Screenplays by David R. Beshears

Title: The Shylmahn Migration

Genre: Science Fiction
Media: Television Miniseries

Logline
Brings gritty realism to the nightmare of an overwhelming invasion of Earth.
This is not 'slam-bam-welcome-to-earth' stuff. This could happen. Intelligent, epic science fiction.

The six hour, three part miniseries was the winner of the Pacific Northwest Screenwriting competition.

Pitch / Overview
Prior to the arrival of the Shylmahn, a blanket of normalcy lay comfortably over the Britton family, a quiet ordinariness that would stand in sharp contrast to what their lives would become.

Their stories play out across the epic landscape of the invasion, progressing inevitably toward the climax at which all paths converge for one final confrontation.

From the perspective of the Shylmahn, it is not an invasion at all but a grand adventure, an exciting journey to a new world. Their own stories stand in shocking contrast to those of the Britton family.

This is not ‘slam, bam, welcome to earth’ stuff. There will be no fairy dust sprinkled into the atmosphere to miraculously kill off the bad guys.

This really could happen.

Adaptation
The miniseries screenplay was adapted from the novel "The Shylmahn Migration". The novel is available in print, large print, ebook and audiobook formats.

Title: The Storekeeper

Genre: Drama / Ethereal / Multiple
Media: Anthology Television Series

Note:The pilot episode was adapted from a three-act Stage Play and works very well as a standalone, ethereal one hour tale...

Logline
Deep within the subconscious mind of The Writer dwells The Storekeeper, residing in an old, weathered general store and train station. The Storekeeper welcomes those arriving and guides them on their way to the stories waiting for them further up the line.

Pitch / Overview

An anthology series; each episode begins at the General Store / Train Station. The Storekeeper welcomes one or more characters each week, sending them on their way to that week’s story.

The protagonist / primary character of each episode is drawn from the ensemble cast of characters who appeared in the pilot episode, whom the Writer now uses in his new stories. Not all the primary characters will appear in each episode. The selection of characters is dependent upon the waiting story.

And while the characters are same, the life histories of the characters may be different from episode to episode, as necessary. Where possible, similarities will be threaded through the length of the series.

Also making subtle appearances somewhere within the episodes will be objects belonging to some of these primary characters; Will Dawson’s pocket watch, Mrs. Mayfield’s black plastic purse, etc. They will appear as talismans for the characters, serving as connecting threads throughout the series.

The Storekeeper and General Store / Train Station exist solely within and are a part of the subconscious mind of the unseen Writer. The Storekeeper is not a literary creation of the Writer and therefore will never appear in the stories themselves.

The first episode explores the mystery of the Storekeeper, the General Store and the Train Station. As the episode plays out, we discover what the environment is, who the Storekeeper is, and who the seven characters he welcomes to his universe are.

The second episode defines the ongoing role of the Storekeeper and his world of the General Store and the Train Station in welcoming back one or more of the original characters each week and sending them on to that week’s story, then following the character(s) to that story.

The second episode also defines the structure of further episodes in the series. Note that while the first episode consists of an ensemble cast with no one protagonist, all subsequent episodes will have a single protagonist drawn from the set of characters from the first episode.

From the second episode onward, each episode will begin at the General Store / Train Station. The Storekeeper will welcome that week’s character or characters, will send them on their way. The episode will then follow the character(s) of that story.

To further clarify and reinforce the transition from Train Station to the story, the earlier episodes may include a scene on the train. Depending on the story, an episode may include characters disembarking from the train and entering into the story.

Series bible and first episode screenplay available on request.

Title: The Christmas Cave

Genre: Fantasy / Holiday
Media: Family Television Movie

Logline
Thirteen year old Jack and his sister Amanda go in search of a mythical cavern their grandmother went looking for fifty years earlier… when her brother Bill was lost, never to be seen again.

Pitch / Overview
Opening scene... December 1960. Thirteen year old Jenny Harper is exploring the caves with her brother Bill and their best friend Mike. They see a strange shimmering light up ahead. Bill rushes ahead, disappears around the bend.

Fade to present day. Thirteen year old Jack and his twelve year old sister Amanda visit their Grandma Jenny in the mountains over the Christmas holiday.

They hear the story of a mythical cavern that Grandma went searching for fifty years earlier with her little brother Bill and their best friend Mike. Her brother was lost, never to be seen again.

Drawn to the mystery, Jack and Amanda meet up with Daniel Madsen, a local boy diagnosed with Leukemia and only months to live. He tells them of a boy who went into the caves a few days before Christmas, 1910 and came out three years later telling of “The Christmas Cave”, a world of amazing colors and lights.

They find their way to the Christmas Cave and discover much more than they expected.

Adaptation
The screenplay has been adapted to novella, and is available in print, large print, ebook and audiobook formats.

