Screenwriting : Grown Up Movies contest closed - who submitted? by Pat Alexander

Someone has to be first! No that’s not the title of the script lol. My submission is VINTAGE EMMA, about two friends who start actually visualizing their inner children. Like actually. For real. Warm hearted comedy about life crises at 30 and, well, 13.

That would be a great title, Kelly Simmons ("Someone Has to be First")! "Vintage Emma" is a great title too! Unique concept!

Nobody said you had to be a grown up to turn 60, and that's just what the two protagonist /antagonist seniors discover in my dramedy submission, OLD BUDDIES, in which a legendary comic book artist takes his revenge twenty-five years after walking out on his partner / comic book writer / best friend who betrayed him.

I submitted a comedy called "OK, Boomer," which is about how Gen Z kids react to old folks. In my story, a gamer who gains a rep in a small Florida community for ageism, hits an old man while high on edibles. The judge decides it would be good punishment for him to stay in the old folks housing complex for three months.. There's a lot of humor about how the generations relate, but ultimately, I wanted to show how they could come together. It's all done with laffs and heart. And hopefully some fresh angles. Tons of roles for older folks, which we just don't see anymore!

get your submissions in writers!

Three life-long friends go on an epic road trip filled with the music that brought them together in the first place. THE STUB TOUR takes them through the northeast, fulfilling one item on a lost one's bucket list and putting secrets to rest once and for all. Apparently grown-ass adults still need rules to keep the peace. Somebody, please check the gas gauge!

I submitted a feature drama called TARGETS, and both I and my script’s protagonist are firmly rooted in the ‘Grown Up’ demographic. After helplessly fleeing from his brother’s murder as a 12-year-old boy, an emotionally damaged 65-year-old Black professor named Daniel Cooper accompanies two students on a turbulent social justice march, where he must confront the guilt and self-doubt from his past to protect his students’ futures. Spanning nearly 70 years, time and age are central themes in the script, as Daniel searches for redemption in the wake of generational wounds.

TITLE: SHUTDOWN - Feature | Dramedy

COMPS: OLD SCHOOL meets DEEP WATER HORIZON

LOGLINE: After a lone wolf inspector loses his job, he signs up to supervise a shutdown three thousand miles from home. Now, he must repair, not only the damage to the refinery, but the rift his toxic masculinity created with his pre-teen daughter.

Hi. I'm Joel. I'm a refinery and nuclear plant inspector, targeting the blue-collar, trades worker audience, in particular.

I like films from the 70's/80's. My true COMPS, which aren't contemporary are:

SLAPSHOT (1977 - Paul Newman)

THE CHINA SYNDROME (1979 - Jack Lemmon)

Slapshot has a cult following. If you've ridden the bus as a hockey player, you've viewed this 50+ times. Relishing it more each and every time.

I aim for Shutdown to be that meaningful to blue-collar, trades workers.

Good luck everyone.

During a time when the elderly didn't have easy access to the Internet, I developed for my Science and Technology group a program called Web on Wheels. Weekly, I'd go into assisted living centers and help residents send and receive emails with their busy loved ones. I became came close to one lady, Lily, in her 80s. I envied the fun things she did - dancing lessons, crafts, and bingo. She envied me; a busy mother - running my own software company. She'd joke that all of them were in "God's waiting room," getting ready to die. That gave me the idea of TIME FOR LILY - a body-switching comedy like FREAKY FRIDAY - but with a twist. What would it be like to wake up tomorrow and be like the ladies in 80 FOR BRADY? Would that be worse than being 13 again?

I entered my Romantic Drama "(I'll Never Find) Another You". LOGLINE: Realizing the "true love of her life" has been in and out of her life for six decades, a Woman, 74, suffering with cancer, invites him into her life again for one final try at that love. The theme is how the power of love can bend people to its will. It's The Notebook meets Stupid. Crazy. Love

These sound like incredible scripts, everyone!

Yes, I'd go see these - and get popcorn too!

"Becoming Dick" was originally titled "Becoming Howard" and was loosely based on my strong resemblance to Howard Stern. I was on his show (it may still be on YouTube somewhere) to try to talk him into playing himself AND the screenwriter who looks like him (classic good-twin/evil-twin) but he was about to start AGT and couldn't commit.

