Screenwriting : Period Piece contest - who submitted? by Pat Alexander

I entered my script Chapel, a western/coming of age story.

I entered my script Outlaw Frontiers; it's like American Holocaust meets Without Sanctuary. (Yes, I know those are books.)

I am eager to hear about everyone's scripts. I entered my epic mythic coming of age story set in ancient Ireland and Scotland about a wannabe druid who gets more than she bargains for in a feature called Of Mists and Gods.

Druid one sounds fun. Mine's called "The Confectioner." In 1930s Chicago, at the height of the great depression, an orphan gets a job apprenticing under a charismatic but deadly chocolatier. But when he suspects his boss is responsible for a rash of wealthy child murders, he realizes it's up to him to bring the monster to justice.

My script, Hawk Dreamer, is about a Japanese American incarcerated during WWII on a Native American reservation who forges a brotherhood with an Indigenous attorney who helps him fight for his civil fights. It's proof of concept, The Blue Jay, is screening on March 3 at the TCL Chinese Theaters in Hollywood. Please join us and meet the actors and crew.

Hi, I'm telling the story of Captain Klaus, the legendary mercenary of the Byzantine emperor, and his journey in 13th-century Europe to find his son, who was forced to participate in the Children's Crusade and subsequently enslaved. My story is titled "THE LOST SON".

I entered two just for fun, not sure they'll get anywhere. The first is First Spear - In 104 AD, a ruthless Roman centurion must seize a hidden treasury for the Emperor, but a corrupt general, an enemy spy, and buried guilt threaten to destroy him. Second is Selection - In WWI Belgium, an idealistic American zoologist joins a relief mission and discovers the German High Command is using his research to justify war, forcing him into a brutal world of espionage and betrayal. Both are based on historical events for what it's worth.

Hi everyone. My script is based on the true story of Caroline Norton, an abused wife in Victorian England whose husband held captive their three young sons and forbade Caroline access. Her battle to restore her situation leads her to changing the child custody laws for every mother in England.

Hi everyone, my entry, entitled "Chasing Mary", is a female driven adaptation of Mary Welsh Hemingway's autobiography How It Was. Lending the story a bit of contemporary flare, a female Ph.D. candidate who chooses Mary's autobiography for her dissertation discovers their life paths cross in multiple intersections, ultimately blurring reality with figment through episodes of magical realism.

Hi everyone. I entered my sport-drama bio-pic "18". In the early 1990's, a virtually unknown backup quarterback from the University of Nebraska is thrust into the limelight after the venerated starter becomes sidelined by a life-threatening condition amid a championship season run... I wrote this story because of a personal connection to the material and my affinity for the sports-movie genre. Good luck to everyone!

One of my passions is dramas based on true stories. As a result, those scripts are inevitably period pieces. I entered two in this competition. WHO WILL LIVE? is the story of how a device developed at the University of Washington transformed chronic kidney failure from 100% fatal to survivable. The script is Twelve Angry Men meets Love Story. The other script, CAIN, is a true crime story about what has been called the most heinous murder in Dallas since the assassination of President Kennedy.

With all due respect to Mr. Taylor Sheridan, the script I entered is titled "Perdition" and is the true and untold story of Bass Reeves, the first Black US Deputy Marshal and the newspaper reporter who set out to destroy him.

Hi! I enter my script “Inner Strength”, where a shy boy navigates high school despite being homeschooled the rest of his life. A teen drama-like script.

Go Home is an adaptation of my novel, repurposing the insult as a quest. The U.S. backlash to the Iran hostage crisis blurs the lines for Viraf, a Parsi Indian foreign student on a transnational quest for home, between his peace-loving Deadhead neighbors and violent, xenophobic strangers. I think all of us here understand that the past has a bearing on the present. Go Period Film!

I entered my feature script "Little Cowboys" LL: Hardened by an abusive upbringing on an Oklahoma cattle ranch a young man applies his life skills to survive the Viet Nam war.

JUST ONE INCH is an epic historical feature about the struggles and sacrifices of my ancestors. My great grandfather was the scribe for Tsar Nicholas II. He sacrificed his life for his daughter, my grandmother. She then had to survive in the forest alone for days and eventually emigrated to America where she was confronted with even more hardships. It's a true story that survived by JUST ONE INCH.

Congrats on all your scripts. It is exciting to see the variety of submissions :)

I entered a script which has been twice double-recommended here on Stage32. It's a faith-based WW2 drama, called All MY MEN.

It's a SAVING PRIVATE RYAN meets HACKSAW RIDGE meets GOOD WILL HUNTING.

I am currently developing the script further with a veteran producer I met on Stage32. So whether it places here or not, I am curious to see where this script goes and how it grows.

I submitted two!

SOLOIST // Feature // Historical Drama // London, 1945. Conscripted at the height of his career at the Royal Ballet, Cyrus struggles to rebuild his life after losing his dreams to war when he’s offered a teaching post for the company's post-war debut.

DARK VEIL // TV Pilot // Spy Thriller // Days before the collapse of the Berlin Wall, British spy Elaine Fisher and her team are sent on a perilous mission beyond the Iron Curtain to recover a stolen nuclear device and prevent a catastrophic disaster.