Title: KHDZ

Genre: Dark Satire / Fantasy
Media: Feature Film Screenplay

Logline
John Smith is the first person ever sent downstairs due to a mix-up in the paperwork. While this is sorted out, he is assigned to work at Hades’ local television station, where he must deal with strange characters and stranger programming.

All the more bizarre, he arrived just in time for Founder's Day.

Pitch / Overview
John Smith is sent downstairs due to a mix-up in the paperwork. While this is sorted out, he is assigned to work at Hades’ television station, where the station manager tells him he should be grateful that he doesn’t have to wait out the next few millennia 'down the hall', and sets him to work as an associate producer.

John gets to know the menagerie of peculiar characters populating the station, and becomes familiar with the amazing array of local shows popular with the citizenry of “Hades and outlying suburbs”; programs such as “The Hot Seat”, “Up All Night With Miss Constance”, “Moments of Our Nonexistence”, “Tell it to Judge Roy”, and “Debbie’s Kitchen”.

He befriends Janice the Janitor, who will help him through those first difficult days, and Troy, a gnome-like little man with a friendly yet unsettling manner, and who may or may not be a cousin of Mr. Horn, Hades’ founder.

And speaking of the founder, Founder’s Day is quickly approaching. Hades’ mayor, speaking on Mike Johansen’s morning program “Good Morning with Mike Johansen”, hopes that Mr. Horn will be making an appearance this year. He’s missed the last few.

Comes Founder’s Day with its midway and the “Parade of Souls”. Bizarre, incredible, and with a haunting grand finale.

And the following morning John Smith is brought before the recently returned Mr. Horn.

Adaptation
The screenplay has been adapted to novella, and is available in print, large print, ebook and audiobook formats.

Title: Serpent's Keep

Genre: Fantasy / Science Fiction
Media: Television Miniseries

Logline
"I bequeath to my nephew all that I own, all that I dream, and all that I am, in the hope that my life’s quest will become his quest. "

Those few cryptic words send Jake into a world that couldn’t possibly exist. Traveling the Gateways, he will befriend the eternal Guardians and stand against an ancient enemy.

Pitch / Overview
When he arrives in the strange village of Serpent’s Keep, he knows nothing of the world in which he will soon find himself. His secretive uncle has gone missing, has been declared dead, and has left him everything. Intent on finding out what happened, Jake starts this quest knowing only that it was along this same path that Tobias Quigley vanished, and that his uncle felt it necessary that Jacob pick up the quest, should he fail.

Jake’s investigation into the secret life and bizarre past of Tobias Quigley takes him to the Hall of Statues, a hidden room containing six stone figures on six stone pedestals. The figures are of dragons, each representing a very different species, as if each was born of a very different world.

Hidden within the pedestals are ancient scrolls with cryptic quotations that lead Jake into the Outland, a dangerous land of dark forests and dark shadows that surround the village. Here can be found wolves that may not be wolves, a great ravine in which reside mysterious flying creatures, and the Temple, home to secretive monks and friends of Tobias.

As Jake will also discover, standing silent in the center of five clearings scattered throughout the Outland, are five mysterious stone obelisks. By deciphering the words found on the dragon scrolls, these ancient pylons become gateways to the Other Worlds.

It is in each of these Other Worlds that Jacob Quigley must find and acquire the individual components of the Artifact. As he journeys from world to world he slowly pieces together the reasons for the quest, discovers the purpose of the Artifact, and realizes his destiny, which lies beyond the final gateway, Serpent’s Gate.

Adaptation
The miniseries screenplay was adapted from the novel "Serpent's Keep". The novel is available in print, large print, ebook and audiobook formats.

Title: Ravenhill Court

Genre: Science Fiction
Media: Feature Film Screenplay

Logline
The year is 1964. Thirteen year old Ben Foster and his friends explore the strange goings-on in their isolated neighborhood, with each discovery bringing them closer to uncovering the incredible secret underlying Ravenhill Court.

Pitch / Overview
Present day... A man returns to a long-abandoned neighborhood. Doors stand ajar, shutters hang open, lawns and landscaping are unkempt. The man sits on the curb and opens a leather-bound journal. Through the journal, he recalls the events that took place in Ravenhill decades earlier.

Journey back to 1964… The man is just a boy. He and his friends find that their neighborhood, a cul-de-sac set into the foothills along the California coast, is not all that it appears. There are strange happenings; some amazing, some terrifying, and all pointing to the fact that this little community of families might just be something other than what the rest of the world perceives it to be.

Thirteen year-old Ben Foster, along with his friends Peter and Louis, and his older sister Julie, set out to find the secret behind the peculiar events that the outside world doesn’t see and that those living in the neighborhood either choose to ignore or are conspiring to keep hidden.

