From 1-26-2004 to 10-5-2022, I was employed as a machine operator at a local plastics factory...but ever since 1980 (when I was still in college), I've wanted to write movie-and-TV scripts. (In college in 1979, I took a screenwriting class. Loved it!)
Pursued screenwriting with a vengeance from 1980 to 1994...then life happened to me.
I appeared in a 2012 documentary called "The Entertainers," about the World Championship Old-Time Piano Playing Contest and Festival. Had a ball! (On IMDB, the title number is tt2070844.)
One of the documentary's codirectors, Nick Holle, inherited a Power Mac computer from the husband-and-wife team (Brent and Jackie Watkins) who helped produce "The Entertainers." In 2016, I started batting out scripts again...and it's only because Nick gave me that Power Mac.
Screenwriting/TV writing is my FUN...and I'm ready to share it. (After all, what's a life if you can't do something FUN in it?)
Nick, thanks a bunch for that Power Mac!
Jingle Belles Budget: $5M - $10M | Comedy Seeking to usher in the new breed of rock-and-roll hitmakers, a songwriter-manager-record producer and a record-store clerk unite to start their own music-publishing company in 1959 New York City.
The Nutcrackers Budget: $10M - $30M | Comedy Pondering life after ballet and ex-dancer Vanessa Carlton's Grammy-nominated success, two star ballerinas in present-day Kansas City, MO seek to become blues musicians at a famous local bar and grill.
Kitten on the Keys Budget: $10M - $30M | Western ⋄ Comedy In 1876, the death of her husband on a train trip out West forces a college-educated woman to strike out on her own at the next stop: Dodge City, KS.
Tin Mine Budget: $5M - $10M | Comedy Looking to get their musical careers out of a rut in 1939 New York City, a song plugger and a radio organist become composers...at a time of huge changes in the industry.
Fine Tooth Comb Budget: $5M - $10M | Comedy ⋄ Family Inspired by a videotape, a teenager in 1994 Davenport, IA forms her own band with the hopes of playing at the local Dixieland jamboree, the Bix Beiderbecke Jazz Festival.
Thumpers Budget: $5M - $10M | Comedy ⋄ Family Seeking to break away from the mainstream, three teenage ragtime musicians in 1984 Sioux Falls, SD strive to establish their band's sound...and work to build an appreciative following.
Rapunzel and Lady Godiva Budget: $10M - $30M | Romance ⋄ Comedy Determined to strengthen their bond in present-day Chicago, a theater student and her ultrafeminist younger sister become a duo-piano lounge act...that Big Sister's singing ex-boyfriend schemes to horn in on.
Pixie Dust Budget: $10M - $30M | Comedy Two modern-day University of Minnesota-Twin Cities students start their own sorority in order to reach out to other female UMN-Twin Cities students tired of being marginalized.
Small Flyers Budget: $30M+ | Drama ⋄ Comedy In 1946 Albuquerque, two preteen girls decide to take up flying...surprising their father, a World War 2 Army Air Corps pilot struggling to readjust to civilian life, where female aviators still aren't respected.
Really Old School Budget: $10M - $30M | Comedy ⋄ Family Inspired by a piece of 1910s sheet music, a modern-day Omaha, NE teenager wants to honor and emulate the tune's author: Her newly-deceased great-grandmother, a ragtime-era composer-musician-bandleader-arranger.
Rivertown Rock! Budget: $10M - $30M | Comedy ⋄ Family It's Sunday, February 9, 1964...when the Beatles' appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show inspires a Sioux City, IA teenager to start her own rock group and show that girls can play the music, too.
Gayle Strawberry and Her Soda Pop Music Makers Budget: $30M+ | Comedy ⋄ Drama It's the summer of 1942, and a Los Angeles teenager starts her own swing band in the hopes of entering it in the first annual National Swing Contest.
Andrea Budget: $5M - $10M | Comedy Seeking coveted hands-on instructional experience, and to convert prostitutes, a modern-day music-education student at California State University, Long Beach teaches melodies to the hookers working at a Los Angeles massage parlor.