Hi! I entered YOUTH OF A NATION, which is set in Nazi Germany before the dawn of WWII. It's an increasingly relevant story about being gay amid rising fascism, and it's heavily influenced by the works of Agnieszka Holland, Volker Schlöndorff, and Rainer Werner Fassbinder. It's fairly provocative, centering on a fifteen-year-old German boy who, after being caught with a male Jewish lover, is sent to an all-boys academy commandeered by the Hitler Youth to gain a "masculine influence." Of course, he falls under the wrong influence, particularly that of an alluring, yet cruel, elder boy, and struggles to maintain his identity under the pressure of indoctrination.

I was so please to see this contest, as period pieces don't seem to be getting the attention they deserve. I've submitted two of my screenplays, "Book of the Month" and "What Was Hidden."

My story is one that has lived in my head for many years. It is a coming of age drama where we learn about the choices a young woman had to make to protect herself and her child when those choices were limited by her age, her sex and her marital status. Where doing what she thought was best for her and her child turns out not for the best in hindsight but as time passes the truth is no longer an option.

Title: Las Vegas Lovechild

Log line:

In 1970s Chicago, a young woman desperate to protect her child is forced into a secret polygamous household by her manipulative brother-in-law, locking them into a battle between his need to control the truth and her need to survive it.

I was so excited to see this contest pop up in my email. I had been working on this script for awhile and just recently had placed a deadline on my first draft which was the same date as the deadline for this contest. I purchased all of the necessary options to allow me one more good edit. Then after receiving my feedback notes I was able to add what was needed to have my script ready to submit. Wishing everyone luck!

My story is about the most important icon of all time - Elvis Presley - Now, many projects have depicted his life, career and personal. But no one has touched upon his time serving in the U.S. Army. Until now - "The King's Army" is about just that. It's a limited series depicting his time spent serving our country. He was stationed in Germany. He was an intelligence specialist with a tank division. He met Priscilla Beaulieu. His life would shape and form into what we come to know and love all from his two years of service. I am a distant cousin of Elvis and his family, to include Elaine Elizabeth Presley, his first daughter. She has given me permission to tell this side of Elvis' life. I served in the U. S. Navy, so from one Veteran to another... this story will tell a whole different story of Elvis Presley.

I found my subject while researching for a script that was slated to be filmed. I wanted to know more about the Pawnee natives in Nebraska, and found my subject. I was surprised I could find so much about this war chief online and in books. Petalesharo was hailed a hero and went to Washington DC on a peace mission and was given a medal for his bravery of saving a girl from human sacrifice in his tribe. He was treated like a rock star in DC.

I'm searching out a movie theater in Mexico City to go see EPiC ASAP! I already believe it will be may favorite concert film of all time...

Petalesharo

Really enjoying seeing the range of projects in this year’s competition — best of luck to everyone.

I entered ECHOES OF FREEDOM, a historical drama series set during the early fight to end the transatlantic slave trade — following a Royal Navy officer caught between duty, legacy, and conscience.Looking forward to following the results.

I entered Dead Man's Dust.

It is a thriller/horror about a widow who must protect herself and her two children from a serial killer when a massive dust storm hits.

I’ve always been fascinated with the worst man-made ecological disaster in United States history. It was called the Dust Bowl and occurred in the 1930’s in the area of the US known as the Southern Plains. It stretched, basically, from South Dakota to Texas and centered in an odd strip of land called No Mans Land, in Oklahoma. Because of severe drought, extremely high temperatures, and over plowing the millions and millions of acres that made up that swath of the country by farmers trying to cope with saving their farms and families through the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl saw a decade of dust storms that had people believing it was the end of the world. These storms reached upwards of 20,000 feet in the air, 200 miles wide and blew in at 60 plus miles an hour, dwarfing and blanketing everything in their path. When a dust storm hit, it turned mid-day into midnight and completely shut down entire towns and farms.

With that as the backdrop I always felt there was any number of stories that could be told. One famously written in 1940, by John Steinbeck, and turned into a movie called, “The Grapes of Wrath.” But that story followed a family who lost their farm in the area of the Dust Bowl and moved to California. I wanted to write a story in the midst of this disaster with the stubborn, yet determined people who refused to leave, or couldn’t leave; who survived it, and portrayed the resilience of the human spirit.

These people were rural people, whose homes were miles and miles apart from their neighbors. Few had phones, so they were truly isolated, and the perfect setting for a lunatic or serial killer to have their way. So as if drought, depression, starvation, and dust storms weren’t enough to deal with, a cold-blooded killer who deems himself an “Angel of Retribution” for the sins perpetrated on the land enters the lives of these hard working, unsuspecting people. And one widowed woman and her two children refuse to go down without a fight.

Think Grapes of Wrath meets Seven.

Good luck to everyone!!!

Hello everyone, all of these look so great! I wish everyone all the very best!

I have submitted my screenplay as well:

In 1937 British-occupied India, a hopeful Indian officer and a sharp-tongued British journalist hunt a serial killer known as “The Demon” unaware that a vengeful professor is simultaneously closing in for a violent confrontation.

Congrats to those who advanced!