Introduce Yourself : Screenwriter by Ekrem Kus

Hi Ekrem

It's nice to meet you.

I am an Editor and Screen Writer

Hope to Work with you.

Jessica Ashley

Welcome to the Stage32 community Ekrem Kus I hope you will join us at our upcoming Free Community Open House (June 10): https://www.stage32.com/education/products/stage-32s-june-2026-community...

Sign up for a Free Month of the Writers' Room: https://www.stage32.com/writers-room/plans-vip

Glad to have you here!

Welcome to Stage 32 Ekrem Kus ! What a journey for a project to take! Glad you are here! The Screenwriting Lounge is a great place to start connecting with fellow writers who understand ambitious, character-driven historical work: https://www.stage32.com/lounge/screenwriting

Ekrem Kus Those genres you mentioned usually have very moderate to low project count each year. High-variance by nature and depends heavily on execution. https://intense.pictures/industry/analyze.php?year=2025&action=genre_buc...

Thank you for the data, Kenneth — genuinely useful context.

But I'm not trying to do what others expect. I'm doing what I do best.

MIRALAY didn't become what it is because I followed a market map. It became what it is because the characters told me where they needed to go — and I followed.

What I'm really exploring is something rarely shown: an immigrant in America who had an entire life before he arrived. A cavalry colonel. A war. An exile. Not "just another immigrant" — but a man carrying two continents inside him.

And those two continents — the Ottoman world and the American West — have far more in common than most people expect. Honor cultures. Warrior codes. Displacement. Land. Identity.

The story is fiction, but it's built on real events and real people. That's not a genre exercise. That's a world.

High variance? Maybe. But the stories that last usually are.

Ekrem Kus It is very important to know where your strengths and creative focus are. But unless you are financing your own films, it's also important to understand market demand, consumer preferences, and investor expectations.

Kenneth George Kenneth, you are absolutely right — and I wouldn't argue with the data.

What makes this conversation interesting for me is that I come to it from a somewhat unusual angle.

For years I consulted on film and television productions, supplying and advising on period-accurate costumes, including a production that later received an Oscar nomination. I also spent years advising a well-known general and military historian. After three decades as an entrepreneur and consultant, writing historical screenplays is not a profession I stumbled into. It's a parallel world I've inhabited for a long time.

I couldn't write a modern crime thriller. The history, the music, the visual culture, the details of another time — that's where my creative instincts naturally live.

What I'm trying to build with MIRALAY is not simply a Western or a historical drama. Those are the frameworks. What interests me is the intersection of history, memory, identity, music and visual storytelling.

The Ottoman Empire and the American West may seem worlds apart, yet the more I explored them, the more parallels I discovered: honor, displacement, loyalty, belonging and the search for a place to call home.

I agree with your point about execution. In fact, that's precisely why I've spent years researching and developing the project. Stories in these genres don't get much room for error, which makes the work both more difficult and, for me at least, more rewarding.

And I think your observation about demand raises an interesting question: when projects in historically niche genres do break through, what do you think is usually the decisive factor? The concept itself, the execution, the timing, or something else?

Ekrem Kus The advantage of having fewer competing projects is that, if you get the concept and execution right, the upside can be significant. Shows like Yellowstone and Westworld demonstrated that audiences will embrace Western-themed stories when they are executed at a very high level.

The challenge is that fewer projects in a genre can also reflect lower overall demand, which means there is less margin for error. The audience is there, but the bar is often higher. If you can deliver a compelling concept and exceptional execution, the payoff can be substantial.

Kenneth, I think that's a very important observation.

"The audience is there, but the bar is higher" probably resonates with me more than most people realize.

Long before I started writing screenplays, I spent years supplying and consulting on period-accurate hats for film and television productions. Oddly enough, that started because I kept watching historical films and becoming frustrated when actors wore the wrong hats for the period — or handled them incorrectly.

Most people saw a hat. I saw history, culture, status, profession and character.

I called production companies often enough that eventually some of them invited me in. What followed was years of consulting, research and assembling period-correct collections with an international team for productions set in different eras. One of those productions eventually received an Oscar nomination.

I certainly don't claim the nomination was because of the hats. But I learned something valuable: details matter. Audiences may not always consciously notice them, but authenticity accumulates. Passion, obsession, patience and execution make a difference.

That's probably why your point about execution resonates with me. Whether it's a hat, a military detail, a piece of music, or a character's cultural background, I've always believed that excellence is built from hundreds of small decisions made correctly.

Ekrem Kus If you have a significant background in costume design, I can see the natural gravitation toward historical and Western genres. These are costume-intensive genres that require considerable effort to convincingly establish a particular time period, place, culture, and social environment.

You shouldn't be discouraged by the relatively low number of films produced each year in those genres. There are many reasons beyond pure film economics for wanting to make a historical film. History often carries national, and sometimes international, significance. Many of today's beef, geopolitical tension, and cultural divisions can often be fully understood through the lens of history.

