First of all, congratulations are in order for Jason Gruich. Jason won the last Amateur Showdown and got the super-rare [x] impressive review from myself. I have a good relationship with Scott Stoops over at Good Fear. The two of us have extremely similar taste. So whenever I read something good, he’s one of the first people I call. I told him about Cop Cam, he read it, and he loved it. Since then, Jason has signed with Good Fear and they’re going to go wide with the script soon. They’re doing something really smart, which I hadn’t thought of. They’re marketing Jason as the next big “cop writer” in town. So even if nobody buys the script (as many of have pointed out, there are several other cop cam movies in development), Jason should get some assignment work in the cop/crime genre. I don’t know all the details. I’ll let Jason fill you in. But it just goes to show what can happen if you write a really sharp script.
Now let’s see if we can do it a second week in a row!
If you haven’t played Amateur Showdown before, it’s a cut throat single weekend screenplay tournament where the scripts have been vetted from a pile of hundreds to be featured here, for your entertainment. It’s up to you to read as much of each script as you can, then vote for your favorite in the comments section. Whoever receives the most votes by Sunday 11:59pm Pacific Time gets a review next Friday. If you’d like to submit your own script to compete in a future Amateur Showdown, send a PDF of your script to carsonreeves3@gmail.com with the title, genre, logline, and why you think your script should get a shot.
Title: The Carolers
Genre: Horror
Logline: After a savvy thirteen-year-old singer and her teenage cousin survive a brutal home invasion, they must use all their wits to fight their way out of the confines of a sadistic family of masked Christmas carolers if they hope to survive the night.
Why You Should Read: I’ll make no claims that this script is high art. It’s a horror film for horror fans, of which I’m one of the biggest. I teamed up with a buddy to write a movie we’d want to see, and had a blast doing it. After we’d honed the script, we worked with a pro graphic artist in the film biz to create a top-notch pitch, then partnered with some filmmaking friends in Tampa to shoot a series of four teaser trailers to pair with the above in hopes of getting some industry traction. After a slew of emails to various horror heavyweights a horror producer/talent manager jumped aboard and is currently pitching the project to many of the larger horror producers around town, including Blumhouse. As happy as we are with the script, it absolutely could be better. It hasn’t found a home yet, and any help we could get from this community to tighten up our story could only help us in our quest to get this movie made. As a final argument… here’s the link to the teasers. A script can be fun. A script with a paired movie… even better, right?
Title: Britt Johnson
Genre: Western
Logline: After Comanche raiders kill his son and abduct his wife and daughter, former slave Britt Johnson joins an infamous Texas Ranger to bring them back.
Why You Should Read: Britt Johnson’s story is truly incredible. A slave taught to read by Harriet Tubman herself, sent west to pay a blood debt, he found his family destroyed when the Comanche paid Elm Creek, Texas a visit. 1864 West Texas was a land of chaos, with the vast majority of men and material sent east to support the Confederate war effort, the Comanche and other raiding tribes could cross the frontier at will. This left a power vacuum where the responsibility of frontier defense fell to a few hundred Texas Rangers – they were literally the last line of defense. This script captures the unlikely partnership of two men, slave Britt Johnson and Texas Ranger captain Quarrel Hayes in their quest to reunite their families.
Title: Agent Thumb
Genre: Action Comedy
Logline: A raunchy fairy tale about Tom Thumb, the world’s tiniest screw-up who is forced to go undercover for the DEA to bring down Hollywood’s biggest drug dealer.
Why You Should Read: Agent Thumb is co-written by Alison Parker and Rodriguez Fruitbat, who some may remember as the writers of “Log” and “Mermaniac”, respectively. They met on SS and, after realizing they shared the same fucked up sense of humor and Canadian roots, decided to put their questionable talents together to offend as many people as possible. Conceived as a Seth Rogen-style sex comedy, Agent Thumb is inspired by the Grimm fairy tale “Thumbling”, and is written along the lines of “Sausage Party” meets “Central Intelligence”. Each script download includes an unredeemable coupon for a thimble-sized beer at Hamburger Mary’s in West Hollywood!
Title: Black Hole Blue
Genre: Dark Comedy
Logline: A backwoods dry county is turned upside down by a bored housewife’s investigation into their bootlegging operation – and a crashed meteor.
Why You Should Read: I absolutely love the Coen Brothers, so I wrote this as if they might consider directing it, as long as a shot as that is. It’s got dumb people making bad decisions that leads to a lot of bloody death. It’s got a great starring role for an older actress. Most of all, I think it’s a funny script with a weird and interesting cast of characters and I really want to make it the best it can be. AOW has proven invaluable historically to writers open to feedback and I am hopeful with some help this can be the script that gets my foot in the proverbial door. (Carson note: Currently in the Nicholl QF)
Title: Repo
Genre: Comedy-Thriller
Logline: A young thief finds her calling in the dangerous world of vehicle repossessions, drawing the ire of a vengeful billionaire after boosting one of his prized vintage rides.
Why You Should Read: I have a friend who works in vehicle repossessions, and he has told me some of the craziest stories about what people are willing to do to keep their cars, and more importantly, what some repo agents are willing to do to get them back. It’s a goldmine of intrigue, and I can’t believe that the industry hasn’t been covered in cinema yet (besides a few mediocre older films), so I decided to take a crack at it. I was struggling for a while with the story until I decided to swap the protagonist’s gender to female, which opened up a whole new dimension to the tension and themes. There is also a humorous undertone to offset some of the heavy elements and to avoid melodrama, and I think it turned out pretty well. I’m hoping to tune up this script and would love whatever feedback the AO community can offer! I’ve spent several past Amateur Fridays ripping apart the scripts of other candidates, so I think it’s only fair to submit myself to the same treatment. Have at me, fellas!
