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“ WE WILL CREATE AN AMERICAN FILM INSTITUTE,

BRINGING TOGETHER LEADING ARTISTS OF THE FILM

INDUSTRY, OUTSTANDING EDUCATORS AND YOUNG

MEN AND WOMEN WHO WISH TO PURSUE THIS

20TH-CENTURY ART FORM AS THEIR LIFE’S WORK.”

— President Lyndon B. Johnson White House Rose Garden September 29, 1965

Y O U R A M E R I C A N F I L M I N S T I T U T E

AF I IS AMERICA’S PROMISE TO PRESERVE

THE HISTORY OF THE MOTION P ICTURE,

TO HONOR THE ARTISTS AND THEIR WORK

AND TO EDUCATE THE NEXT GENERATION

OF STORYTEL LERS.

A F I P ROV IDES L EADERSH I P IN F I LM ,

TELEV IS ION AND DIGITAL MEDIA AND IS

DEDICATED TO INITIATIVES THAT ENGAGE THE

PAST, THE PRESENT AND THE FUTURE OF THE

MOVING IMAGE ARTS.

At the world-renowned AFI Conservatory, a program of the American Film Institute, filmmakers from around the world are mentored by a dedicated group of work ing professionals from film and television in a hands-on, production-based environment.

With an emphasis on narrative visual storytelling and personal expression, each class breaks into teams that mirror a professional film production. Those teams collaborate on and produce more films than any other post-graduate film program.

Since 1969, over 4,300 artists have graduated from the AFI Conservatory. Their collective work is a promise fulfilled — to educate the next generation of filmmakers.

AFI relies on your generosity to help fund its programs and initiatives. To find out more, visit AFI.com.

A M E R I C A ’ S C O N S E R V A T O R Y F O R F I L M M A K E R S

SCREENWRITING SHOWCASE2

A F I C O N S E R V A T O R Y M I S S I O N

The Conservatory at the American Film Institute identifies and serves future leaders in the art of motion pictures. As an institution with the mission of educating storytellers, we seek those who have stories to tell, and whose language of choice is motion pictures.

The Conservatory is committed to the idea that motion pictures are a major influence on both our culture and society. While teaching the craft of making motion pictures to cinematographers, directors, editors, production designers, producers and screenwriters, the Conservatory is dedicated to the art that each discipline serves — the art of storytelling.

3 SCREENWRITING SHOWCASE

During their two-year residency at AFI, our Screenwriting Fellows do an enormous amount of writing—in addition to acquiring frontline on-the-set experience on their own films and those of their classmates. They go out to meet the professional world (you) with bulging portfolios of screenplays in motion pictures, television, short films and new media, some of which are summarized in this booklet. But summaries can only give concepts: the real test for all writers is how well they get their stories on the page (or screen)— i.e., how well can they write? That question can only be answered by reading the full screenplay, which I urge you to do for any of the following concepts that appeal to you. If you’re looking for talent, you won’t be wasting your time.


TOM RICKMANSenior Filmmaker-In-Residence: Screenwriting

A MESSAGE FROM THE CONSERVATORY

THE FLESH AND THE SPIRIT | DRAMA/HORROR In the isolating wilderness of Montana, a withdrawn young woman is bitten by a rabid wolf and struggles to repress her unusual and violent symptoms from her suspicious fiancée, until she meets a mystical, kindred spirit who attributes her sickness to a higher power.

HIGHER | COMING-OF-AGE DRAMA Haunted by the violent death of his father, a teenage soccer hooligan escapes his bleak life in Liverpool to join his DJ cousin and a band of eccentrics in the underground world of London’s Acid House raves. But as the high of this utopia inevitably peaks, he must face the reality he left behind or succumb to the drug consuming his newfound friends.

EMILY ACKERMAN 973.768.9719 • [email protected]


BOTTOMLAND | ONE-HOUR HISTORICAL DRAMA PILOT After returning home from the Civil War to find his home in ruins, the progressive heir to a Creole plantation sets out to rebuild the past while struggling to bring his traditionalist family to accept the future of a newly freed South. HARLEM VALLEY | PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER/MINI -SERIES An Auschwitz survivor who lost her twin sister at the hands of the camp’s notorious doctor, Josef Mengele, finds work at Harlem Valley State Hospital, only to discover America’s depraved asylums may be directly linked to humanity’s most vile offenders.

TVRecipient of the Stanley Kamen Endowed Scholarship

mailto:[email protected]


MOVEME | SCI -FI/DRAMAA human-machine hybrid called Daisy finds refuge from her broken family in the futuristic film town of Moveme, where movies are meticulously designed for the needs and desires of each viewer, and brought to life by human-machine hybrids, in a hi-tech wonderland.