Yes, Indeed! Budget: $10M - $30M | Comedy Tired of being out of showbiz, two child TV stars of the 1970s ride the late-1980s swing revival by forming their own big band in hopes of playing a respected Los Angeles jazz club.
Playing for Pride Budget: $10M - $30M | Drama ⋄ Comedy Inspired by radio's The Hour of Charm and eager to repay a colorful mentor, an elementary school teacher in 1935 Lincoln, NE sets out to establish and conduct a women's symphony orchestra.
Down to One Budget: $100K - $1M | Drama ⋄ Comedy A single juror's painstaking caution forces her otherwise-preoccupied, totally-entrenched colleagues to carefully consider the evidence for a highly-informed decision in a murder trial in modern-day Charlotte, NC.
Pipe Up! Budget: $5M - $10M | Sports ⋄ Comedy An Arizona Cardinals cheerleader, a frustrated musician following in her late granddad's famous footsteps, seeks to save a landmark restaurant in contemporary Mesa, AZ from becoming the area's new Department of Homeland Security headquarters.
Fuller's Folly Budget: $10M - $30M | Drama ⋄ Comedy Driven by her unbroken adventurous spirit, a former slave uses her life's savings to buy an old steamboat and book passengers for tours down the Mississippi River in 1865 Davenport, IA.
Got Any More Bullets, Sister? Budget: $30M+ | Comedy ⋄ Crime Two siblings struggling as vendors in 1930 Cleveland seek to better their lives...but while one woman, a bashful sort, decides to enter music, her domineering sister chooses a life of crime.
Cynthia Harmon Budget: $10M - $30M | Family ⋄ Comedy A talented, inventive collegian in search of a vaudeville career in 1924 Detroit squares off against her adopting aunt...a jealous, cutthroat theatrical agent grooming her own three showbiz-minded daughters.
Long Way Budget: $10M - $30M | Comedy Annoyed with the demands of their present jobs in modern-day St. Louis, a food server and her best buddy, an office worker, seek to follow in their grandmothers' footsteps...as truckers.
Golden Oldies Budget: $10M - $30M | Comedy ⋄ Drama Thanks to a phone call from a fellow former Iowa State University student, a librarian in modern-day Ames, IA looks to put her old rock band back together...and conquer a legendary local venue.
Shorthose and Flaxbeard Budget: $10M - $30M | Comedy An inept comic magician playing Seattle in 1917 seeks to turn her career around by landing herself a partner...a beloved theater organist-piano teacher who's fascinated with vaudeville.
Bleeding Gums Budget: $10M - $30M | Comedy A math teacher at an all-girls' high school in present-day Omaha, NE seeks to fill a void in her school's activities by forming its first jazz band.
Intervention! Budget: $5M - $10M | Drama ⋄ Comedy Angry over years of racist slights, four neighboring families in present-day San Diego entice the perpetrators into a sensitivity-training weekend...and hope to teach them about the value of unity.
Pushing the Envelope Budget: $5M - $10M | Comedy A psychology major and a film buff put their University of Oklahoma sorority on the line in an effort to determine if "Animal House" antics fly in today's campus climate.
The Street Piano Kid Budget: $5M - $10M | Family ⋄ Comedy Looking to get people in her community to interact with each other, a modern-day Las Vegas teenager seeks to bring those colorfully-painted outdoor pianos to Sin City...America's last major holdout municipality.
Edna's Garage (S1E1) Budget: $1M - $5M | Comedy Swamped with more vehicles than time to fix them, the three mechanics at an auto-repair firm in modern-day New Orleans cajole their boss into hiring an extra coworker to lighten the load.
The Entertainers
by Wut Wut Alma Productions/Nick Holle and Michael Zimmer
Self
Second round- Black Boy Writes & Black Girl Writes Mentorship Initiative ("Edna's Garage" pilot)
(2023)