Young Peter will set the tales down in his journal, which years later a grown Ben Foster will clasp to as the last surviving corroboration of their adventures and of their astonishing discovery.

Realistic characters, a true mystery, ethereal atmosphere, and an incredible yet convincing science fiction backdrop.

Adaptation
The screenplay has been adapted to novella, and is available in print, large print, ebook and audiobook formats.

Title: Shipwreck on ShadowWorld

Genre: Science Fiction Adventure
Media: Feature / TV Movie (both live and animated scripts available)

Logline
Thirteen year old Jim survives a fiery crash landing in the desolate landscape of ShadowWorld, only to come face to face with bizarre aliens, mystifying cultures, and an unforgiving planet as he searches for rescue.

Pitch / Overview
Thirteen year old Jim is one of a handful of passengers to escape aboard a small shuttle following a pirate attack on the space liner taking him to join his family on a distant planet.

The shuttle crashes on the desert plains of ShadowWorld. On his journey in search of rescue, he discovers a labyrinth within a remote mountain peak rising up from the desolate plain where he befriends one of the native inhabitants of ShadowWorld. And here he comes face to face with Tunnel Maker, creator of the labyrinth.

Out on the desert, Jim will meet the Desert Dwellers, nomads traveling the plains in great wheeled transport ships.

He will make his way to the City of Shannyn, spaceport of ShadowWorld, frontier planet on the borders of the Outworlds; Shannyn, melting pot of many cultures, home to many alien species, forming its own distinctive culture. Shannyn, where he will face human profiteers who are very much at home in this frontier society.

Adaptation
The screenplay has been adapted to novella, and is available in print, ebook and audiobook formats.

Title: Broken Sky

Genre: Science Fiction
Media: Feature Film Screenplay

Logline
A cluster of old buildings sit isolated on a quiet, desolate plain. Overhead, the sky is a smear of reds and purples, a shell enclosing the world. Here, strangers who have banded together for survival must strike out into the alien wilderness in search of a way home.

Pitch / Overview
A quiet, desolate setting: a cluster of old buildings isolated out on an empty plain. Overhead, the alien sky is a smear of reds and purples; a shell enclosing the world.

Living in this collection of broken down buildings are ten people, once strangers to one another, all taken from their past lives and transported to this barren world. They survive by gathering supplies that mysteriously materialize and are left out on the landscape, seemingly coming from out of nowhere. These materializations can be anything, and can come from any time in history. It might be a crate of oranges, a grove of trees, the interior of someone’s office; or a person...

But supplies have grown increasingly scarce, and the group decides to strike out across the plain toward a range of mountains that has materialized on the horizon.

They eventually meet another resident of this world. This man has secrets, and a connection to the birth of this place. He will guide the group to a valley in the mountains, to a castle in the valley, and finally to the answers that underlay the mysteries of this world.

Industry Feedback

"Great visuals and a really effective atmosphere of foreboding."

"Inventive script with an inspired world… unique and highly visual."

Adaptation
The screenplay has been adapted to novella, and is available in print, large print, ebook and audiobook formats.

Title: The Black Tower

Genre: Science Fiction
Media: Limited Series (11/hrs 11 episodes)

Episode 1 of the series placed semi-finalist in the LA International Screenwriters Competition, TV Pilot category, coming in ahead of 2000 other screenplays.

Logline
Scientists & soldiers travel the eighty floors of a strange black tower, where each floor is an alternate world fraught with danger, striving to reach the top floor and the dark force behind the creation of the looming monolith.

An eleven hour, eleven episode television limited series. While there is a solid conclusion, the final scenes in episode eleven present the option for a sequel miniseries or an ongoing series.

Pitch / Overview
Note: Detailed prospectus package includes abbreviated miniseries bible with episode overview paragraphs and brief character backgrounds.

Professor Peter Asher arrives outside a gleaming black tower that has mysteriously materialized in the heart of a major city. A command center has been set up nearby, from which the operation is to be directed.

Young Dr. Asher is led into the tower through the only door. He travels a long hallway, comes out onto a landing that overlooks an impossible scene: An alien jungle. Where the walls and ceiling should be is a wilderness landscape stretching out to an alien horizon, an alien sky hovering low overhead; yet there is something unreal about the images set against the walls and ceiling… evidence that all is not as it appears.

Asher must lead a group of scientists across this jungle in search of the access to the second floor and beyond. With a handful of soldiers to protect them, they will explore this landscape, and whatever unknown landscapes await them, as they work their way, floor by floor, to the top floor of the tower and the inevitable confrontation with whatever is behind the creation of the tower.

General Wong and his dedicated staff offer what assistance they can from the command center outside the tower. That support will quickly prove more difficult to provide, for just as the team leaves the safety of the landing, the one and only access into the tower vanishes. Communication between the team is sporadic and in most respects those in the tower are on their own. There will be no reinforcements, no rescue.