The fact that some investors may view historical films as riskier does not diminish their value. The more I look at it, I see many avenues that a well-executed historical project can even be easier to position because it serves interests beyond entertainment alone.

Kenneth, that's exactly what attracted me to historical storytelling in the first place.

In my screenplay, however, I take it a step further. It is not merely a festival of costumes and cultures spanning continents. I have also turned a real historical battle into one of the story's defining dramatic highlights.

The battle is not presented solely through strategy and military tactics. It is elevated into a cultural hybrid event — a fusion of war, music, tradition, ritual, deception, celebration, and ultimately tragedy. Almost an opera of war in the 19th century.

What interests me most is that stories like this can transcend borders. If told well, they can captivate someone in Kansas just as much as someone in Istanbul, Sofia, or Athens. Great stories are local in their details, but universal in their humanity.

Laura Hammer Hi Laura,

Thank you for your kind message, and please forgive my late reply.

I'm still very new to Stage 32 and, to be honest, I'm only just beginning to find my way around the platform. There seems to be a lot to discover, and I'm still learning how everything works.

I appreciate the recommendation and will definitely spend some time in the Screenwriting Lounge. It already feels like a welcoming community, and I'm looking forward to connecting with fellow writers and learning from their experiences.

Thank you again for taking the time to reach out.

Best regards,

Ekrem

Jaz Lagrimas Hi Jaz,

Thank you for the warm welcome and for sharing these resources.

I'm still very new to Stage 32 and learning my way around the platform, so I appreciate the information. I'll definitely take a look at the Community Open House.

Looking forward to connecting with everyone here.

Best regards,

Ekrem

Ekrem Kus But it is also risky. Investors who specialize in film financing understand the numbers well. Historically, the number of consistently high-performing war and historical films is relatively low, which contributes to a higher perceived risk compared to other genres.

I once wrote a crime thriller TV series titled The Missionary. When subsequently researching the title, I discovered several prior uses, including a British comedy from the 1980s with a different tone and subject matter. This, however, is not the central point.

More notably, I also found a separate project titled The Missionary that had been developed as an HBO Cold War spy-thriller television pilot. The project was produced by Mark Wahlberg alongside author Malcolm Gladwell. It was set in 1969 Berlin during the Cold War and centered on a young American missionary who becomes entangled in CIA operations.

HBO ordered the pilot in 2012 but ultimately decided not to move forward with the series, passing on it in 2013.

I ultimately retitled my project to avoid confusion or unintended associations with existing material. The broader lesson is that even with a bankable name like Mark Wahlberg involved in development, projects can still be declined if the underlying concept or positioning does not align with a network’s or investor’s risk appetite. This illustrates how strongly market positioning, genre expectations, and perceived viability influence whether a project moves forward.

It is not that war or historical genres cannot succeed—they certainly can. However, from an investor or studio perspective, they often carry greater uncertainty due to inconsistent historical performance and less predictable audience outcomes compared to other genres.

Kenneth George Did you know that the Plains Indians used to tie up their horses' tails when they rode into battle? Did you know that Ottoman cavalry officers did the same — when they rode into war, or when a horse's rider had fallen? In my screenplay, a former Ottoman colonel and a Comanche meet, and the Comanche asks: are you sure our peoples aren't related? Both originally came from Siberia, but chose opposite directions. In historical stories, I can ask these kinds of questions and let the viewer wonder.

Did you know that salt or spices were used as currency in different parts of the world? Even within 100 km, people had different clothing and different food. With a historical film, you build a world, a civilization.

Yes, historical films are expensive. New people need to come along, with new ideas, who also have the courage to tell new stories. In historical films you can build in humor, fight battles, romance, love, curiosities, mystery — all at once, all genres in one film. That takes a lot of imagination and creativity. That's also why, for me, it's the king's class of filmmaking.

As for Mark Wahlberg — is he actually a specialist in historical material? And 1969, Berlin, CIA, Cold War — to me that's not historical, that's modern times. For me, historical begins where no one is left alive who experienced it themselves. Over 100 years.

And that's exactly my point: in modern times, people dress similarly worldwide, eat similar food, the world has become global. The differences disappear — and with them, the magic, the mystery. 1969 Berlin is essentially already our world, just with different suits.

I live in Germany, and I've also lived in Berlin myself. If that film had aired on television, I would have switched over to "Gladiator."

Is The Missionary really proof of the risk of historical material — or rather proof that even big names like Wahlberg don't protect you from being passed on, regardless of genre? The biggest risk is taking no risks at all.

Ekrem Kus About Wahlberg, what matters here is that when you have anchored multiple films that have grossed several hundred million globally, you are generally considered bankable. I don’t think HBOs decision was because they felt he wasn't an expert..

Usually, if the demand for films in a genre is high, a studio would naturally be expected to increase the supply of films in that genre or attempt to match that demand. That is what a rational supplier would likely do. They have no motive to withhold war films to jack up the price here.

