Genre: Spy Action Thriller Premise: (from Hit List) A former assassin, turned reformed housewife and mother, faces off against the revenge-driven millennial sociopath she accidentally left alive after she wiped out the rest of her family. About: This script got 24 votes on last year’s Hit List, which put it in the top 35. Erica […]

Genre: Drama Premise: The fallout from the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear reactor meltdown, whose damage was compounded by a corrupt government determined to cover up the severity of the incident. About: Chernobyl snuck up out of nowhere to become a huge HBO hit. It has an unheard of 9.6/10 rating on IMDB. The show has stirred […]

The Scriptshadow Newsletter should be hitting your Inboxes any second now. I debate with myself whether we can objectively define the difference between a professional and amateur script. I talk about what kind of franchise scripts you should be writing to stay ahead of the industry. I’ve got a couple of big screenwriting tips in […]

Over the next five Thursdays, I’m going to be talking dialogue with the Scriptshadow Community. We’re going to be exploring the five main factors that go into writing strong dialogue, and today we’re starting with scene prep. The objective of this post is to show you how to prep a scene in order to get […]

Genre: Spy Premise: When a U.S. physicist defects to North Korea carrying a mysterious suitcase, old school CIA agent Leo Diamond is tasked with helping some young CIA upstarts prevent another Snowden situation, or worse. About: This script sold in 2014 for high six figures. It was written by Ken Nolan, who scripted Black Hawk […]