As the team journeys the floors, they cross paths with the Acolyte, servant of the entity behind the creation of the tower and the gauntlet the team must travel. These encounters offer clues and some answers, and present added mysteries. It is through the Acolyte that we slowly gain an understanding of the being waiting for the team in the Great Hall.

Title: The Caravan

Genre: Science Fiction / Post-Apocalyptic Thriller
Media: Feature Film Screenplay

Logline
In a post-apocalyptic landscape, a band of marauders unexpectedly finds itself on the receiving end when it attacks a nomadic caravan and discovers the intended victims are not at all as they appear.

Pitch / Overview
The Caravan is just one more tribe traveling a post-apocalyptic landscape, foraging through the dead cities of the past. The tribe is friendly and well-adapted to the nomadic life. But there is something unsettlingly dark underlying the pleasantness.

After months on the trail, they settle outside an abandoned city for the winter. Foraging teams go in, looking to fill their wagons with supplies. Meanwhile, a band of marauders watches. They have their own way of getting what they want.

And they want everything.

This time, however, they are in for a bit of a surprise.

Austin has been with the Carver Caravan for seven years, almost since its inception. He has a gentle way about him, and a kind face… and is known for doing whatever needs doing.

His friend Bennett has been with the caravan for four years. He’s independent, alive, and has a twinkle in his eye. He takes the world as it is.

Saul, a friendly man with a genuine smile, is the caravan’s cook. He works hard, believes maintaining the health and well-being of the members of the Carver Caravan to be his duty. What he needs most at the moment is salt.

Sandi Carver is the daughter of John Carver, leader of the caravan. Sandi’s husband was killed five years earlier. She and her young son Daniel have Austin’s attention of late.

John Carver will meet with Morgan, leader of the marauders. This meeting will set into motion events that Morgan could never have seen coming, and reveal the dark nature of the Caravan.

An interesting little indy scifi/horror tale set against a unique, post-apocalyptic landscape.

Industry Feedback

"A vividly drawn world that makes for an excellent read."

"The concept is a very clever one, immediately calls to mind the tropes and conventions of a classic western while mixing in the high concept of a science fiction story."

Adaptation
The screenplay has been adapted to novella, and is available in print, large print, ebook and audiobook formats.

Title: The Bridge Crew

Genre: Science Fiction
Media: webseries (six 10-20 minute episodes)

Logline
(ep1)
In the first episode, the bridge crew of a newly commissioned spacecraft preparing for their shakedown cruise are directed instead to recover a group of scientists before a star goes nova. They come across several suspicious, previously uncharted asteroid fields en route, indications of a previously unknown alien race.

Episode One “Trial Run” introduces the characters of “The Bridge Crew”, a six episode science fiction webseries with one set, five characters and minimal CGI, setting the stage for the remaining five episodes of the series.

Pitch / Overview
The Bridge Crew is a six episode science fiction webseries with one set, five characters and minimal CGI. The entire series takes place on the bridge of an exploration starship with CGI displayed on the forward viewer, the five characters working at their assigned duty stations.

The first episode introduces the characters and the structure of the series as the starship is redirected from its initial shakedown cruise to instead recover a group of scientists before a star goes nova. They come across several suspicious, previously uncharted asteroid fields en route, indications of a previously unknown alien race.

Episodes two thru six follow Starcruiser Explorer 3 as its crew searches for answers.

Production Notes
Five main characters (bridge crew)
One supporting character (seen on forward view screen only)
One set (the bridge)
Minimal CGI (displayed on the bridge’s forward viewer: planets, starscapes, asteroid fields)

Title: Sutherland House

Genre: Drama / Science Fiction
Media: Television Miniseries

Logline
Matthew and Jennifer Sutherland, father and daughter, wage a secret war against a hidden society of immortals with extraordinary abilities, a society Sutherland House once dominated. Now estranged from the other Primary Families, they are all that stands between humanity and the mysterious, terrifying agenda of the Society.

A five hour, five episode television miniseries.

Episode One: "Andover"
Matthew investigates strange goings-on in a small northwest community while he and Jennifer come to grips with the death of Matthew’s wife.
... Victor, Father of the Society, welcomes home his two young children, recently showing sign of the Abilities.
... and nine year old Mary, living at the Academy, may be the most powerful Member in the history of the Society.

Pitch / Overview
Matthew Sutherland battles a secret society. While its ultimate agenda remains uncertain, it is clear the Society is willing to go to extraordinary lengths to maintain its own security, and the safety and advancement of its members.