Inishowen is that blob of land right at the top of the island of Ireland. It is part of County Donegal in the Irish Republic, but is virtually isolated by Northern Ireland, thus its inhabitants consider it to be the fifth Province of Ireland. My screenplay is called 'FIVE', a hilarious sit/com depicting life among the country folk of Inishowen and how life changes when a local carpenter wins millions in the National Lottery. Inishowen, set between Lough Foyle and Lough Swilly and spanned by the wild North Atlantic Ocean has scenery second to none, dozens of beautiful sandy beaches interspersed between the rugged mountainous coastline - a cinematographer's dream! The explicit, unmistakeable accent of North Donegal will charm the socks off any audience; and the rustic local characters will mesmerise modern day urbanites. This film just has to be made.

Hi everyone! I submitted my character driven comedy called EXILED TO LEISURE VILLAGE. It's based on that time when I lost my "glamorous" Hollywood job and truly felt like I was too old for this town so I moved in with my elderly mother in a retirement community even though I was (at that time, ha ha) technically too young to live there. Those senior citizens had much more fun and spunk than I did! It's sort of a middle-age coming of age story. And romance. There's a little romance.

I submitted my dramatic screenplay, "Clutter." Set in a small Midwestern town, set in the early 2000s, “Clutter" is about a forced estate sale at the old family home of 56 years that unleashes a firestorm of emotion across three generations as they sort through and sell off heirlooms and familial artifacts, setting the stage for the final showdown between the elderly patriarch and his wife’s undying love for her first husband - a B-17 pilot killed in WW II. The sale becomes a catalyst for change that leaves no one unaffected -- including the "baby boomer" siblings and their children.

This story was inspired by an incident in my own family many years ago when my efficient, organization-minded sisters moved my elderly parents to the small house that was to be their last home. There was much to get rid of and my sisters did what needed to be done, though it was a very traumatic and emotional experience for my mother. I realized then that this is a universal truth. ALL families go through this sort of thing... the downsizing. The archeology of our lives reduced to garage sale items. How we how we are affected by the cumulative baggage of our lives: the emotional, the material, and the linkage of both. Especially when some of these items evoke powerful memories tied to a buried family secret. "Clutter" is indeed a story for grown-ups and all those who aspire to be.

"Confessions of a Drunken Sailor" is an adaptation of my book by the same title, based upon true events of my experience. A story of hope of a young man who, disenchanted by his opportunities for the American dream, joins the U.S. Navy as a means to escape his circumstances of poverty. But through his port adventures of bar brawls, night clubs and countries that are rebuilding after wars, cruising the seas with his buddies, he returns home only to realize that through his experiences the American dream is not about money or the attainment of wealth, but rather the opportunity that America provides to achieve anything. The dream was there for him all along. A story of hope.

My second script is titled "Surrender the Comanche". A western story that's never been told. Based upon true events. The last tribe to surrender to the U.S Government, Chief Quanah Parker leads the effort of the Comanche to determine their own destiny against the forces of Colonel "Bad Hand" McKenzie. Between the choices of continued battle, severe winter and starvation in the end Quanah realizes for the survival of the tribe he must surrender and learn to walk between two worlds.

"We Need a Bigger Boat" is a buddy story about four, 50-something powerhouse women who find themselves stuck in dysfunctional relationships, and wonder what has happened to their lives. This feature dramedy is: "And Just Like That" meets "Eat, Pray, Love".

Logline: Four lifelong friends escape their troubled relationships for a girl’s vacation in Bali, but the adventure spirals into chaos when one of their own secretly sets them up for an intervention that could change the course of their lives, if only they learn the lessons from their past.

Part comedy, part adventure, and part soul-searching journey -- ultimately it's about the power of friendship, hope and the quest to find happiness in the second chapter of life.

My script MOTHER U. (MY MOTHER’S MORE NEUROTIC THAN YOURS -is about passages – those hard to accept points in life where as much as you don’t like what must change – it’s happening - and you’ve got to accept that life will be different.

Not only will college bound kids feel that life is going to change(and most are happy with what lies ahead) – the parents left behind have to learn to move on as well.

In my submission – MOTHER U (My Mother’s More than Neurotic Than Yours), Mia Bard is freaking out about losing her son to college. Her husband died when Zack was five and while other mothers have no trouble raising their kids, Mia lives in fear that something bad will happen to her son.

In spite of having a best friend who tries to temper Mia’s crazy, Mia follows her son to college, wears disguises and tries to make it all perfect for him. Needless to say, this doesn’t produce the results she hopes for… she gets caught – and with the fear that her son will never talk to her again – she must accept the reality that life will change.