THE OTHER US | SCI -FI/DRAMA A scientist prepares a superior cloned version of his family for space exploration. Together with his two daughters and his wife, he teaches the mirrored family about life and the human experience. But when the doppelgängers head out through space, they encounter an even more advanced version of themselves, which casts doubt on their mission. STARLESS NIGHTS | DRAMA/WAR In a kibbutz in Northern Israel, stuck in the cross fire between Israel and Lebanon, a redhead wild child with an overly active imagination struggles to grow up in a bomb shelter.

MAYA ALEXANDER 917.554.9161 • [email protected]

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BLUE HONEY | ONE-HOUR SCI -FI/THRILLER PILOT After the disappearance of her roommate, a spunky grad student uncovers a dangerous serum with supernatural effects that is secretly being tested on students in the university labs.

GENTLE PEOPLE | HALF-HOUR COMEDY/DRAMA PILOT A British writer with a flair for drama and a single mother on the side finds unexpected comfort and inspiration in the company of three broken families, all trying to survive their own tragedies and life in the suburbs of New Jersey.


K-9 ACADEMY | ANIMATED/FAMILY FILM 2013 Emerging Screenwriters Grand Prize Winner; 2014 Table Read My Screenplay, Winner Animated/Fantasy Category; 7th Annual StoryPros Finalist When a clever Boston Terrier with a criminal past becomes the newest recruit at the police K-9 Academy, he must learn how to work as part of a squad, uphold the law and defeat his supervillain owners.

THE WHEELMAN | COMEDY 2014 Creative World Awards Grand Prize Winner; 2014 Table Read My Screenplay, London Grand Prize Winner; 7th Annual StoryPros, Second Place Comedy Category; 2014 PAGE International Screenwriting Awards Finalist; 2014 ScreenCraft Comedy Script Semifinalist

After a rule-loving driving instructor is carjacked and forced to help a bank robber evade the police, he is recruited into the high-speed world of getaway driving for a group of elite thieves.

DEREK ASAFF 781.405.3826 • [email protected]


AFTER THE MERGE | ONE-HOUR DRAMA PILOT One year after two nearly identical Earths merge, doubling the population, a New York City homicide detective solves crimes involving inter-dimensional doppelgängers. SHELTERED | HALF-HOUR COMEDY PILOT A quirky former ward of the state struggles to keep her lavish animal shelter open with the reluctant help of the billionaire playboy who uses her animals to meet women. WARDEN | ONE-HOUR DRAMA PILOT After an innocent man is executed under his watch, a California Department of Corrections warden leaves his job and begins a career exonerating the wrongfully convicted through whatever means necessary.

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Recipient of a 2013–14 AFI Scholarship, the Frank D. Lanterman Production Award and the ARRI Alexa Production Grant



FABIO | ROMANTIC COMEDY A lovesick food truck chef who has never left South Philly travels to Italy, where he falls for a promiscuous mushroom hunter who shows him adventure and “amore.”

MARTIAN AMERICAN | AFI THESIS —SCI -FI/COMEDY A starry-eyed lonely Martian travels to LA for the time of his life but when faced with adversity, culture shock and self doubt, he struggles to find the courage to stay.

THE OCTOPUS WRESTLER | SPORTS COMEDY The black sheep of a family of bodybuilders becomes an overnight sensation after he inadvertently wrestles a giant Pacific octopus in a Hawaiian roadside aquarium.

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CAMPUS SECURITY | HALF-HOUR COMEDY Looking for the college experience he never had, a twentysomething underachiever joins a ragtag group of eccentric security guards at an unruly party school.

SUBURBAN TURBO | HALF-HOUR COMEDY After he loses his wife, his job and his dignity, a suburban straight-shooter starts drag racing in hopes of recovering his mojo.

JOHN BARR 215.630.1838 • [email protected]


BOB BARTH 646.221.9773 • [email protected]


MALIBU TANGO | COMEDY A cranky cop dealing with separation anxiety as his only daughter leaves for college teams up with an eccentric psychiatrist with mommy issues to bust a Malibu rehab facility that is holding their high-end patients for ransom.

TICK, TICK, BOOM | COMEDY, CO-WRITTEN WITH DEREK USTRUCK When a charming but self-absorbed community college professor suspects the new hire is trying to build an atomic bomb, he has to team up with his soon-to-be ex-son-in-law and a headstrong academic rival to stop the plot before the bomb goes off.

UNDER PRESSURE | COMEDY/MUSICAL A middle-aged man gets a second chance at rock stardom and finds himself torn between his love for his family and his passion for music.