These members, and Sutherland himself, all have varying levels of capability in one or more of the Abilities, the six powers that separate them from the rest of humanity. They are not supermen, they are not aliens. These are not guilt-ridden creatures filled with angst. They are human beings; long-lived human beings with capabilities they nurture and foster, that stand them apart from the rest of society while remaining within it. They are a society within society.

They have no wish to make their presence known. They have no desire to openly control the world, though they are very adept at manipulating key elements of the world community in order to accomplish necessary objectives.

The Society is dominated by the Great Families, and includes a number of lesser families. The Sutherland Family was once a major force in the Society, was once one of the primary families, but broke away when the Society began to move aggressively toward a hidden agenda. Matthew Sutherland, torn between conflicting loyalties, now stands alone in his struggle to protect humanity from the tightening grip of the Society.

Underlying it all is the increasing importance of Jennifer Sutherland, daughter of Matthew Sutherland, and the evolving powers of Mary, a young girl being nurtured by the leader of the Society.

Adaptation
Sutherland House Episode One - "Andover" has been adapted to novella format and is available in ebook and paperback.

Title: Reunions

Genre: Macabre / Horror
Media: Short Script (less than 15 minutes)

Sale Pending

Logline
Four elderly friends, withered and gray with age, get together at a lonely community hall after fifty years apart; something they do every fifty years...

Pitch / Overview
They enter the small community hall one at a time; Mr. Borden, Miss Margaret, Old Mason, Mrs. Johansen. Having not seen each other for fifty years, they take time to get reacquainted, discuss the past decades over soup and coffee.

Then it is time. They reach around the table, they hold hands. Miss Margaret lays her head back, reaches down into her being, reaches deep into her soul, then reaches outward.

Together they roam the night; ethereal beings in the dark, searching, hunting, feeding… silvery specters, apparitions, flickering ghostly creatures drawing life from unsuspecting souls, taking days from one, years from another, all from some.

Comes the dawn, they return to their aging bodies. Their withered shells slowly take in the night’s feeding, absorbing the life energy drawn from mortal beings who will never know what has been taken from them.

Four young friends spend a leisurely breakfast together, discuss their hopes and dreams for the future… the next fifty years.

Until they meet again.

Adaptation
Adapted from a short story originally published in Necrology Magazine, Tales of the Macabre; appearing later in several collections.

Title: Sisters in Space

Genre: Science Fiction Adventure
Media: webseries / miniseries (seven 20 minute episodes)

Logline
Claire and Amelia wake from cryo aboard a small escape shuttle, find themselves adrift eighty years in deep space. This is the story of their journey home.

Pitch / Overview
The Sisters in Space serial consists of seven 20 minute episodes following sisters Claire (22) and Amelia (20) on their journey home after waking from cryo aboard a small shuttle and finding themselves adrift eighty years in deep space.

Project is ideally suited to a webseries or low budget television miniseries. The solid conclusion to the serial leaves open the possibility of future serials.

The series has one primary location (shuttle interior), with a handful of secondary locations sprinkled throughout the episodes.

The series has a cast of two main characters, one recurring character, with several additional characters in the final episode.

There is a little bit of CGI required in most of the episodes; mostly shots of spaceships drifting in space, a couple of other minor sequences in several episodes.

Screenwriting Competition:
Episode One – “Awakening” placed top three finalist in a recent webseries screenwriting competition.

Adaptation
Sisters in Space has been adapted to a novella collection, available in print and ebook. It is currently being adapted to a seven episode radioplay serial.

Title: Annie's Plan

Genre: Drama (touch of scifi)
Media: webseries (six 5 minute episodes)

Logline
(ep 1)
Two young women at a desert campsite, early morning. The plan didn’t go quite as planned. Jen is not happy.

Pitch / Overview
(series)
Jen and Annie are small-time grifters looking for a big score. Annie had a plan, a great plan. But something went wrong, and they find themselves abandoned in the desert, their target long gone. Jen is not happy...

Leaving their desert camp, they start across the desert, following after their target. They find signs at a small watering hole, and will confront him at a desert shack.

Ultra-low budget webseries project.
Episode One:
> Two characters (young women, 20's)
> One location (desert campsite)
> No SFX

Title: Planet of Stones

Genre: Science Fiction
Media: Feature Film Screenplay

Logline
Connelly is sent 100,000 years into the past to study the tribes of two recently discovered humanoid species. Two years in, his mission is not what he thought it was and the future no longer exists.

Planet of Stones screenplay placed Finalist in a recent screenwriting competition.
Planet of Stones novella adaptation placed Finalist in a literary competition.

Pitch / Overview

Lieutenant Connelly is one of six Monitors sent 100,000 years into the past to study the tribes of two recently discovered humanoid species. Each Monitor lives alone in isolated outposts located far apart from one another around Alpha Valley.

Connelly’s only companion is Box, a small A-I device that he carries about with him in his pocket.

