This is your chance to discuss the week’s amateur scripts, offered originally in the Scriptshadow newsletter. The primary goal for this discussion is to find out which script(s) is the best candidate for a future Amateur Friday review. The secondary goal is to keep things positive in the comments with constructive criticism.
Below are the scripts up for review, along with the download links. Want to receive the scripts early? Head over to the Contact page, e-mail us, and “Opt In” to the newsletter.
Happy reading!
TITLE: Elijah’s Gold
GENRE: Disaster thriller
LOGLINE: Set in the near future, when an industrial experiment involving the Higgs-Boson particle goes terribly wrong, resulting in an explosion that kills millions of Americans, an ex-con is recruited by a prison pastor to uncover a conspiracy to cover up the cause of the disaster.
WHY YOU SHOULD READ (from writer): “Two of my professors at USC who believe very strongly in this script are already working hard to set up meetings with agents and managers around town for me.”
TITLE: Recovery
GENRE: Drama
LOGLINE: When a man involved in a fatal hit-and-run accident learns the victim is his brother’s wife, he must decide whether coming clean and appeasing his conscience is worth the risk of shattering his family.
WHY YOU SHOULD READ (from writer): “Since the last time Recovery was up for AF consideration, back in November 2012, it’s undergone a page-one rewrite. The resulting draft garnered a quarterfinal placement in this year’s still active Page Awards, and I feel it’s ready for another shot at AF glory.”
TITLE: Ascended Master
GENRE: Horror
LOGLINE: A small town racer decodes an occult book of alchemy that enables him to build a winning engine. As his success grows, he discovers the entity behind his new found engineering skill is slowly killing his kids.
WHY YOU SHOULD READ (from writer): “It is the only spec script you’ll ever find that combines drag racing and alchemy. Growing up in the seventies around racing, there was always some “magical” technique the local racers sought out to get that extra edge. This pursuit led more often than not, to horrific results. I always wondered what would happen if one of those obscure techniques actually worked…”
TITLE: FEVER DREAMS
GENRE: Drama/Thriller
LOGLINE: When a man begins having lucid dreams in which he and his deceased wife are back together again, he must decide which world he wants to live in—reality or dreams.
TITLE: THE DIRECTOR’S GIRLFRIEND
GENRE: Dark comedy/Erotic thriller
LOGLINE: His marriage on the rocks, a hard drinking writer falls for the barely legal, incredibly hot, psychotic girlfriend of the movie director living next door.
WHY YOU SHOULD READ (from writer): “I’m a movie research coder, Diane is a blog writer/copywriter. Diane has placed in a couple screenwriting competitions. We’ve both had a manager at one time or another. This script has been under option for over five years by a pair of producers who love it, but just don’t have the dollars to move it forward. Why should you read it? When I gave my first rough draft to my partner she read it in disgust and handed it back, calling it porn. Those scenes have kinda been dialed back, but I’d like to think it still has some porn left in it. And who doesn’t like porn?”