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THE IMPOSTORS | HALF-HOUR COMEDY PILOT Two unemployed New York City improv comics and one-time lovers are hired by an eccentric private detective to assist in his investigations. Their lives get infinitely more exciting and combative as he sends them out on cases using the only weapon they have: utter bullshit.

SHOWGIRL | ONE-HOUR DRAMA SERIES PILOT A young Broadway dancer must embrace her dark side as she navigates the murky waters of Las Vegas as a headlining showgirl.



GREENBRIER | FULL THROTTLE ACTION An ex-gang member on work release at the luxury Greenbrier Hotel must stop a terrorist cult from launching a nuclear strike from the Cold War-era bunker beneath the resort.

SANDSTORM | FANTASY EPIC A young, wide-eyed prince of a medieval kingdom travels to a forgotten desert empire to save his dying father from the demon army threatening his homeland.

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DURANGO | ONE-HOUR DRAMA PILOT

In 1866 Mexico, a cocky cowboy with a murky past, an escaped slave who can track a falcon on a cloudy day, a former Confederate sapper with a hankerin’ for Kentucky moonshine and a Hasidic Jew who used to be a sniper for the Union (just not on Shabbat) are framed for the assassination of a wealthy land baron. Now they travel from town to town, evading Federales and unraveling the conspiracy against them while helping the downtrodden along the way.

ROBERT S. BRICKMAN 843.709.2222 • [email protected]


RYLOR | COMEDY At Burning Man, a stressed young corporate lawyer joins forces with Rylor, King of Azmandar, in order to find hallucinogenic mushrooms for her boss.

THE SMARTEST GIRL IN LANCASTER | COMING-OF-AGE DRAMA/COMEDY An obnoxious teenage girl mechanic solicits the help of a washed-up former derivatives trader in order to get into Caltech.

TARA DE SILVA 661.305.0058 • [email protected]


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ONE THOUSAND AND ONE MINUTES | ONE-HOUR DRAMEDY Based loosely on “The Arabian Nights.” An eccentric Iranian-American FBI hostage negotiator uses her gift of storytelling to keep her captive audience alive. Episodes take place in real time.

SKIRTS | HALF-HOUR COMEDY An ambitious and misunderstood Sri Lankan teenager leaves her rowdy hick public school for an elite all-girls boarding school in Connecticut, only to find it’s the wealthier version of the place she just left. In order to fit in, she attempts to befriend the only other minorities there — the girls on the school’s student disciplinary committee.



EDUCATING YIFANG | TEEN COMEDYWhen a fashion-obsessed high school student is forced to transfer to a rigorous boarding school, she must learn the hard way that knowledge — not clothing — is always in style.

LYDIA KNOWS BEST | COMEDYA by-the-book high school guidance counselor must resolve her own relationship issues to put an end to her school’s bullying problem.

THE TRANSFER | TEEN COMEDYWhen a wannabe bad girl is sent to a religious college, she must let go of her own prejudices if she’s going to succeed in saving the saved.

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FUTURE CAT LADIES | HALF-HOUR COMEDYWhen a failed NYC fashion designer returns to her hometown and moves in with her childhood best friends, she discovers that bringing big-city fashion to a small town — and reigniting old friendships — won’t be easy.

NOSTALGIA | ONE HOUR SCI -FI DRAMEDYWhen a twentysomething employee at a failing Sears discovers a time portal in the Loss Prevention office, he must choose between living in the present and “living it up” in the 1980s.

PINNACLE PEAK | HALF-HOUR WORKPLACE COMEDYA dying small-town newspaper finds its hero in the form of a twentysomething journalist, an emotional wreck whose first assignment is writing about her ex-boyfriend’s engagement.

PAIGE DEVITT 623.205.1596 • paigesdevit [email protected]

Recipient of the AFI China Story Fellowship AFI Nominee, 2013 Humanitas Angell Comedy Fellowship for BITTER STRIPPERS, co-written with Lindsay Golder


RODRIGO ESPINOSA-MARVÁN 310.463.0384 • [email protected]

BIG WILLY | COMEDY Little Willy, the resident playboy and heir-apparent at Elsinore Trailer Park, is finally forced to grow up when he finds out that his evil stepdad plans to sell off the park his late father built. THE MISSION | COMEDY Four 12-year-olds in the pre-Internet age of the ‘90s embark on an adventure to watch porn for the very first time.

VLADO | AFI THESIS—DRAMA Set in the context of the Brazilian military dictatorship, the story follows the final night in the life of journalist Vladimir Herzog as he has to choose between serving his country or protecting himself.



ADAM FIDLER 516.708.3222 • [email protected]

HANGING KINGS | DRAMAA 12-year-old African-American girl uses her newfound talent in chess to escape her troubled life in an impoverished borough of downtown Miami, but learns that it doesn’t matter where you are or who you’re with—happiness comes from within.