Two years into mission, he is unexpectedly recalled to Central, an underground facility in the heart of Alpha Valley and from where he will be returning to Point Zero… home to the year 2058.

His journey back to Central includes several unplanned detours, having to deal with both the Littles and the Alphas, the two species he has been unobtrusively observing.

Reaching Central at last, Connelly and Box find that their mission wasn’t at all what they had thought it was, and that they are in fact alone but for an A-I construct of the officer that had been in charge of the original mission. Both the Major and the other Monitors are long gone… not to Point Zero, but to other eras in the past.

Connelly also finds that Point Zero no longer exists.

In their search for what happened, Connelly and Box will journey to the other outposts, will reunite with the Littles and the Alphas, and will find themselves at the mysterious Circle of Stones.

Industry Feedback
“In a film culture where so many filmmakers put dialog over visual storytelling, your script immediately sets itself apart as something concerned with the tools of cinema. More than anything else, this quality helps to make your script memorable.”

“An immersive, entertaining sci-fi experience.”

“You create a real sense of not only discovery, but also adventure. You capture the sense of a stranger in a strange land wonderfully.”

Character Notes
Screenplay cast includes:
> One human character
> Two A-I voice characters
> Several speaking “Little” and “Alpha” species characters

VFX / CGI Notes
Sets / locations are fairly straightforward and require no special design or requirements. The handful of exterior structures and the interior sets require no expensive design or special effects.

The primitive Littles tribe will likely require CGI or other special effect. It might be possible to use actors to portray members of the Alpha tribe. Several scenes include groups of these tribes on their own, while a number of scenes have individual tribe members interacting with Connelly, the lone human character.

Adaptation
Planet of Stones has been adapted to novella, available in print and ebook.

Title: Cemetery Shadows

Genre: Fantasy
Media: Short Script (18 pages)

Logline
A tiny cemetery is home to four disparate spirits. Their eternal existence is disrupted when a new arrival appears at the gate and no one is quite sure what tomorrow will bring.

Cemetery Shadows screenplay recently placed Finalist in a fantasy short script competition.

Pitch / Overview
A tiny cemetery, old and thick with shadows. A dozen weathered tombstones, a single small mausoleum. To one side stands a wrought-iron gate, opposite is a slight rise with a single spreading oak tree.

All the world beyond the cemetery is a black void. There exists only this little graveyard.

Home to four disparate spirits. Born each evening with the setting sun, returning to their slumber each morning with the dawn. Their eternal existence is disrupted when a new arrival appears at the gate and no one is quite sure what tomorrow will bring.

An eighteen page short script heavy on Twilight Zone influence.

Five characters / one set.

Industry Feedback

"The script’s strengths are the writing style and voice, the concept and the tone."

"The idea feels very original, and the story works on many levels... great work here."

"The ending is very satisfying and it’s an unforeseen twist that works very well."

Title: Miles Bennett / Last Day at Sharp Park

Genre: Fantasy
Media: television series pilot

Logline
Series Logline:
Series: "Miles Bennett"
Miles Bennett is the immortal patriarch of a family of wizards. He must walk the fine line between the politics of a secret organization of which his family is a part and the world of the Normals, all the while investigating a dark menace that is just beginning to make its presence felt by those with the Sense.

Pilot Logline:
Episode One: "Last Day at Sharp Park"
A family of wizards explores a hidden world that was taken out of the physical realm by a six year old boy with extraordinary powers, and find the boy and his grandma haven’t aged a day in half a century.

Pitch / Overview
pilot episode screenplay overview
Sharp Park was taken out of the physical realm long ago by a six year old boy with extraordinary powers. Hidden away in this empty, dreary world for half a century, the boy and his grandma have lived alone, never aging, and unaffected by the passage of time.

Miles Bennett, immortal wizard and patriarch of the Bennett family, is one of the few who know of Sharp Park and of the circumstances surrounding the disappearance of Jack and his grandmother decades earlier. When it appears that those who have been hunting the boy are closing in, Miles enters the hidden world to warn them.

Others in the family, drawn to the strange events going on about them and of the shadowy undercurrents they sense approaching, follow the trail that leads them to Sharp Park…

A small, rundown motel, long ago converted to tiny drab apartments, sits at the end of a narrow gravel road. Beside the motel, an embankment separates the motel from a gray, foggy beach. The world smells of rotting seaweed and filmy saltwater.

Anna, a grandmotherly woman in her late sixties, lives in one of the converted motel rooms with Jack, a six year old boy with wild, blonde hair and a distant gleam in his eyes.

The world appears empty but for the boy and his grandma. And yet the boy goes to school every day; an old school bus drops him off at the end of the road every day. And every day his grandma waits for him at the bench in front of the motel, greets him and welcomes him home from school; every day.

