More Scripts R Us

As I mentioned last Monday I have been considering selling off my shelf of 37 scripts to anyone for any amount.  At least I think it's 36 movie scripts.  One of them was almost made, the poster above tells it.

And not counting a half dozen episodic pilot scripts. One of them is Travel Day above. More of it near the  bottom.

And for the most part, I'd say about a little over half of those scripts are still good. The others are good, but too far dated.

One of the latest screenplays is really good.  It's called The President's Heart. And it's about a female President in Europe who has to have a heart transplant secretly. 

Female President?

I wrote it 3 years ago and got this from a Black List reader. Not the TV show but a film websight where you can get your script read by so-called readers. Here's the website.

The Black List 

Actually the reader was quite good to my screenplay but it didn't get around too much. And the idea of a woman president isn't all that different as I think it's been done a few times. There are a few nibbles but nobody's jumping on it so far.

I really had no intention to consider Hillary at all. But some people thought I was trashing her by suggestion. Actually I'm solid liberal, worked for Bobby Kennedy before he got shot. 

Which reminds me of something else. Why are there so few conservative writers and directors in Hollywood, or anywhere for that much. I'll leave that for another blog.

So why did I write so many scripts. First of all it goes back to around 1980 and my second feature script, Ghostkeeper and which I made as writer and director.

Not a great script, but it gets some interest and I think is coming out in Blu-ray sometime soon this spring.

Now, to understand how I wrote 37 spec scripts. Because I like to write for one thing, but also to try to make money too. And if a script I write doesn't get bought within a year, I stash it on the shelf and start another.

My best agent once said this about me; "Unlike many writers Jim likes to write."

And I can add; because I get a lot of ideas. How about these:

A Russian sub sinks in the deep Pacific and an American ship attempts to bring it up for technology. But the sunken sub isn't dead, in fact it was an experiment gone wrong dealing with morphing human creatures.

Okay, that's a little over the top. Here's a few more:

Secrets of the Salmon - A messed-up woman film exec returns to her fishing village home town to confront her father for a past sin and thus she will cleanse herself. Except when she sees him again, he has Alzheimer's and doesn't recognize her.

Dead/Not Dead - A Seattle cop trailing a killer realizes that the man he's looking for was executed.

Emperor of Mars - is a story about a young boy who thinks that someone called the Emperor of Mars is coming to our planet and specifically to his town.

Travel Day - is based on a true story about a fading movie star, a struggling actor and a driver heading for a distant location filming.

So you either like the scripts or hate them -- or don't care. And you can see I'm not locked into any genre. I think?

Just thinking... maybe I should write a full blog with my titles. I'm sure you won't steal them? Would you?

Well, my scripts are all registered but I really never thought anyone who would steal an idea from me.

For one thing, everyone writes differently. I can give you the President's Heart and you could write something very different. Probably better.

And then there's Burger Zombies.

Believe it or not, this is the oldest screenplay even before Ghostkeeper. And it gets emails and phone calls about twice a year. Still never made and way before the zombie stuff going on now.I wrote it in 1988 -- I think.

By the way, while my listing of crew is 47 readers, it's more like 300-350 with USA and Russia leading the most. Go figure.

But right now, I'm considering what to do with all my unsold babies.

Sleep gently into the night.....