Genre: ComedyPremise: A mild-mannered IT guy receives an ‘owners manual’ that tells him how to fix his life. About: Made last year’s Black List with 5 votes. Very quietly the heavy-duty comedy producing team of Will Ferrell, Chris Henchy, and Adam McKay are attached. Might this be a future Will Ferrell vehicle?Writer: Greg FerkelDetails: 108 [...]
This is going to be a good week at Scriptshadow. We don’t have a single script that receives less than a “worth the read.” One of those scripts is shockingly good exorcism story, one a comedy, and one a script that wasn’t very good but has an insane approach to it that, combined with the [...]
Watch Scriptshadow on Sundays for book reviews by contributors Michael Stark and Matt Bird. We try to find books that haven’t been purchased or developed yet that producers might be interested in. We won’t be able to get one up every Sunday, but hopefully most Sundays. Here’s Michael Stark with his review of “King of [...]
On the last Friday of every month, I choose an amateur script submitted by you, the readers of the site, to review. If you’re interested in submitting for Amateur Fridays, send the genre, the title, the premise, and the reason I should read your script to Carsonreeves3@gmail.com. Note that your script will be posted online [...]
Genre: Horror BiopicPremise: A biopic of Edgar Allan Poe’s life.About: This is Sylvester Stallone’s passion project which he’s been trying to make for 30 years. He explains, “I keep telling my producer Avi Lerner, ‘Make Edgar Allan Poe!,’” “He says, ‘Does he have a gun?’ ‘No, he doesn’t have a gun’, ‘Can he throw a [...]
Genre: Action/ThrillerPremise: A small group of correctional officers and inmates must band together to fend off a mysterious attack when their prison bus is sabotaged on a remote stretch of highway.About: This script originally went into select production companies late last year – which landed the writer, Terrance Mulloy, meetings all over town. This new [...]
Genre: Horror/SupernaturalPremise: A strange event results in nearly everyone in the world vanishing into thin air. A small group of survivors find each other and try to figure out what happened.About: Brad Anderson, the director of “Vanishing,” has always been an interesting filmmaker to me, but truth be told his films have left me wanting [...]
Doing something a little different today. Roger is reviewing a script from a professional reader. Does he have what it takes to write a great script? While reading a ton of scripts helps your own screenwriting, I’ll be the first to admit it doesn’t ensure success. Each script has its own unique challenges and there’s [...]
Genre: Comedy Premise: A flight attendant who refuses to grow up gets stuck escorting an uptight 14 year old boy cross-country. About: It’s always interesting to get some background on a writer after I read a script. Whenever I see this much skill, I figure the guy has to have been at it for awhile. [...]
I’m liking it. :)
Genre: Crime/MysteryPremise: The murder of an old man opens up a bleak trail of long buried secrets and small town corruption for a worn out police detective and his squad.About: Overture Films has purchased the remake rights to Jar City, a popular Icelandic mystery film that was good enough to nab a 94% on Rotten [...]
Back in the day, only a chosen few – those employed by the studio or those who worked on the film – had the privilege of reading a script before the movie came out. As such, only a few people were able to boast about their dead-on assessment of a great script or dribble out [...]
Genre: Comedy (fish-out-of-water)Premise: A misfit Eskimo who dreams of bigger things stows away on a documentary crew airplane to New York City, where he tries to find his way.About: Based on the 1963 novel The Incomparable Atuk by Mordecai Richler, “Atuk” has been bouncing around Hollywood a long time. But this script is different from [...]
Genre: ActionPremise: A team of mercenaries head to South America on a mission to overthrow a dictator.About: Sylvester Stallone’s long-gestating project which he’s been trying to get all the biggest action stars of the 80s and 90s in forever. He supposedly asked Van Damme and Seagal to be in the film and they refused. Willis [...]
Genre: Sci-Fi ThrillerPremise: (from IMDB) A man is wrongly convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage against the U.S. He’s offered his freedom if he can rescue the president’s daughter from an outer space prison taken over by violent inmates.About: This sci-fi actioner is being pitched as “Taken in outer space” but it appears that’s due [...]
Genre: Crime/Thriller/WesternPremise: An ex-boxer on the run for an accidental murder picks up a young woman with a dangerous secret.About: You may remember Zach Dean from his spec sale I reviewed a couple of weeks ago, Layover. He’s the high school teacher who was on that infamous Jetblue flight with bad landing gear. It seems [...]
This is a book review. Not a script review. For those who know nothing about this book, I recommend you read it before reading any review. There are lots of surprises in the story, some of which I’ll be spoiling here. You’ve been warned. Genre: Mystery/CrimePremise: A disgraced journalist is hired by the head of [...]
Genre: Love Story/Dark ComedyPremise: A married woman falls for another man while on a business trip, only to learn later that he lives right across the street from her.About: Actor/Director/Producer/Writer Sarah Polley made waves a couple of years ago with her directing debut, Away From Her. This is her follow-up effort, which stars Seth Rogen [...]
Sunday Book Review is BACK! Watch Scriptshadow on Sundays for book reviews by contributor Michael Stark. We try to find books that haven’t been purchased or developed yet that producers might find interesting. Here’s Stark with Berlin Noir. “Yes, I tried to make Berlin a character in the same way that Los Angeles is a [...]
Genre: Dark ComedyPremise: A frustrated Young Adult writer obsessed with her High School days goes back to her hometown to try to win over her married high school sweetheart.About: Young Adult is Diablo Cody’s latest script. Just this week Jason Reitman, Cody’s director for Juno, announced that he’d be directing the screenplay for his next [...]
