Explore my forthcoming feature screenplays.
Please contact me if you would like to read or develop one.
MANITOU PASSAGE
God’s wrath were wrought on schooner when
Waves and her bow did break
Fore’dained to founder realm of men
Ship slipped under the surf and then—
(LO, how her crew did quake!)
She slipped under the surf and then
Drank deeply of the lake.
1983. A 21-year-old, flunking, broke and alcoholic logger receives the key to his grandmother's safety deposit box, which contains clues to a family fortune that sunk in Lake Michigan in the 1800s. He returns to Michigan and pursues the treasure on a derelict sailboat, but he's forced to contend with the abusive father he shunned, and the girlfriend/child he abandoned as a teenage father.
NORTHKILL
"After what was passed this day you are now one of us by an old strong law and custom. My son, you have now nothing to fear; we are now under the same obligations to love, support, and defend you, that we are to love and defend one another. Therefore you are to consider yourself as one of our people."
1755. A pacifist farmer emigrates his family from the Swiss Alps to the Pennsylvania frontier to avoid mandatory military service, but becomes trapped between the warring British, French, and Native Americans on his new frontier homestead. When his home comes under attack by natives and French, he refuses to fight back, and he and two sons are taken captive, while the rest of the family is killed. In captivity he must contend with his choices, and try to escape with his resentful sons, who are adopted and drawn into the freer, wilder lifestyle of the Delaware Tribe. Inspired by true lives and legends.
RAIL MEN
That’s where our story begins. The railroad caboose. An iconic vestige of the long-lost Rail Man. Think bluegrass and warbling harmonica. This red carriage bore him over river and under mountain, through the Adirondaks, down the Chesapeake, up to the Great Lakes, and yonder through the plains. The caboose promised adventure and safety. It was a warm hearth to return to after a frigid night flagging for the southbound. It was cookery, office, bunk, parlor, potty, and more home than home for most old-timers as it bore them down those shinin', twin-ribbons of steel.
1916. A rail yard worker on the run from his past gets the chance to join on a caboose with a rowdy and cantankerous train crew. He's the new guy, the odd man out, constantly berated for his inexperience and mistakes. He and the brakeman are both in love with the stringent stationmaster's daughter, and fierce competition for her hand ensues.