SYRACUSE | HISTORICAL EPIC/DRAMA In 215 BC, famed inventor and mathematician Archimedes is hired to create weapons to defend his beloved city, Syracuse, but with the Roman threat looming, he must ultimately choose between saving his city and saving his daughter.

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BENTWATER | COMEDY/ACTION/ADVENTURE/HALF-HOUR SERIES PILOT A once-prominent 30-year-old celebrity travel connoisseur must get his “once-in-a-lifetime adventure” business back on track after his former partner steals all of his high-profile clients.

ETCHED IN STONE (THE AMERICAN LEGEND OF JOHN HENRY) | HISTORICAL EPIC/DRAMA A three-hour miniseries set in 1850–70s Virginia that chronicles the life of legendary steel-driving man John Henry, as he grows from a fearful young wanderer to the larger-than-life, powerful symbol of hope and leadership that inspired his fellow African-American workers to persevere.



SEMONE FOURNILLIER 813.727.4575 • [email protected]

STFU | DRAMA, SUSPENSE/THRILLER After escaping from Tampa, Florida to Trinidad, 18-year-old twin fugitive arsonists, who refuse to speak to anyone except each other, end up fighting to the death when the weaker of the two wants her own identity. A WARM, SOFT BODY NEXT TO ME | BLACK COMEDY A scorned forensics technician, bumped down to mortician, falls in love with a woman who kills her abusive boyfriend and helps her cover up the crime while staying one step ahead of a corrupt homicide detective and the deceased’s psychotic older brother.

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THE TRAGICOMICALLY SUPER-POWERED ADVENTURES OF GAMMA-RAY GIRL ONE-HOUR DRAMEDY/ACTION PILOT When a bullied 16-year-old African-American Catholic schoolgirl develops superpowers after her hair is treated with relaxer, she must protect her fellow students from the clutches of an evil mega-corporation bent on taking over the world.

Recipient of the Del Reisman Scholarship



LUCIA B. GAYOSO 612.381.6356 • [email protected]

DISEASES OF THE HEART | SCI -FI DRAMA In the near future, during a pandemic of heart disease, a lonely Argentinian medical scientist in her mid-20s must go undercover to report on her med school mentor and former lover who is said to have gone mad after his wife’s disappearance. When she discovers his secret lab-grown heart experiments, she must choose between her love for this man and turning him in.

TALES OF A WEALTHY KLEPTOMANIAC | DRAMA A spoiled and arrogant 16-year-old Argentine teen with an impulse to steal blames a robbery on his Brazilian maid and gets her fired. As his kleptomania spins out of control, he ends up hiding from the police in his maid’s humble household and learns wise lessons from her.

ULA’S DRESSING ROOM | SUSPENSE DRAMA An abused, isolated, 19-year-old Ukrainian dressmaker must kidnap her younger sister to prevent her from falling into the same incestuous relationship she has endured with her uncle, a powerful, corrupt judge, and summons the help of her only friend and her boss so they can safely escape to Romania.

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THE CLOSETS | ONE-HOUR MYSTERY DRAMA/LIMITED SERIES PILOT At an ultra-religious Lutheran college, a closeted homosexual freshman confronts his sexual identity when his best friend confesses to him he is gay, in love with him and, shortly after, commits suicide. When he discovers his friend was actually the victim of a homophobic prank that the Lutheran school is trying to cover up, he embarks on an investigation and, with the help of a new, openly gay conspirator, brings the shocking truth to light.



LINDSAY GOLDER 972.365.6347 • [email protected]

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BITTER STRIPPERS | HALF-HOUR COMEDY, CO-WRITTEN WITH PAIGE DEVITT 2013 Humanitas Angell Comedy Fellowship, AFI Nominee When a recent Women’s Studies graduate fails to score her dream job, she finds another way to support the feminist cause: by becoming a stripper at Daddy Issues Gentlemen’s Club.

STONE | ONE-HOUR DRAMA/FANTASY After an orphan discovers she is the modern descendant of Medusa, she and her two long-lost sisters must learn to use their supernatural powers to protect others and control the monster within.

STUBS | HALF-HOUR COMEDY 2014 Broad Humor Film Festival Winner, Best Original Comedy Pilot; 2014 LA Femme International Film Festival Finalist, Best Screenplay A raunchy, foul-mouthed amputee cons his way through his new job coaching a girls high school softball team.

LEFTOVER GUYS | COMEDY A struggling cook in Shanghai enlists the help of a professional matchmaker and his aspiring rapper best friend to create an elaborate fake life to impress his visiting parents.

