Fighting guns and ghosts with bare hands: An action-horror feature screenplay

RAVINE
Trapped in an isolated ravine, a combat veteran who fears violence must save himself and his family from a crazed gunman, also a combat veteran, who is being driven mad by the ghosts of three men he killed in Iraq.

SYNOPSIS

JAKE WARREN, his wife KAREN and their young daughter KATIE have no idea why their SUV suddenly is being pursued by an unseen driver steering a hulking black van. And they have no time to figure it out. After a short chase that seems like road rage out of control, the black van slams their SUV through a guard rail and into a deep ravine.

The Warrens are all injured, Katie very seriously. And now they are trapped in an isolated area with no way to call for help. The only person who knows where they are is the man who has just tried to kill them: CHARLIE MACKLIN, a disgraced former Marine lieutenant who now lives in a squalid mountain camp nearby and is haunted by the ghosts of three Marines he killed in Iraq by giving bad orders. Charlie has decided to kill three other people, so perhaps their ghosts will replace the ones that have been tormenting him. When Charlie discovers the car crash did not kill the Warrens, he goes back to the ravine with guns.

Jake Warren, meanwhile, is also a combat veteran, a former soldier who did well in Iraq but was injured and now fears violence. Armed only with rocks and his bare hands, Jake must find enough courage to climb out of the ravine through gunfire and fight a man increasingly made murderous and insane by ghosts, while Karen fights to keep her and Jake’s daughter alive.

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RAVINE

Feature Screenplay

by Si Dunn

Copyrighted, WGA registered

For more information about this screenplay and its availability, contact Sagecreek Productions LLC, 3800 N. Lamar Blvd., Suite 730-131, Austin, TX 78756-4011, sidunn@hotmail.com.

Sometimes, a good Western screenplay needs...a town-saving cavalry charge?

BATTLE AT BUCK CREEK

by Si Dunn
 (WGA Registration: #1118098)

HIGH NOON meets AIR FORCE ONE -- on a moderate budget. 

  

BATTLE AT BUCK CREEK

An Old West town’s new mayor and its free-spirited school teacher must team up and fight a murderous gang that has seized many hostages and will kill one hostage per hour until the mayor’s father, the state governor, releases the gang leader’s brother from prison.

Synopsis

WILL HANSON, troubled son of  GOV. JEB HANSON, has been sent into the Texas version of political exile by his father. In a sham election, Will has been voted into an office no one else could be bothered to take: mayor of the dusty, isolated community of Buck Creek.

Will has arrived just as Buck Creek’s townspeople are preparing to celebrate their remote settlement’s 10^th anniversary. But not everyone is happy. In Buck Creek’s telegraph office, free-spirited school teacher ANNA BAIN is pestering the telegraph operator, NASH GRAHAM, trying to convince him to let her send a message. She has been studying Morse Code, she tells him. Angrily, Nash throws her out and takes an incoming message of congratulation for the new mayor from his father, the governor, JEB HANSON. But when Nash leaves to deliver the message, Anna slips back into the telegraph office and receives an urgent message from another tiny community. More than a dozen riders who don’t look friendly may be riding toward Buck Creek to cause some kind of trouble. Anna gives the message to Nash when he returns. But, angry at her insolence, he tears it up without reading it and throws her out again.

As Will nervously prepares to make his inaugural speech and the governor’s telegram is read to the crowd, several RIDERS who seem to be trail-weary cowboys ease into town from different directions, in small groups. They are barely noticed as they gather at the local saloon. Actually, they are members of the BO BARRETT GANG.

When Will was a young sheriff in another town, he managed to help put Bo Barrett’s brother into prison. Now Barrett and his men have arrived with a murderous plan. They will seize Buck Creek’s only link to the outside world, the telegraph office, and take many hostages, including Will. Then they will notify the governor that they have his son, and they will kill one Buck Creek citizen per hour until Bo Barrett’s brother is released from prison and sends a message verifying he is free. Buck Creek is so isolated that the nearest army post is a two-day ride, so the townspeople will not be able get help.

Barrett’s scheme soon is set into motion with bloody results, but Will Hanson, Anna Bain and the previous mayor, JOHN RIDEOUT, manage to escape and hide in the town. And there is a growing chemistry between the mayor and school teacher, but no time to act on it.

Bo Barrett hangs his first hostage, the town’s PREACHER, to show he means business, and the town’s UNDERTAKER is his next victim. Outgunned, Will, Anna and John can only watch helplessly from their hiding place, until Anna convinces Will that she can work a telegraph.

They try but fail to regain control of the telegraph office. John Rideout is wounded. Anna remembers that her older brother, ANDY BAIN, a Lieutenant in the 7^th Cavalry, sometimes trains new recruits about 10 miles outside Buck Creek, with strict orders to stay away from the town. He taught her Morse Code. If she can climb a nearby hill with a mirror, she may be able to flash a message to him.

It’s a desperate and dangerous gamble. But Will distracts most of Barrett’s men by challenging Bo to a showdown, and Anna escapes the town. Will, however, is captured and will be the next hanging victim unless the governor responds.

As Anna climbs the hill with a big mirror, she is spotted by two of Barrett’s men. They chase her. She fights them off , knocking out one and killing the other with part of the shattered mirror. Now she has just enough mirror left to start flashing a plea for help.