While his grown grandchildren explore this ethereal world in a bubble seeking answers, Miles Bennett wants only to keep his friend Anna and her six year old grandson safe from dangers that are reaching into Sharp Park from the outside world.

Title: Yesterday's Shadows

Genre: Science Fiction / Fantasy
Media: Short Script (less than 11 minutes)

Script Sold

Logline
A man traveling the empty landscape of world’s end seeks refuge for the night in an abandoned house in a middle-class neighborhood, and comes face-to-face with his solitude.

Pitch / Overview
Peter walks the empty landscape of a world devastated by a deadly plague from which no one can survive.

Currently at the earliest stage of the plague, he may be the last human alive.

He seeks refuge for the night in an abandoned house in an abandoned, middle-class neighborhood. Here he must face the shadows of his solitude.

Eleven page short script.

Two speaking characters
(one brief scene w/ three non-speaking characters)

One exterior scene (outside of house)
One interior set (house interior)
No SFX

Adaptation
Adapted from a short story by David R. Beshears, appearing in several collections.

Title: Room 4A

Genre: Science Fiction
Media: Short Script (approximately 15 minutes)

Logline
Six people from very different backgrounds are being held prisoner in a large, dark cell, a single circle of light in the center of the room. Most have come to accept their fate… Paul slowly comes to realize that something is very, very wrong. Heavy TZ influence.

Pitch / Overview
A great war is being waged outside.

Paul Mendel is assigned to Room 4A. Six prisoners being held in a large, dark cell, a single circle of light in the center of the room.

Six prisoners from very different backgrounds: A college student, a retired state worker, a police detective, an army major, a college professor... and now an antique furniture store owner.

Most of the prisoners have come to accept their fate. They live in near solitude, gathering daily in the circle of light for meals, and the occasional “storytelling”.

It is through the storytellings that Paul Mendel comes to realize that something is very, very wrong.

Adaptation
Adapted from a short story by David R. Beshears.

Title: The Light in the Mist

Genre: Victorian Fairy Tale
Media: Short Script (approximately 18 minutes)

Logline
In the age of the Demon Lord, goblins and fairies, a family must face the arrival of the Darkness to their idyllic valley, home of Waterfall of the Fairies. Little Sarah may be their only hope.

Pitch / Overview
Daniel and Hanna wed and moved to a small valley three days walk from the village. They built a three room house on the northern hillside and made this their home. From the doorstep, they could watch the seasons change; the summers were never too hot or too dry, the winters never too harsh. In the spring, the grasses and the trees were all shades of green, the flowers yellow and white and blue. The autumn saw the trees turn orange and brown and red. The man and his wife were happy.

Late one autumn they had a daughter. Sarah was sweet and happy and a part of the valley, more so with each passing season. She spent her days in the forests and meadows of the valley, and on a rocky ledge near the Waterfall of the Fairies. The soft falls would dance and sparkle with life, occasionally reaching out to caress the cheeks of the little girl.

Far from the valley was the Great Hall of Galmack, the Demon Lord. He despised the light with all his being, longed for the warmth of the dark. Such a world had been his before and he would have it again.

He brought forth the Darkness, the seeds planted first in a distant valley and from which it would spread across all the land.

With the Darkness came gray skies and clouds near black. With the Darkness came the swamps and the muddy bogs. With the Darkness, the grasses withered and wildflowers died, the woods turned barren, the brooks swelled and muddied.

With the Darkness came Galmack’s goblins to take the fairies and leave the waterfall dull and lifeless.

The only hope for the fairies and the light was Sarah, a ten year old girl who was one with the valley.

Adaptation
Adapted from a short story by David R. Beshears.

Title: Willow City

Genre: Science Fiction / Film Noir
Media: Limited Series / TV Movie

Logline
A soldier returns home to the damp, gray streets of Willow City to search for his missing brother. Willow City, one of the eight authoritarian city-states of the Federation. Willow City, a world of dark secrets and shadowy characters.

Pitch / Overview
Two-hour / two-part series pilot...
Dystopian Science fiction in an atmosphere of black and white fifties film noir.

Willow City is one of eight city-states that make up the Federation, a group of loosely aligned authoritarian municipalities that operate autonomously… within Federation guidelines.

The city-state of Willow City is held in the tight grip of City Hall, and the mayor will do anything to ensure the dark, damp streets of Willow City never see Federation boots.

Hidden in the shadows of the city-state are ever-shadowy characters living day-to-day, surviving as best they can under the watchful gaze of City Hall.

Alan Thornton returns home to search for his brother, recently gone missing. His search takes him into the dark alleys and smoky nightclubs of the city, and very few of the shadowy characters existing there appear glad to see him.

