NOTE: No newsletter went out this week – expect it this upcoming Friday! :)
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: Boom Box
GENRE: Adventure
LOGLINE: When his war-hero grandfather dies, a young man returns home to collect his inheritance — an audio cassette tape of old bedtime stories — but discovers the tape also holds a dark secret that a sinister group of agents wants back at any cost.
WHY YOU SHOULD READ: “Because fun, genuine adventure movies for kids and teenagers — without superheroes — are a rare thing these days and I want to mount a comeback. This one’s filled with action, humor, romance and intrigue, dastardly villains and honest heroes. It’s not perfect, but I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it (and re-writing it, and re-writing it), and I would love everyone’s help in making it even better.”
TITLE: The Milky Way
GENRE: Adventure / Fantasy
LOGLINE: When eight-year-old Oliver’s parents plane crashes, he becomes convinced they actually landed on the moon. With a little luck and the help of a friend he’s able to get to the moon, but can he find his parents before the Dark Side covers the whole moon and he’s stuck there forever???
WHY YOU SHOULD READ: “This is a two year labour of love. And it’s a lean mean 95 page reading machine.”
TITLE: The Tragic Life of Dexter Strange
GENRE: Dark Comedy
LOGLINE: A colorful but washed-up bad boy recounts his epic rise and fall in Hollywood on an online video blog.
WHY YOU SHOULD READ: “Imagine walking into Dylan’s Candy Bar in NYC and receiving a grab-bag of delicious wonderment– a daze of brilliantly colored candies in odd shapes, colors, and textures. In fact, when you first open the bag a pop of glitter explodes in your face. You suddenly get slapped on the back by Christopher Walken, then an adjacent clown blows a bull-horn in your left ear. You’re not quite sure what just happened, you don’t 100% understand… but you think you like it. That’s how reading this script feels.”
TITLE: DARK
GENRE: Drama
LOGLINE: A young man navigates the perils of youth after he is enlisted as protégé to a ruthless drug smuggler in 1970s Canada. Based on a true story.
WHY YOU SHOULD READ: “I received my first ‘payment’ for screenwriting for this work. 600$ cash as I was being whisked out of a truck, late for my flight at the Albuquerque International Sunport. This script took me from a frigid cannery in Alaska to dusty New Mexico, to meet a man I had never met about a story I was told would leave an indelible impact. I am now home in Oregon and have spent the past three months writing that story. I don’t know what to say other than that I risked everything for this script and I hope you enjoy. The journey to Amateur Friday has been arduous.”
TITLE: LION.pdf)
GENRE: ACTION THRILLER
LOGLINE: After being kidnapped and raised by African rebels, William Hughes is a fascination, a target and a madman when he is found by the American government 14 years later.
WHY YOU SHOULD READ: “LION got to be No 1 on the Blacklist 3.0 where it was also selected for the Warner Bros Blind Deal (out of thousands of other screenplays). Just recently, this script helped me secure representation at an established management company.”