NEW IN BOX | COMEDY 2014 Broad Humor Film Festival Finalist; 2014 ScreenCraft Comedy Script Contest Semifinalist An average high school senior is thrust into the public spotlight when she decides to sell her virginity online. THE PUT-OUT GIRLS | DRAMEDY Three former band groupies reunite at the drummer’s funeral and create a sexual bucket list to become the “real groupies” they always wanted to be.

Recipient of the AFI China Story Fellowship



ELIZABETH KIM 310.740.1138 • [email protected]

Recipient of a 2013–14 AFI Scholarship and the ARRI Alexa Production Grant

THE BRAIN MIRROR | HISTORICAL DRAMA Alfred P. Sloan Screenwriting Award In 1940, a Jewish neuroscientist travels to her German hometown to evaluate Hans Berger, a Nobel Prize candidate for inventing the electroencephalogram, who might also be involved in her father’s disappearance.

EGREGIOUS | COMEDY Enraged over fan backlash, a megalomaniacal superstar rapper decides to deprive the ungrateful world of his music by faking his own death and, in hiding, learns to value human connection over fame.

YET ANOTHER REASON I’LL DIE ALONE | ROMANTIC COMEDY After yet another bad breakup, a mathematics graduate student creates a dating algorithm to generate her perfect match, forgetting a crucial variable: her own stupid, self-sabotaging heart.

FRENEMIES | HALF-HOUR COMEDY PILOT A jaded, sarcastic assistant at a tabloid infiltrates a posh rehab center to befriend a troubled suicidal pop star and her sycophantic assistant.

MY MEDIOCRITY IS KILLING MY FAMILY | HALF-HOUR COMEDY PILOT Humanitas Angell Comedy Fellowship, AFI NomineeAfter an overachieving former med student is suspended and moves home to her disappointed Type-A family, she becomes unwittingly Internet-famous as the face of Asian-American mediocrity.

ZANDER BRIXX | HALF-HOUR COMEDY PILOT A pushover’s life is turned upside down when she begins to hallucinate Zander Brixx, a recently deceased rock god, who decides she needs to take charge of her life, whether she likes it or not.

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KENDELL COURTNEY KLEIN 504.913.4890 • [email protected]

THE AUTHOR AND THE AERONAUT | BIOPIC/DRAMA 2014 Nicholl Fellowship Semifinalist; 2013 Slamdance QuarterfinalistAfter soaring above Paris in the first airship, aviation pioneer Alberto Santos-Dumont meets his boyhood idol, science-fiction author Jules Verne, and vows to reignite Verne’s faith, not only in flight — but also in mankind.

CHAS ADDAMS | BIOPIC/DARK COMEDY 2014 Nicholl Fellowship Quarterfinalist After The New Yorker cartoonist Charles Addams unexpectedly dies, he awakens in the macabre limbo of his unfinished legacy, “The Addams Family”, and must escape the ghoulish world of his twisted art in order to keep a promise made to his wife — to haunt her eternally. JANE | BIOPIC/DRAMA Tanzania, 1960. Primatologist Jane Goodall navigates the treacherous jungle, battles malaria, first love, scientific scrutiny and her own social isolation, in order to complete a revelatory study of wild chimpanzees that raises the ultimate question — what does it mean to be human? TINY | BIOPIC/DRAMEDY Set amid the tumultuous 1960s, follow the interstellar voyage through the eccentric life and career of singer Tiny Tim as he “tiptoes through the tulips” and onto American televisions with the earnest dream of being the first singer on the moon.

PECULIAR INSTITUTION | ONE-HOUR DRAMA PILOT 2014 Slamdance Quarterfinalist On the eve of the Civil War, a misfit group of “freaks,” masquerading as a sideshow, infiltrate the antebellum South in order to ferry slaves north to freedom by means of the elusive Underground Railroad.

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Recipient of the 2013 Alfred P. Sloan Screenwriting Award and 2013 Tribeca Sloan Student Grand Jury Prize, Honorable Mention, unNATURAL SCIENCE

AFI Nominee, 2014 Humanitas Student Drama Fellowship

AFI Commencement 2014 class speaker



ED LEE 323.839.7648 • [email protected]

Recipient of the Alessandro F. Uzielli Scholarship

AFTER YOU’RE GONE | DRAMEDY An emotionally drained woman, weary after years of taking care of her dying husband, falls for a charming, lonely man who lends money to terminally ill people for a living. Torn between her family obligations and her feelings for this man, she must navigate the murky waters of guilt and love.

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SCREENLAND | ONE-HOUR DRAMA PILOT Humanitas Student Drama Fellowship, AFI NomineeAs the end of World War II rings in the dawn of Hollywood’s Golden Age, a hard-boiled movie studio publicist is charged with keeping the sordid details of movie stars and executives out of the public eye while trying to keep his own tumultuous personal life from spinning out of control.



