We just posted episode 6 of our comedy web series, "The Crusader". See the whole series at funny or die:

THE CRUSADER is a comedy web series I wrote and that my friend Vernon Mortensen and I decided to produce. Yesterday (Saturday, March 21st) we shot the first two episodes here in San Diego. Vernon directed one and I directed the other.

This was my first time doing anything like this and although it was a very hard day's work (and I got severely sun burned) I had the time of my life! I can't begin to tell you how awesome it is to watch talented actors speak the words I wrote.

I'll talk more about it after we post the episodes (in a week or two).

"Drawing Dead" is my Texas Hold'em horror script about a group of professional poker players who end up playing for their souls. I entered it in the Script Savvy screenplay competition and although results of the contest won't be announced until late February, they sent me the coverage today.

Script Savvy gives scores of 1 - 10 in six categories, so the best possible score is 60. Here are the scores for Drawing Dead:

Writing Essentials = 10

Dialogue = 9

Characters = 9

Plot = 10

Originality = 9

Marketability = 10

TOTAL SCORE = 57

Just three points short of a perfect score! Here are a few of the comments from the coverage:

The tone of the piece is dark but still humorous. Congratulations on crafting an effective script. The gore is gruesome and highly effective.

The dialogue is very quirky and funny. The writer has an ear for natural-sounding dialogue. 

Each character has his or her own style of speech, which is incredibly rare in most scripts. This piece will surely be something fun for actors to play.

Definitely something that we haven’t seen before. Each character speaks with such an irreverent tone. As previously mentioned, it’s a quirky, fun horror spec. One can easily identify one character from another without so much as looking at the character heading.


This is fantastic. It’s difficult to have several characters that don’t all sound the same and yet you manage to do just that. Each character has his/her own style. Nice job.

Honestly the visuals in this story are incredibly graphic and disturbing. Even within the world of horror movies, this feels gruesome. This is very much like SAW in that the violence is not only ghastly, it’s self-induced. It’s not for every taste but there is a market out there.

This is an extremely marketable film, especially in the current market place. Not only are horror movies still very hot, but this is a smart horror movie. The roles are fun and quirky enough to attract talent. Also, lead actors are looking to move into this genre. Look at 1408 starring John Cusack or VACANCY drawing such talent as Kate Beckinsale and Luke Wilson. This is exactly the sort of script companies are looking for. However, there doesn’t appear to be much franchise possibility but that’s not by any means a deal breaker. If they can figure out a way to make JOY RIDE 2, then they can make anything.

Just wanted to share all that. I'll let you know how it does when contest results are posted next month.

Here's the press release I just sent out:

I am very happy to announce that my sci-fi/horror screenplay "Howard's Cross" has been optioned by Turn Up The Heat Productions. Colin Cunningham will direct. Colin's short film "Centigrade" has won a shelf of awards, including Golden Leo's for Best Short Drama and Best Director. It's on the list as a possible Academy Award nominee.

"Howard's Cross" won the International Horror & Sci-Fi Film Festival Screenplay Competition and made the semi-finals of last year's Nicholl Fellowship.

For those unfamiliar, optioning a script gives you the exclusive right for a set period of time (usually a year) to try and raise the money to produce the movie. If they get into production before the option expires, they own the story. If not, it reverts back to me.

This is better than when Navin Johnson got his name in the phone book. Things will start happening to me now!


 

My buddy Colin Cunningham's awesome short film "Centigrade" is now available on iTunes. You can get it here.

I'm exhausted from a weekend of fun and business (fusiness?) in L.A. Will it lead to me being a produced screenwriter? I don't see how that's any of your fusiness.

Sometimes being a wannabe screenwriter can lead to interesting adventures.

I'm starting on a new horror script that involves (in ways I can't explain) tigers. So of course I got on the interweb and started doing tiger research and by chance discovered that there was a tiger sanctuary right here near San Diego. It's not a zoo but they do allow visits from donors so that's what I became.

I invited my friend (and director of my first movie) Vernon, his wife and my friend Jimmy and we spent the day watching these huge, amazing animals run, play and growl at us (which was scary in a very cool way).

When I wrote a script about ghouls I had a similar adventure, but that's a tale for another time.

My science fiction screenplay EXPERIMENTAL just made the semi-finals (top 20) of the 2008 International Horror & Sci-Fi Film Festival screenplay competition! Finalists and winners will be announced in two weeks.

EXPERIMENTAL was also a Finalist in the 2007 ScreamFest LA Horror Film festival screenplay competition, semi-finalist in the 2007 Shriekfest Film Festival feature screenplay competition, semi-finalist in the 2007 First Glance screenplay competition.

Logline: "Boosting human intelligence could change the world -- or lead to its destruction."