Screenplays

(comedy/action/drama) Logline: In Mexico, a drug cartel boss kidnaps a washed-up Hollywood director, and the two are driven to insanity while shooting a documentary about the boss's once-powerful cartel--a project meant to help both men reclaim lost glory. Synopsis: After his latest film flops, once-famous director BURT ROMAN, 50, travels from LA to Mexico with his loyal producer, REUBEN REYNOLDS, 45, to get his mind off the fact that his career is essentially over. While sipping drinks at a cantina and complaining about how the glory days of cinema are now behind them, Burt and Reuben are kidnapped by members of a drug cartel run

A group of friends from a working-class Detroit neighborhood cheat their way through a three-on-three basketball tournament to prove to themselves that they’re not losers (WHITE MEN CAN’T JUMP meets THE HANGOVER).

In a dystopian world where killing a killer brings their victim(s) back to life, ex-soldier turned bounty hunter Daniela Dushane makes a killing killing killers as she walks the fine line between hero and villain (THE NICE GUYS meets THE PUNISHER).   Awards/Honors:

• ISA Fast Track Fellowship, 2022, Second Round Selection
• ISA Drama Genre-Busting Screenplay Competition, 2021, Quarterfinalist

James Caverela is a financially successful, but unhappy, novelist living in Madrid. When he hears that his best friend has been murdered in Buffalo, NY, the town where they grew up together, he reluctantly returns for the funeral. Driving through his old working-class neighborhood, James sees several sites that draw him into memory. An eleven-year old James and his older brother, Dan, play basketball to escape the religious indoctrination and abuse that they are subjected to at home and at Catholic school. Through their athletic skills and determination, they impress the punks who run the local basketball court, Dellwood, and are accepted as

Thirty-year-old Zyanya “Zoe” Hall is a half-Mexican, half-American dual citizen who returns to her hometown of Oaxaca, Mexico after living in New York for the past seven years and trying, unsuccessfully, to make it as a dancer. Zoe sees herself as a New Yorker—progressive and socially/politically conscious—and dislikes the idea of having to return to a city where political corruption reigns, and where women and the Indigenous are second-class citizens. A few weeks before Zoe returns to Oaxaca, a young Indigenous girl was raped and killed in broad daylight, and the town is alive with protest. The mayor, nearing

After graduating from a Peruvian university, twenty-one-year-old Sofi Diaz has difficulty finding a job in her native country. She applies at a ski resort in Montana through a work-abroad program and is hired. Though she’s scared to leave Peru, she accepts the position because she feels compelled to financially support her emotionally-abusive alcoholic mother and because she believes the trip could help her find some form of relief from the obsessive-compulsive disorder that has dominated her life since her father left the family the year before. Though she travels thousands of miles from her mother, Sofi finds herself right back in

Cody Swanson is born deaf into a working-class family in rural Wisconsin. As he grows up, he watches his father continuously beat down his mother, both physically and emotionally, and Cody escapes into a lonely world of silence. But after a touching encounter with a wild husky that wanders in his backyard, Cody is miraculously able to hear. Cody develops a strong love of animals and pledges his life to protecting them—an ill-fated goal, as it is at odds with the tradition of the generations of Swansons who've worked in the town slaughterhouse and the expectation of Cody’s father that

A first-year teacher in an at-risk Los Angeles middle school finds the inspiration to confront his bullies through his interactions with a lovable, but equally teased student. Request Script Awards/honors:

• Aura Screenwriter Awards, 2015, Finalist
• New Renaissance Film Festival, 2017, Finalist
• Courier Awards, 2015, Semifinalist
• Marquee Lights Competition, 2015, Semifinalist
• Los Angeles CineFest, 2016, Official Selection
• Lake Charles Film Festival, 2016, Official Selection
• Hollywood Sky International Film Festival, 2015, Official Selection
• NewLife Film & Script & Music Festival, 2016, Official Selection
• Ranked 2^nd in the Urban category, 8^th in the Drama category, and 9^th in the Comedy category of MovieBytes.com’s