having pitch meetings with producers and distributors about our many projects! Alex and Ian had a productive meeting at BAFTA recently, discussing the slate and future opportunities. So, what have we been up to? Let’s take a look…
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Ian Kennedy, our Director of Worldwide Development, at BAFTA
Following on from Alex and Habib’s successful tour of Hollywood, we’re still looking for more great VFX-driven scripts for Habib to direct. We’re in discussion with many studios to confirm the next wave of projects and welcome more submissions through our Winter 2019 Contest.
- The movie we made in 2007, THE LIST, is now back in our hands after ten years in a distribution deal with Warner Bros. This charming romantic comedy stars Wayne Brady (WHOSE LINE IS IT ANYWAY?) and Sidney Tamiia Poitier (DEATH PROOF), and includes a breakout role for Jane Lynch as a TV dating guru which helped lead to her iconic role in GLEE. We’ve had several meetings and enquiries with distributors and sales companies keen to take this project further.
- THE LIST is a great example of our work as a full circle: script agency and production house. With our contests and consultancy services including elite mentoring, we offer entry to the market from just $39 and can carry your project all the way through production, distribution, and “the long tail”. Enter now with your VFX driven or any other genre of script to take it to the next level and break through to success.
We’ve also recently had pitch meetings with many companies including Film4 and several of our winners’ projects have been going from strength to strength!
- Evan Cooper, who placed third in our Summer 2017 Contest with his script BALLERINA GIRL, has turned writer-director with his new project THE WILL O WISP.
- REMOTELY WORKING by Bill Baber, which took the Best Short Pilot award in our most recent contest, is currently in post-production having been filmed in September!
- The second placed script from our Spring 2017 Contest, THE FACTION by Kevin Karp, is currently in development with Lone Pine Productions.
We guarantee pitching to industry for the top three scripts from our competition – so enter our Winter 2019 Screenwriting Contest today from just $44, and you can follow in the footsteps of our past winners and get your script out there!
Introducing the Winner of our Best Short Script Award!
Our International Screenwriting Contest isn’t just for full length screenplays – we accept short scripts as well! In our Spring 2018 Contest, the winner of Best Short Script also made it all the way to the semi-finals: ROLL WITH IT by Rosie Byrnes!
As most of our readers know, writing a screenplay is tough work that takes diligence, planning, and a whole lot of hours spent typing. It might seem like writing a short script is easier, but it brings with it an entire set of challenges you won’t find elsewhere. Imagine trying to cram a 120 page story into 10 pages and you’ll see how difficult it is!
Congratulations to Rosie for winning in this category; her script charmed us with its rich story, likeable characters, and colorful concepts. She now receives a copy of our Confidential Studio Manual and exclusive previews of our Virtual Film School as her prizes, plus a set of Development Notes to give her professional feedback on her work.
Read on to find out more about this short script which captured our hearts: ROLL WITH IT!
Here’s Rosie’s summary of her script…
“Max is the king of the roller disco, and he knows it—that is, until the spunky (and far more admirable) Lucy arrives at the rink. His crown threatened, Max challenges her to the ultimate dance-off. But he’s in over his head, and finds that he’s head over heels for the gal who knows what it means to be groovy.”
And a short biography of Rosie, too…
“Rosie Byrnes is a writer, a second grade teacher, and a notorious ice cream lover. Originally from Colorado but currently residing in Tainan City, Taiwan, Rosie has spent most of her life writing outlandish stories. Only after following her crush into a college screenwriting class did she realize that, hey, it’s actually pretty neat. Her most recent passion project is a feature-length screenplay about Bigfoot (who’s a big softie, deep down), and she currently holds the “Worst Female Bowler” title in her hometown’s championship.
Rosie can be found on Twitter via the username @rosiebwrites.”
Spring 2018 Contest – Introducing the Winner of our Best Stageplay Award!
The winner of our Best Stageplay Award in our Spring 2018 Contest also made it all the way to the final, receiving an Honorable Mention: THE CRACK IN PEGGY SUE’S FLOOR, by John Woodard!
Our congratulations to John for this achievement; stageplays are judged on their screen potential but equally the quality of the writing. “Viability” is the deciding factor here! John now receives a copy of our Confidential Studio Manual and exclusive previews of our Virtual Film School as his prizes.
Read on to find out about the stageplay which took the prize in this category: THE CRACK IN PEGGY SUE’S FLOOR!
Here’s John’s summary of his script…
“In 1944 racist Georgia, a black drifter saves a white recluse by killing her lecherous neighbor — setting in motion a chain of deadly events while uncovering secrets better left hidden.”