ROB MATHESON 310.850.0892 • [email protected]


DAMNED IF I DO | COMEDY An undercover FBI agent is forced to accept her target’s marriage proposal and sets out to bring down the mob during her own wedding without falling in love with her fiancé.

MUSICAL CHAIRS | COMEDY A man physically and emotionally scarred by a devastating loss at the National Musical Chairs Competition must enter the contest again as his family’s last hope of saving his dying father’s furniture store. THE WORK HUSBAND | COMEDY A noncommittal boyfriend becomes threatened by his girlfriend’s charming male co-worker and stalks them at a company retreat.

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MINOR PROBLEMS | HALF-HOUR COMEDY PILOT A single mom set on becoming the first female GM in Major League Baseball toils away working for a minor league team and tries to show an office full of sexists that she’s ready for the big time.

Recipient of the Richard Levinson Endowed Scholarship



JONATHAN MONITZ 818.451.3461 • [email protected]

BLUE YODEL | ACTION/ADVENTURE In the wake of the First World War, a sheltered Niagara Falls watchman chases a zeppelin across the United States to rescue the woman of his dreams after she’s kidnapped. Based on a short story by Scott Snyder. LAPSE | SCI -FI/THRILLER In a post-jail society where criminals’ minds are erased, an ex-con inexplicably remembers fragmented memories that conflict with his supposed crime and goes on the run to discover the truth about his past.

RESET | SCI -FI/ACTION In a future when people know the day they’re going to die, a diligent Life Scheduler must uncover why people are dying before they’re “supposed” to.

SON OF A BARMAN | AFI THESIS—DRAMA, CO-WRITTEN WITH BENNETT LASSETER After inheriting a portion of the family pub from his estranged father, a cutthroat businessman travels to Ireland to retain full share of the bar in order to sell it and leave his past behind him.

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SCHOOL SPIRITS | ONE-HOUR DRAMA PILOT When an ambitious college freshman discovers only she can see campus ghosts, she joins a club of ghost hunters to track down evil spirits before they exact revenge on the living as she struggles to balance personal life, schoolwork and ghost-busting.


JOSEPH O’DRISCOLL 801.712.8298 • [email protected]


GROSS ANATOMY | HORROR/THRILLER A lonely and ambitious first-year medical student finds comfort in the arms of her charming but psychotic Gross Anatomy professor, only to fall victim to his violent and morbid obsession for her. THE NICE GUY | COMEDY ScreenCraft Comedy Competition Semifinalist; BlueCat Screenplay Competition, Top Ten Percent A desperate pushover enlists the help of his womanizing roommate to get girls and up his confidence but loses sight of himself in the process.

SCRIPTURES AND CIGARETTES | COMING-OF-AGE DRAMA After a near-death experience, a devout Mormon teenager explores the outside world for the first time, propelling him to choose between what he wants and what’s expected of him.

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GREEN | ONE-HOUR DRAMA SERIES PILOT A rookie police officer raised by Grayfeet Indians returns to her hometown in rural Montana to investigate her father’s death and uncovers a vast smuggling operation at the nearby Indian reservation involving tribal leaders, Canadian drug lords, high-ranking members of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, local police and those closest to her.

SCRIPTURES AND CIGARETTES | ONE-HOUR DRAMA SERIES PILOT Two generations of a Mormon family are torn apart as they navigate love, loss, heartbreak and controversy in polarized modern-day Salt Lake City, Utah.

Recipient of the Stanley Kamen Endowed Scholarship



VANESSA PEGRAM 630.542.0292 • [email protected]

CLEMENTINE | COMEDY A punk-rock teen mysteriously sprouts feathered wings on her 16th birthday and embarks on a cross-country trip to uncover who she really is and why she can’t fly.

THE MANNY | COMEDY A fast-talking accountant is forced to trade in tax forms for tutus when he takes a job as a nanny and faces one problem he just can’t solve: a nine-year-old girl.

ME AND H.E. | BIPOIC/PERIOD DRAMA A rock musician uncovers the shocking past of his radical, physicist father, who was shunned by the scientific community for his theory of multiple universes. Based on the life of American physicist Hugh Everett III and his rock star son, Mark Everett of the band Eels.

THE QUEEN OF DAIRY | COMEDY 2014 Austin Film Festival Quarterfinalist A young woman finds herself in a sticky situation when she accidentally murders her two-timing husband at a Dairy Queen.

ADULT SUPERVISION REQUIRED | HALF-HOUR COMEDY An uptight young woman becomes the live-in caregiver for two adult “millennials” who’ve been allowed to Peter Pan their way through life. PYRO | ONE-HOUR DRAMA SERIES PILOT After being framed for an arson spree in a sleepy Midwestern town, a hotheaded man is released after 10 years in prison and makes it his mission to exact revenge on those who set him up.