As an aside, I wrote this when my son started his first year at college. When I sent him a portion of the script to read…his response was “Mother, I had my room swept for bugs.” He knew I was the kind of mother that could have done it.

Lynda levy

MAKING AMENDS is a comedy/dramedy that follows the journey of an aging action movie star who realizes success cannot be truly measured by material gains and adulation. Finally winning an Emmy Award after many decades of being dismissed as nothing more than an “eye candy” action hero movie star, Rick Hunnington, now in his early fifties learns he has a terminal illness with just under a year to live and decides to right many wrongs before it’s too late.

The quick witted yet somewhat conceited Rick tries to reconnect with his once three best friends, that he deeply hurt and now despise him. To make amends he offers them each one million dollars to recreate the Route 66 road trip from Chicago to the Santa Monica pier they took when they graduated from college. At the same time, Rick receives a screenplay from an unexpected source that could give him the dramatic role he’s been searching for his whole career… but is it too late.

Rick’s “disappearance” after winning the Emmy has turned into a national story with the whole country getting constant updates from cable news and social media on his likely whereabouts. The sudden media exposure adds to the “over the top” adventure of four “fish out of water” friends”, an Italian American movie star, a gay Jewish Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, a black six foot four ex-Chicago cop and a Chinese American financial adviser, across the rural Midwest, Texas Panhandle, Desert Southwest and sunny California. Each “Rick” sighting builds up to the trip’s unexpected finish and life changing result.

I submitted my script, "Cyn & Izzy".

Logline: Two women estranged since high school, who are currently experiencing very contrasting mid-life crises, decide to overcome their obstacles by living out their teenage dreams; They start a rock band.

Thanks for reading! And best of luck to everyone!!

Awesome! Good luck everyone!

My Feature Script Title "TO DIE FOR" Logline - A golden aging, wealthy woman, lives for her granddaughter. A plot unfolds to end their lives and obtain her wealth. She realizes dying guarantees her granddaughter living and conspires with three quirky senior citizens to ensure her granddaughter fulfills her dreams. Comps "Knives Out " and "Save the Last Dance." The protagonist, a 70-something wealthy grandmother who rose from poverty was inspired by successful, elderly, trailblazing, sassy women who break the mold regarding Senior Citizens. Then the heartwarming bond a grandmother and granddaughter have for one another is celebrated along with their love for dancing. Throw in eccentric Senior Citizens displaying humor, knowledge, and mischievousness, add the granddaughter's love interest along with, who murdered the grandmother - did she die? The combined genres are designed to entertain with inspiration, mystery, romance, and comedy. The results are a feel-good movie made for all generations that celebrate family and elderly heroes and heroines.

Wow, there are a lotta great stories here! Best of luck to everyone!

My script, Breaking and Entering, is a second-time-coming-of-age comedy about two post-menopausal besties who realize life-going-on-sixty isn’t what they expected.

When dutiful housewife, Janet, arrives home after caring for her dying mom in really rural Wisconsin, she discovers a world of unwelcomed change. Her husband and kids are totally self-sufficient, and her beloved hometown is overrun by hipster shops and massive new homes. Not to mention her aging body, which now resembles a sack of cats. To cope, Janet takes up power walking with her lifelong pal, Irene, who’s totally bored with retirement. What starts as a playful dare to break into an empty McMansion, quickly becomes an epic summer of criminal mischief as the two try and outsmart husbands, cops and the vacationing homeowners (with a not-so-smart security system). Can Janet and Irene pull off the ultimate 60th birthday bash – in someone else’s home? More important, can they escape the beliefs that imprison them as adults – and find happiness on the other side of youth?

I sent in FATHER'S DAY. The screenplay is based on a stage play that arose from a poem created in response to a visit with my father at a psychiatric hospital on Father’s Day 1983. Ellen, a 23-year-old grad student talks about going to China for her studies without recognizing that she is really ending her 7-year relationship with Martin, her 30-year-old partner. Her partner is too busy exploring his bisexual side through NSA sex to notice. Their gay friend knows what's happening and tries to keep them together. Running through, the protagonist's uncle, great uncle, and father each die suddenly (my father and his brother died five weeks apart in the winter of 1983-84). Her older brother, estranged from the family, confronts her about her "escape" plan. She leaves for China without expressing her feelings. The story is bookended by the same scene, told once with faulty memory and told again with more clarity and accuracy.