And a short biography of John, too…
“John Woodard is a multiple award winning screen, teleplay, and stageplay play writer living in Los Angeles, Ca.. Winner of The 2016 Beverly Hills Theatre Guild Youth Theatre Award for his play “The Princess Parodies.” John has written screen and teleplays in a variety of genres that have all gone on to win various contests, including The Scriptapalooza Grand Jury Prize, Several Nicholl Fellowship finalists, Rhode Island International Grand Jury Prize, 2nd Place Story Pros Screenplay Contest, Page and Page International and many others.
John looks forward to seeing the first production of “The Crack in Peggy Sue’s Floor” on stage as well as his screenplays on the big screen!“
If you’ve got a stageplay that would adapt well to the screen, why not commission our help to get it there?
Spring 2018 Screenwriting Contest – Winners Announced!
We are delighted to announce the winners of our Spring 2018 Screenwriting Contest!
We’ve read many fantastic scripts over the last few months, but at long last, our Spring 2018 Contest comes to a close. In every genre and in every format, there have been many scripts that shone – but we’ve finally managed to decide on our winners!
A massive thanks to everyone who entered, and who gave us so much great material to read! If you want to find out why your script placed where it did in our competition, we strongly encourage you to take advantage of our Script Report services – which are currently on special offer until 31st August 2018!
Our Grand Prize Winner walks away with:
- $2000 cash prize
- A year of script and pitching development worth $3200
- Exclusive previews of our Virtual Film School and a copy of our Confidential Studio Manual
And the top three submissions all receive:
- Guaranteed pitching and promotion to the top of the film industry
- Exclusive prizes from InkTip – an InkTip Script Listing and the winning scripts’ loglines will be featured in InkTip’s Magazine, read by thousands of writers and producers.
So, a huge congratulations to our GRAND PRIZE WINNER:
DESERT RUN
by
Christopher Thomas
A great win for Christopher, and a thrilling script with strongly voiced characters. Christopher now takes home those wonderful prizes listed above.
But we must also congratulate our SECOND PLACED WINNER:
KLONDIKE MIKE
by
Thomas Zmiarovich
And our THIRD PLACED WINNER:
FIRE ON THE ISLAND
by
Timothy Jay Smith
A round of applause also for our Honorable Mentions: BLUT WIRD FLIEßEN by Urs Aebersold, LOVERS IN PARIS by Andy Conway, THE CRACK IN PEGGY SUE’S FLOOR by John Woodard, THE UNDERTAKER’S CHILDREN by Natasha Le Petit, THE ELECTRIC WAR by Arthur Tiersky, and HOLLYWOOD’S MOST WANTED: I’M READY FOR MY CLOSE-UP, ESE by Manny Jimenez Sr.
A very well done to everyone named here and the many other impressive scripts we read this time around. It’s been a tough field to choose from! See the results in full below.
We’ll be telling you all about our winners in the coming weeks, and getting their script development phase underway.
Head to our Facebook page and our Twitter feed to congratulate our top three winners and Honorable Mentions yourself!
Here are the Spring 2018 Screenwriting Contest Winners and Honorable Mentions…
| GRAND PRIZE WINNER | ||
| DESERT RUN by Christopher Thomas |
||
| SECOND PLACE | THIRD PLACE |
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| KLONDIKE MIKE by Thomas Zmiarovich |
FIRE ON THE ISLAND by Timothy Jay Smith |
|
| HONORABLE MENTIONS | ||
| BLUT WIRD FLIEßEN by Urs Aebersold |
LOVERS IN PARIS by Andy Conway |
THE ELECTRIC WAR by Arthur Tiersky |
| THE UNDERTAKER’S CHILDREN by Natasha Le Petit |
HOLLYWOOD’S MOST WANTED: I’M READY FOR MY CLOSE-UP, ESE by Manny Jimenez Sr |
THE CRACK IN PEGGY SUE’S FLOOR by John Woodard |
Introducing the Winner of our Best Book award!
We announced the winner of our Best Book award a short while ago, along with our Quarter-Finalists: BLUT WIRD FLIEßEN by Urs Aebersold!
Our congratulations to Urs for winning in this category, in which we assess both the quality of the writing itself and also its potential for screen adaptation. He now receives a copy of our Confidential Studio Manual and exclusive previews of our Virtual Film School as his prizes.
Read on to find out more about the script which so drew our attention: BLUT WIRD FLIEßEN!
Here’s Urs’ summary of his script…
“Several mysterious suicides are disturbing police detective Nina Brandner – and when her partner dies in the same way, she is certain it is murder.”
And a short biography of Urs, too…
“Urs Aebersold was born in Switzerland, in the famous Emmental area. During his High School time in Biel/Bienne, a lakeshore town with excellent wines, he created several short films with close friends culminating in the 90 minute family drama DIE FABRIKANTEN.
