Genre: Sci-fi Premise: A group of survivors search for answers in an ash-fallen Los Angeles after an alien invasion. About: Ben Magid first gained traction in Hollywood with his dark take on Peter Pan, which reimagined Pan as a serial killer. He sold this script, Invasion, a couple years later to Summit. Writer: Ben Magid [...]

Hey guys.  I am currently being held captive in Cambodia by a group of hardcore screenwriting enthusiasts, one of whom wants me to teach him how to write the next “The Adventures Of Pluto Nash.” This is why I’m unable to write today’s review.  Assuming that my village cleaning duties are limited to today, I [...]

Amateur Friday Submission Process: To submit your script for an Amateur Review, send in a PDF of your script, a PDF of the first ten pages of your script, your title, genre, logline, and finally, why I should read your script. Use my submission address please: Carsonreeves3@gmail.com. Your script and “first ten” will be posted. If [...]

Hip hip hooray!  About a month ago I reviewed a script that went straight to the top of my Top 25 list, Desperate Hours.  I since swindled the writer, E. Nicholas Mariani, to join me for lunch, trapping him in a situation where he had no choice but to say yes to an interview.  I [...]

Genre: DramaPremise: When a large natural gas corporation comes into a small town to buy up its natural gas deposits, a few resistant residents make the reps pursuit a living hell. About: This is the script that Matt Damon and longtime “The Office” co-star, John Krasinski, wrote together.  This would be the first script of [...]

Genre: Comedy/HorrorPremise: A college student home for the holidays discovers that an internet porn film turns its viewers into homicidal maniacs. As the epidemic spreads, he has to save his longtime crush while struggling to control his own urges.About: Adam Penn worked as an editor on Nip Tuck and, more recently, American Horror Story.  He [...]

Genre: Contained Thriller Premise: (Original Twit-Pitch Logline) After checking into a hotel to escape her abusive husband, a woman realizes guests in the next room are holding a young girl hostage. About: For those recently joining Scriptshadow, I held a contest a few months back called “Twit-Pitch,” where anyone could pitch me their screenplay on Twitter, as [...]

Genre: War/Thriller/ConspiracyPremise: A grizzled contract driver in Iraq stumbles upon a conspiracy to kill a U.S. soldier who holds information regarding a cover-up that threatens an 8 billion dollar corporation. About: This script was one of the five winners of last year’s Nicholl Fellowship! Writer: John MacInnesDetails: 111 pages No brainer: Denzel for Schmidt Usually, [...]

Genre: Sci-fi/ComedyPremise: A hapless and broken hearted barista is visited by two bad-ass soldiers from the future who tell him mankind is doomed, and he alone can save them.About: This script from British writer Howard Overman sold in March of last year and made it onto the middle of the Black List, right next to [...]

Genre: Period/Mystery/Thriller Premise: (Original Twit-Pitch Logline) 1867 After losing her father, a woman unwittingly takes a job as a maid at a countryhouse of aristocratic cannibals. About: For those recently joining Scriptshadow, I held a contest a few months back called “Twit-Pitch,” where anyone could pitch me their screenplay on Twitter, as long as it was contained [...]

Genre: Sci-Fi/Drama?/Horror?/Supernatural?Premise: (from IMDB) In 2072, when the mob wants to get rid of someone, the target is sent 30 years into the past, where a hired gun awaits. Someone like Joe, who one day learns the mob wants to ‘close the loop’ by transporting back Joe’s future self.About: Rian Johnson, who broke onto the [...]

Genre: HorrorPremise: A young woman takes two friends back to the house her mother murdered her family in to recover her things before the house is torn down.  Once inside, however, the house refuses to let them leave.About: The Quiet Ones is the first picture of a new financing partnership between Shine America and Emjag [...]

Genre: DramaPremise: Two lovers/serial killers drive cross-country to Los Angeles in 1974, where they plan to kill Elvis Presley. About: Scriptshadow favorites Eddie O’Keefe and Chris Hutton are back, with their third script reviewed on the site.  The first was the highly ranked Black List script, When The Streetlights Go On.  The second was the [...]

Genre: CrimePremise: A detective who refuses to follow the rules finds himself in over his head when he tries to determine who robbed a bank, a squeaky clean family man, or his black sheep twin brother.About: Barry Levy burst onto the scene with his viewpoint shifting spec “Vantage Point,” which went on to become a [...]

Amateur Friday Submission Process: To submit your script for an Amateur Review, send in a PDF of your script, a PDF of the first ten pages of your script, your title, genre, logline, and finally, why I should read your script. Use my submission address please: Carsonreeves3@gmail.com. Your script and “first ten” will be posted. If [...]

So as I was reading Laymen’s Terms earlier this week and going ga-ga over all the great villainy in the script, I realized that I hadn’t yet breached the subject of villains in any extensive way on the site.  And there’s a reason for that.  I hadn’t developed an extensive enough take on the matter! [...]

Genre: Sci-FiPremise: 100 years in the future, artificially intelligent robots begin to rebel, forcing the planet to build a world of generators that fry anything with circuitry, as its the only sure way to eradicate all robotic forces. Little do they know that a group of A.I. robots have escaped to deep space, where they [...]

Genre: PeriodPremise: In a small town during the 1935 dust bowl, a former soldier must protect a fleeing city woman from a group of gangsters who want her dead. About: I don’t know much about the writer, but this script made the Black List in 2008.  People have been describing it as the next Low [...]

Genre: Dark ComedyPremise: When the writer dies, a struggling creative exec changes the name on his screenplay to his own, only to find out that there are others who’ve read the screenplay, others who he must now take care of.About: This script sold all the way back in 1997 and obviously never became a movie [...]

Genre: Sci-Fi/Western Premise: (Original Twit-Pitch Logline) 9 strangers wake in a deserted Mexican town besieged by killing machines: they must discover why they’ve been brought there to survive. About: For those recently joining Scriptshadow, I held a contest a few months back called “Twit-Pitch,” where anyone could pitch me their screenplay on Twitter, as long as it [...]