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Recipient of a 2013–14 AFI Scholarship and the Joan Schekel Filmmaking Lab Fellowship


BRENDAN ROONEY 310.993.9449 • [email protected]


THE GREEN GRASS | DRAMA After a dispirited Marine amputee discovers his grandfather’s war journal, he sets off for Dublin where he must join a group of debaucherous Irishmen who hold the key to his grandfather’s dying wish or risk never finding the answers that he seeks. PRISM | SCI -FI MYSTERY A troubled young man’s father resurfaces 15 years after his unexplained disappearance, forcing the son to piece together a disjointed past that could destroy what’s left of his fragile sanity. Written and produced in 2013–2014; distribution pending.

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IVY LEAGUE IDIOTS | HALF-HOUR COMEDY After being embarrassed by their university’s most prestigious secret society, two ex-soldier/students band together with a team of like-minded, underprivileged misfits to take down the school’s snobbish elite. Currently in development with Executive Producer Greg Gugliotta.

PARADISE | ONE-HOUR DRAMA In the midst of the September 11th attacks, an unsettled Marine Drill Instructor must curb his PTSD or risk losing control of his newly arrived recruits and his already shattered family.



CARLY STONE 416.471.6064 • [email protected]

THE ARRANGEMENT | COMEDY A college co-ed drowning in debt instead of alcohol attempts to date men for money without ever going to second base. In development at Independent Edge Films.

DARK GIRLS | DRAMA A college freshman struggling with depression finds company in her misery when she forms a dangerous friendship with a mentally unstable female poet. In development at Luber Roklin Entertainment.

TRACKS | AFI THESIS—DRAMA, CO-WRITTEN WITH DIRECTOR LOGAN SANDLER A skateboarder has to babysit his girlfriend’s daughter on the day of a competition that could make or break his skateboarding career.

WANNA GET OUT OF HERE | COMEDY After getting expelled from law school for plagiarism, a desperate young woman tries to lie her way through her dad’s 60th birthday weekend.

THE TEEN AGE | HALF-HOUR COMEDY PILOT 2014 Student Humanitas Award, AFI Nominee Follow four teenagers at summer camp as they shed their city reputations and come of age in the wilderness, one awkward hookup at a time. Optioned by Reunion Pictures.

WANNA GET OUT OF HERE | HALF-HOUR COMEDY PILOT 2014 Fox Global Director’s Initiative Nominee After getting expelled from law school for plagiarism, a desperate young woman attempts to have a one-night stand to avoid going to her parents’ house to break the news.

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DEREK USTRUCK 424.322.8135 • [email protected]

Recipient of the Camadeus Production Grant and the AFI China Story Fellowship

IOWA AND ALASKA | CRIME THRILLER The fates of a drug dealer who is on the hook for a lost load and a detective who is charged with a murder he didn’t commit inexorably intertwine when their desperate search for salvation pulls them into the lair of a serial killer.

NORFLEET | HISTORICAL THRILLER Hellbent on revenge in 1933, a Texas rancher turns the tables on the men who conned him out of his fortune and killed his wife. Along the way, he takes in a precocious orphan girl who joins his scam and helps him fulfill his lethal mission.

STARMAN | AFI THESIS—DRAMAAn aging stuntman has to tour the wreckage of his life in order to raise enough money to make one last daring jump.

TICK, TICK, BOOM | COMEDY, CO-WRITTEN WITH BOB BARTH When a charming but self-absorbed community college professor suspects the new hire is trying to build an atomic bomb, he has to team up with his soon-to-be ex-son-in-law and a headstrong academic rival to stop the plot before the bomb goes off.

YI QI | SCI -FI DRAMA A young boy, still grieving over the loss of his mother, finds his life forever changed when an extraterrestrial android follows him home from one of his explorations of subterranean Beijing.

TV

EVER MORROW | ONE-HOUR DRAMA SERIES/SCI -FI Two hundred years after the Earth was destroyed and humanity was driven underground, a young man leads his people back to the surface where they discover lawlessness reigns supreme and the most dangerous animals of all are the humans that haunt this post-apocalyptic landscape. 27 SCREENWRITING SHOWCASE


RICH VAN TINE 845.702.1950 • [email protected]

Recipient of the David Pincus Memorial Scholarship for Screenwriters

UNTIL THE CANDLE BURNS OUT | THRILLER An adept small-town detective enlists the help of his estranged twin brother after a serial killer from their past resurfaces.

VIGILANTE | THRILLER A year after his family is killed, a self-destructive New York City detective hunts down a vigilante who holds the answers to their murders.

