The TV Addict 

In this particular column I will highlight what I find to be the most interesting screenplay sales of the past month, whether they be original scripts, pitches, or proposed adaptations of existing material (books, previous films, etc). All information below and in future columns come courtesy of Done Deal Pro.

Most Promising Original Scripts

Title: RITES OF SPRING
Logline: A father, intent on avenging his murdered son, crosses paths with a serial killer targeting teens.
Writer: Padraig Reynolds
Comments: Though generally I’m really not a fan of the whole revenge genre, for some reason I find the notion of a grieving father going after not just some ordinary hoodlums but an actual serial killer kind of exciting and intriguing.

Title: THE HERETIC
Plot: A fallen priest-turned-hitman is sent by a rogue archbishop to assassinate Martin Luther, only to discover that not everyone is telling the truth.
Writer: Javier Rodriguez
Comments: I’ll admit I’m of two minds on this project. On the one hand the alternate-history sucker in me loves the idea of someone wanting to track down and kill Martin Luther. Then again, given the religious wars going on during that time period, maybe it’s not such a stretch. I also am a little intrigued by the basic concept of a priest gone hitman (seriously, how does one make THAT transition?). There’s also the fact that during this time hitman didn’t have the benefit of guns, silences, sniper rifles, etc. The thing that has me wary of this project though is that if I have to watch one more hitman movie where “not everyone is telling the truth” and either the hitman grows a conscience, or gets betrayed by his employers, or falls in love, I might become an assassin myself just to show ‘em how it’s done.

Most Promising Adaptations 


Title: THE HEART HAS ITS REASONS
Plot: An unlikely romance develops between a 27-year old convicted murderer and a 48-year-old social worker who is a married mother of two, when she smuggles the young man out of prison. They run away together with $42,000 of her retirement money before they are caught in a cabin in Tennessee.

Writer: Kevin Helliker

Comments: If this gets treated as a character study, I think this could be really interesting way of exploring the psychology of what might possibly draw these two together. Especially what would cause a married, much older woman, to a) fall in love with this guy, and b) risk so much to break him out and run away with him. Also, I dig the title.

Title: ATLANTIS RISING

Plot: Seismic disturbances at sea force world militaries to investigate the deepest part of the world’s ocean, where an underground civilization emerges to wage war with planet Earth. 

Writer: Scott Mitchell Rosenberg (creator of original source material)

Comments: Though this is pretty blatantly a rip-off of both the Sub-Mariner from Marvel Comics, and Aquaman from DC comics, if this is done on an ambitious enough summer blockbuster scale (and not entirely underwater) this might actually be rather exciting. Maybe it’s also just that I have a nerdy obsession with Atlantis. I once wanted to write an Indiana Jones script where he finds clues to its location on some of the legendary missing scrolls from the Library of Alexandria. That’s probably the closest I ever came to fan fiction. Listen, I can sense your judging eyes. Stop it.