Adaptation
Willow City has been adapted to novella format, available in print, large print and ebook.

Title: The Bench

Genre: Science Fiction / Fantasy
Media: Short Script (6 pages)

Logline
A man is sitting on a bench on the bank of a small lake. The last thing he remembers is dying.

Pitch / Overview
William is sitting on an old wooden bench on the banks of a small lake in an unknown landscape. His last memories are of what he assumes were the final moments of his life: his own death.

His solitude is interrupted by a benevolent stranger who may have the answers as to where they are and why.

"Is this heaven?"
"No, William. This is not heaven."

This is an ultra-low budget project.
Two main characters (men, 40s), one brief scene with w/ two nonspeaking characters
One exterior location (bench by a small lake)
One interior location (bedroom)
No SFX.

Title: Under an Alien Sky

Genre: Science Fiction
Media: Short Script (10 pages)

Logline
Survivors at a spaceship crash site struggle with the realization that they will not be going home, but yet hope to complete their delivery.

Pitch / Overview
Lt. Margaret Jensen has just finished burying their first officer. She looks back at the wreckage of their small spaceship, crashing on this desolate alien landscape.

It was a miracle that any survived.

The other survivors are Captain Martinez and their package, Dr. Brown, whom they were delivering to a facility conducting research on the enemy.

Jensen sees little chance of rescue, and no chance of walking away from this. The aliens know where they are.

Captain Martinez is just a tad more optimistic… they might at least yet see that the package is delivered.

Production Elements
This is a low-budget project
Three characters
One location, two sets: crash site (exterior); spaceship interior (interior)
No SFX, no CGI

Title: Family Alone

Genre: Science Fiction Adventure
Media: webseries (five 6-12 minute episodes)

Logline
A family explores a world suddenly devoid of people, in search of an answer.

Pitch / Overview
An early Saturday morning, a quiet middle-class neighborhood.
A family packing their car for a weekend camping trip.
But something isn’t right.
The neighborhood is too quiet.
The world is too quiet.

A family explores a world suddenly devoid of people, in search of an answer.

Production Notes
(episode 1)
Length: 7 pages
Four characters (Mom 30s, Dad 30s, Son 12, Daughter 9)
Three exterior locations:
Outside family home, quiet middle-class neighborhood
Vehicle traveling empty streets
Outside Grandma's house, rural gravel road
No SFX, no CGI

(episodes 2-5)
Length: 6 - 12 pages each
Six characters (family, also Robert Garcia 30s, Grandma 60s )
Three exterior locations:
Outside family home, quiet middle-class neighborhood
Small town street with storefronts
Outside Grandma's house, rural gravel road
Three interior locations:
Inside family home, (kitchen and boy’s bedroom)
Inside Robert’s home, (kitchen)
Inside Grandma’s home (front room)
No SFX, no CGI

Title: Next Exit

Genre: Science Fiction / Ethereal
Media: Feature Film / TV Movie

Logline
A simple, eight room motel sits isolated on a lonely desert highway; a disparate group of residents live in this ethereal world, a world now threatened by a powerful research facility seeking to retrieve their property: residents with powers of their own.

Pitch / Overview
The simple, eight-room motel sits isolated on a lonely desert highway, a never-traveled secondary ribbon of road crossing a barren landscape.

Half the rooms are occupied, permanent residents choosing for their own reasons to live in this ethereal world that is untouched, unseen by the outside world.

This world is threatened by a powerful research facility seeking to retrieve their property: several of the residents of the motel, including “Mother”, an elderly woman living in the upstairs apartment of the motel/café owners Lee and Jan.

Mother forever stands watch. With unique powers developed at the research facility, she has managed to now to hide the motel from the outside world and specifically from the facility.

Now, however, another with powers as great as hers has managed to find a way through Mother, to reach the motel, leaving an open path for the research facility to reach them.

The residents of the motel will have to band together to fend off this threat, to save their world.

Adaptation
Next Exit has been adapted to novella format, available in print, large print and ebook.

Title: The Meadow

Genre: True Story
Media: short script (approx 5 minutes)

Logline
A twelve year old boy goes on a hunting trip with his grandpa in 1968. It would turn out to be their first and last hunting trip together, and the week would forever change them both.

Pitch / Overview
Adapted from a two-page essay, The Meadow is the true story of a twelve year old boy’s first and only hunting trip with Grandpa, a week that in very subtle ways would forever change their relationship, the memory of which would create a bond that would last far beyond the grandfather’s passing.

Production Notes
Length: five pages
One Narrator (the only speaking character, always in voice-over)
Two main characters (non-speaking)
Three supporting characters (two very minor, one minor, all non-speaking)
One location: forest (includes campsite, forest floor, outcropping overlooking a meadow)
Note: will require scenes of a lone deer grazing at edge of meadow