TV

ADMIT ONE | ONE-HOUR DRAMA PILOT Four members of a talented pop/punk band strive to prove themselves during the ‘90s rock era while dealing with their own personal issues.

SILHOUETTE | ONE-HOUR DRAMA PILOT An aging, grizzled hitman devises a plan to take down the mob organization he works for after they threaten to kill his estranged family.



ALEXANDRA WEIR 323.557.7426 • [email protected]


BORDERLINE GANGSTER | CRIME DRAMA A reformed drug smuggler returns home to Detroit determined to live an honest life but gets drawn into the surprising criminal exploits of his seemingly perfect sister. POLITICAL PAWNS | PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER When the prodigal son of a politician returns to New York to help his father’s campaign for governor, he becomes the prime suspect in a murder investigation and must unravel an elaborate conspiracy in order to prove his innocence.

SOCIAL CHAMELEON | PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER An insecure young woman adapts her personality to fit in with everyone she encounters. When she discovers that the father she never met is the CEO of a luxury fashion house, she creates a fake persona to ensure his acceptance, resorting to drastic and violent measures to keep up the charade. TV

AVALONIA | ONE-HOUR SCI -FI/MYSTERY PILOTOn the dystopian tropical island of Avalonia, an ultra-wealthy financial center that is famous for its supposed eradication of crime and poverty, an audacious young woman leads a double life as both a police officer and member of an underground rebel group in order to uncover the city’s dark secrets and ultimately find her missing sister.

EXPAT | ONE-HOUR THRILLER MINISERIES PILOTA naive, broke, American journalism graduate struggles to keep up with a group of rich expats in Hong Kong, especially a captivating British fashion model, but her glamorous new life spirals out of control when she discovers a surprising link between her new friend and a dangerous Hong Kong triad.

SCORDATO | ONE-HOUR DRAMEDY/MYSTERY PILOTAn optimistic father moves his family to California wine country to fix up and flip a dilapidated winery but when a dead body is found floating inside a wine barrel, he finds himself at the center of a murder investigation.

Recipient of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association Fellows Scholarship


PARKER WINSHIP 262.215.1490 • [email protected]

THE INFERNO ROOM | MYSTERY/THRILLER After a nebbish Harvard librarian’s prized Gutenberg Bible is stolen during the chaos of the 1919 Boston Police Strike, he takes up the badge and gun of a volunteer patrolman to find the book but discovers the thief is connected to a dark secret from his past. PERMANENT FUN | CRIME THRILLER/DARK COMEDY When a carefree drifter in Alaska falls in love with a lesbian criminal and accidentally botches her drug deal, he must win her love by finding a way to pull them both out of an unpayable debt to her girlfriend, a psychotic cocaine kingpin.

QUASI-HYMNS | THRILLER/FANTASY When a young radio DJ wanting to escape her life gains the ability to broadcast her soul over the airwaves, she encounters a criminal with a similar power who threatens the lives of those closest to her. TV

BRIAR CIRCLE | ONE-HOUR SCI -FI/FAMILY DRAMA 2014 Student Humanitas Award Drama Category Nominee An alienated teenager discovers she’s from an apocalyptic future and must secretly protect her dysfunctional adoptive family from a time-traveling killer while racing to divert her father from his destiny: to cause the end of the world.



HANNAH MORGAN WOLFE 216.224.5771 • [email protected]


THE FIVE | BLACK COMEDY A geeky 12-year-old girl finds solace in a manipulative popular crowd known as “The Five” while her family life crumbles around her, only to have her identity stolen by the leader.

LET THE DEAD TEACH THE LIVING | BLACK COMEDY In an attempt to commit suicide, a young woman inadvertently causes a death and forms an unlikely relationship with a coroner with whom she has a madcap adventure cleaning up the dead.

MILES APART | COMING-OF-AGE DRAMA After being disowned by his family, a young boy is seduced by the charismatic leader of a lunar cult. TV

ADDICK | ONE-HOUR ORIGINAL BLACK COMEDY SERIES A recent Ivy League graduate is jobless until she uses her wit and charm to seduce men into paying her for sex.


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Richard Frank* Marshall Herskovitz* The Bedford Falls Company

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Christopher FormanThe Decurion CorporationJim Gianopulos20th Century Fox Film

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Rich Ross Shine America

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Anne Sweeney Disney/ABC Television GroupRobert A. TooheyVerizonKevin TsujiharaWarner Bros. Todd Wagner* 2929 Entertainment Michael WrightDreamWorks Studios

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*AFI Board of Directors


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The AFI Board of Trustees gratefully acknowledges Sony Corporation of America for its leadership — providing AFI Fellows with today’s advanced filmmaking tools.

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