In 1967 Urs went to Munich, studying there at the film school, and later on concentrated on screenwriting. He wrote several screenplays for TATORT, the popular crime series of the First German Television Channel. In the 80s Urs worked for several years for Bavarian Television as a producer and gained the Student Oscar with the short ABGESCHMINKT by Katja von Garnier, and was nominated for the Oscar for foreign language with the movie by Caroline Link JENSEITS DER STILLE.
In 2016 Urs began to write prose; his latest book is the psychothriller BLUT WIRD FLIEßEN.”
If you’ve got a book that would adapt well to the screen, why not commission our help to get it there?
Spring 2018 Screenwriting Contest – Semi-Finalists and Best Studio Script, Indie Script and Short Script!
We are pleased to announce the Semi-Finalists for our Spring 2018 Screenwriting Contest – and the winner of our Best Studio Script, Best Indie Script, and Best Short Script Awards!
After another tough judging period, we’ve decided on the Semi-Finalists for our Spring 2018 Contest – plus three awards in new categories!
The scripts that advanced to the semi-finals impressed us for many reasons, with fantastic stories, well-crafted dialogue, and strong commercial potential – and as ever, a lot of great scripts just missed the cut. If yours is one of them, don’t feel downhearted – all of our Quarter-Finalists were impressive entries.
And don’t forget, if you want to find out why your script didn’t make it, and want to take it to the next level, all our Script Report services are on special offer until 31st August – and you get free entry to our next contest as a bonus!
Alternatively, check out our Elite Mentoring service: invaluable one-to-one advice from actual Hollywood producers and studio execs!
See the full list of Semi-Finalists below… but first, we’re announcing the best of those movie scripts that aimed themselves firmly at either a HIGH or a LOW budget which we felt could be the most desirable to producers at the budget it set… and, working to a different kind of constraint, we’re also announcing the Best Short Script! Writing a short film demands a particular skill: the ability to tell a complete, poignant story in the space of only a few short minutes – normally less than 15 pages instead of the usual 120.
Next week: we name our top ten and our Overall Winner! Who will take the big prize for the very best entry in our latest major contest?
| Best Studio Script | Best Indie Script | Best Short Script |
|---|---|---|
| DESERT RUN, by Christopher Thomas! With Honorable Mentions to: CHARMER, David Kurtz, and KLONDIKE MIKE, Thomas Zmiarovich. |
FIRE ON THE ISLAND, by Timothy Jay Smith! With Honorable Mentions to: LOVERS IN PARIS, Andy Conway, and THE UNDERTAKER’S CHILDREN, Natasha Le Petit. |
ROLL WITH IT, by Rosie Byrnes! |
A big congratulations to the latest winners; we’ll be in touch with them soon about their winnings! Meanwhile, these are all of the other SEMI-FINALISTS who are still in the running for the big one… congratulations to all of them!
| Semi-Finalists | ||
| BLUT WIRD FLIEßEN, Urs Aebersold | REMOTELY WORKING, William Baber | ROLL WITH IT, Rosie Byrnes |
| PARDON MY GENDER: SUCH A FARCE!, Bob Canning | LOVERS IN PARIS, Andy Conway | UNE CHANCE POUR GUÉRIR, Christine de Chauvelin |
| LES NIOCKS, Edith Devillet | THE GOOD CITIZEN, Joel Doty | OPERATION BROTHER SAM, Gustavo Freitas |
| ON THE SPARROW, RW Hahn | THE LAST KING OF AMERICA, Richard Guimond | SOUL OF AN EMPIRE, Ryan Jaroncyk |
| THE SAX, Pascal Kulcsar | HOLLYWOOD’S MOST WANTED: I’M READY FOR MY CLOSE-UP, ESE, Manny Jimenez Sr. | SHOOTING ANGELS, RW Hahn |
| HOBBY AND FITZ, James Milton | CHARMER, David Kurtz | WINDSPIRIT, Paul Penley |
| MAUDITE ÉQUATION, Joel Prost | THE UNDERTAKER’S CHILDREN, Natasha Le Petit | THE MYTHICAL GOLDEN TROUT, Craig Peters |
| DESERT RUN, Christopher Thomas | WHEN I WAS A CHILD, T. L. Needham | FIRE ON THE ISLAND, Timothy Smith |
| THE LOST OPERA, Rachel, Thomas-Medwid | THE ARIZONA BALLOON BUSTER, Mark Perlick and Steven Pripps | THE ELECTRIC WAR, Arthur Tiersky |
| THE CRACK IN PEGGY SUE’S FLOOR, John Woodard | CHILDREN OF EDEN, Raymond Just | KLONDIKE MIKE, Thomas Zmiarovich |
| MANHATTAN MARILYN (book), Philippe Laguerre | MASON, Andrew Marshall |