What we see, however, is a very low count of films each year in certain genres that hit the box office, and an equally low number or none that gross over $50 million.

That is a signal.

Kenneth George You're right that Wahlberg's track record matters more than genre expertise — fair point. But let me push back on the bigger argument: that low box-office counts in a genre signal real market weakness, and that a rational studio would increase supply if demand existed.

Look at Lonesome Dove. When it went into production in 1988, both the Western and the miniseries format were considered dead. CBS took a risk nobody expected to pay off. When it aired in February 1989, it drew nearly 40 million viewers and revived both genres overnight. The "low demand" data right before it aired would have told you Westerns were finished. The data right after told a completely different story.

Or look at Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. By the late '60s, the classical Western was exhausted — John Wayne morality, clean heroes, worn-out formula. One studio executive told William Goldman he'd buy the script only if Butch and Sundance stayed and fought the posse like a "real" Western hero would. Goldman refused. He kept his vision. The film became the highest-grossing release of 1969.

In both cases, the data didn't predict the success — the work created the demand the data later measured. I don't think low historical box-office numbers tell us audiences don't want these stories. I think they tell us how rarely someone gets the execution right enough to prove the demand was there all along.

Ekrem Kus I think consumer preference by genre is a significant factor. Studios spend enormous amounts of money researching audiences because understanding demand is fundamental to making investment decisions. To use music as an analogy, there are passionate fans of country, hip-hop, jazz, disco, and classical music, but those audiences are not necessarily the same size. A disco song can become a major hit if it's performed by a high-profile artist, marketed effectively, or blended with elements of pop or hip-hop that broaden its appeal. But that doesn't mean producers were ignoring a huge, untapped demand for disco all along. It means exceptional execution can sometimes outperform the normal expectations of the market.

I think the same applies to film. Success depends on much more than genre alone—writing, directing, cast, marketing, release timing, and word of mouth all influence the outcome. The examples you cited weren't average productions. Lonesome Dove was adapted from a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel and featured a cast including Robert Duvall, Tommy Lee Jones, Danny Glover, and Diane Lane. Stars cost!

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid starred Paul Newman and Robert Redford and was written and directed by top-tier talent. Those are exceptional projects, not necessarily representative of the average historical or Western film. A few exceptional hits don't demonstrate that studios have been misreading audience demand for decades.

When a studio is investing billions of dollars in content every year, it has no commercial incentive to ignore profitable demand. Quite the opposite—its success depends on identifying where demand exists and allocating capital accordingly. That doesn't mean studios are infallible, but isolated breakout successes don't, by themselves, show that an entire genre has been systematically underestimated.

Welcome, and the journey from wanting to write a western feature to ending up with a twenty episode historical drama spanning the Ottoman Empire to Texas is a great example of how a story can grow beyond its original container when you let it breathe. What was the specific moment that made you realize this story was too big for a single feature?

Samantha Rivera "Hi Samantha! You’re right, it was quite a journey. I wanted to write a Western, but I realized the world doesn’t need the 1,000th revenge story. I wanted to do something completely different.

I needed a protagonist who was familiar yet fresh for a Western audience. Coming from a culture of riders (horses are in our DNA), I took inspiration from my father, who was a true horse whisperer. That led me to the Sipahis—a legendary cavalry unit that existed for nearly 1,000 years. My protagonist, Hakan, is the 'Last Sipahi.'

Unlike the typical 'Man with No Name' who rarely speaks, Hakan is Mediterranean. He’s highly educated, loves children, and family is sacred to him—as it is for all Mediterranean people. He doesn't just eat beans by a campfire; he’s a gourmet who loves eggplant, olives, and of course, his ritualistic Turkish Mocha.

The story grew 'beyond the container' when I asked myself: Why does Hollywood rarely show the lives of immigrants before they arrived? Who were these people in their homelands? Even Billy the Kid (William McCarthy) spoke three languages—English, Spanish, and Gaelic. Today, Gaelic is almost extinct.

I realized that to truly understand Hakan’s journey as a horse breeder in Texas, we first had to see what he lost in Europe. Showing both worlds and the transition between them is what made this a 20-episode epic. It’s not just a Western; it’s a bridge between two vanishing frontiers

Nice to connect Ekrem and good luck with your project!

Hey @Ekrem great to hear from you! What inspired you to write Miralay: The Last Sipahi?

Pat Alexander I've been writing about the American West for three years and reviewing Western films in large Facebook communities. I wanted to write a different, completely fresh Western story — not the thousandth revenge Western. What came out of it was an epic historical drama spanning two continents, now up to 20 episodes.

Along the way I discovered my passion for scene development and details — it became addictive. I've now completed 12 episodes with up to 20 planned, and finished two additional historical scripts on the side.

What I particularly enjoy is creating an entirely new world and composing music into the story itself — it makes the narrative richer and more epic.

Sometimes a story just refuses to stay small.

David ZannoniThank you.