One of the raw troopers being trained by her brother sees the flashes. Lieutentant Bain reads the message, and he and SERGEANT HARRIS lead their green cavalrymen on a desperate gallop toward Buck Creek. They charge into town with bugle blaring and swords flashing and do battle with Barrett’s men just as Will is being hanged.

Anna runs into the battle and helps save Will. Barrett escapes the melee, but Will soon chases him down. They fight to the death, and Will is the survivor.

After the day’s many dead are buried, a happier time soon dawns. A high-noon wedding is held in Buck Creek. The mayor marries the school teacher, and they march beneath an archway of flashing cavalry sabers as they leave for their honeymoon.

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For more information regarding the availability of this screenplay, contact Si Dunn, Sagecreek Productions, LLC, 3800 N. Lamar Blvd., Suite 730-131, Austin, TX 78756-4011, sidunn@hotmail.com.

The Story Behind the Criminal Conversations Screenplay

By Si Dunn

The screenplay for Criminal Conversations explores several areas that intrigue me. (Here's the logline: A man meets up again with his ex-wife while his current spouse is dying and his ex-wife's current husband is suing her for divorce and trying to prove she is guilty of adultery.)

First, I am interested in what can happen when two people who have had a previous, unhappy history together suddenly need each other again, yet they are constrained by forces both inside and outside their new circumstances.

The youthful marriage of Ted and Alexandra ended badly several decades ago, and the two of them moved on to separate, successful lives and new marriages.

Now, they are in their fifties, and happenstance has brought them back together just at the time when their current lives are crumbling.

They could try to be friends or lovers again. They both need someone who understands them and they are increasingly are aware of their own mortality and how time is beginning to run out in their lives. But both of them are still married. There are strict limitations on teacher-student relationships. They have the feelings of their own families to consider, and they are being spied on Alexandra’s estranged husband, Frank.

One wrong move could cause them both to be sued for “criminal conversation,” an old legal term for adultery.

How can they be close again and helpful to each other while maintaining what the law and society would consider a “respectable” distance?

Secondly, I am interested in exploring how two people who once loved each other can find enough forgiveness to overcome the transgressions that tore apart their marriage. They cannot go back and change the past -- anyway, they would not want to give up their children and the careers they have formed since they went their separate ways.

Yet, their new circumstances have thrown them together in a way that causes them both to face a choice: Can the one who was wronged forgive the one who bears the most blame? And, can forgiveness, contrition and the healing passage of time lead to a renewed relationship--one that can succeed this time?

In a third area of interest, the Criminal Conversations story examines how sudden new realities in peoples’ lives can turn their lives in unexpected – and sometimes unwanted – directions that ultimately prove beneficial. At the same time, these changed directions may be limited or misinterpreted or exploited by others outside the new relationship.

Fourth, Criminal Conversations also explores greed and deceit in a divorce setting. It looks at student-faculty relationships in a college or university setting. And it deals with the process of teaching and imparting knowledge.

 As all of this unfolds, the major characters in Criminal Conversations confront matters that include their feelings about life, life after death, faith, courage, and love in the face of death.

I think you’ll be surprised at how it all turns out.

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For more information:

The project's one-sheet is available at: http://bit.ly/9JNu6N.
A recent draft of the script can be read at: http://bit.ly/c4VEAX.
A video about the screenplay can be seen at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4sPZasOf1o.

Donations of any size can be made via PayPal to si@sagecreekproductions.com. Donors will receive on-screen thanks in the movie's ending credits. It is not necessary to have a PayPal account to donate.

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Tips for Screenplay Beginners

Do not be fooled by how simple a screenplay appears on the printed page. You may spend up to a year or more writing and rewriting a feature-length script.

Be prepared to rework each new screenplay several times. And get feedback from others -- friends, relatives, strangers, actors, script readers -- before attempting to submit it to production companies, literary managers or agents. Most producers or managers or agents who agree to look at a script often will only give a writer one chance to impress them with that screenplay. You are competing with thousands of other writers in a very crowded marketplace.

Be very careful. There are many good script services and many good producers, managers and agents. And, there are some really bad ones with clever schemes to get your money. Check out everyone and every offer before writing any checks or giving up any credit card information. (Indeed, consider using PayPal.com instead of a credit card, for more protection.)

Consider writing short screenplays first. There is a steady market for screenplays in the range of five to 15 or 20 pages. Often, these are sought by first-time moviemakers. You may be paid little or nothing for your script, but getting a script produced and seeing it on a screen (movie, TV, mobile device, etc.) with your name after "Screenplay by..." is the Holy Grail for screenwriters.

Educated perseverance is a strong key to getting a screenplay sold or optioned. Keep learning as you keep trying. And be prepared to spend years on the process of writing and marketing screenplays.

DO NOT give up your day job thinking you are going to get fabulously rich from screenplays. Sometimes, it can take 10 years or longer to make any money at all from screenwriting.

After you finish your first screenplay, start revising it. And get started on your second script, third, fourth, and so on. Producers, agents and managers may not like your first script, but they often will ask: "What else do you have?" If you don't have another screenplay to offer, you may have missed a golden opportunity.

-- Si Dunn