SUGAR LAND (TV pilot) One-hour Southern fried TV drama The series: Based on the award-winning book, SUGAR LAND follows Miss Dara, a queer prison cook in the 1920s. After her forbidden love is discovered, Miss Dara is forced to work in a savage men's prison where she meets the soon-to-be-famous blue singer, Lead Belly, who sings his way to freedom (true story!) and inspires her to break free of her prisons - any way she can. The pilot: It's 1924 in Midland, Texas, and after Miss Dara's illicit, secret love is discovered, she's forced to work in a savage men's prison where she thinks she's safe. And she is, until she isn't. This story would BBQ with Orange is the New Black and Shawshank Redemption. The Bible is ready and the short proof of concept film is in post-production. Email me! |
I found Miss Dara to be such a unique yet unpredictable figure. It's a character that will be adored by the LGBTQ community and beyond. A charming, naive protagonist + forbidden love + a vile Head Cook + prison politics and violence + Lead Belly, all set to a backdrop of ragtime, secrets, and mercy killing. |
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DIPSO MANIAC (TV pilot) One hour, psychological anthology
White Lotus meets Law & Order in purgatory. The TV drama opens on a charming yet a volatile boozehound, Dipso Maniac, who must decide whether to forgive or avenge his own death. And when the mysterious, non-binary Bartender turns out to be his Case Worker with secrets of their own (many they don't even know), things get even more bizarre. |
Two other stories ready for adaptation:
“Racing Josephine” published in 10,000 Pounds of Black Ink (and also in print only with the Buckman Journal) "Fetus" published on F(r)iction see my full publications... |
in development
PUNCHING DEAD HIGHWAYS (feature) Dual reality, psychological drama
Nanette arrives in Paris just after the May 1968 Riots, where she falls in love with real life French radical, Guy Debord - and heroin. Twenty-five years later, Nanette returns to the US to be the legal guardian for her two orphaned nieces: Cedar, the queer introvert, and Sanford, the troubled, manic genius. As Sanford's unspoken grief unravels her, she hatches a plan to use Nanette’s continuing addiction to change Nanette's memories and, therefore, her reality. If all goes as planned, Auntie Nanette will believe she is Sanford’s mother – and they will be a happy family, but when Cedar discovers that she will be left out, things don't go as Sanford planned.
Nanette arrives in Paris just after the May 1968 Riots, where she falls in love with real life French radical, Guy Debord - and heroin. Twenty-five years later, Nanette returns to the US to be the legal guardian for her two orphaned nieces: Cedar, the queer introvert, and Sanford, the troubled, manic genius. As Sanford's unspoken grief unravels her, she hatches a plan to use Nanette’s continuing addiction to change Nanette's memories and, therefore, her reality. If all goes as planned, Auntie Nanette will believe she is Sanford’s mother – and they will be a happy family, but when Cedar discovers that she will be left out, things don't go as Sanford planned.
THE CYCLE OF SOIL (TV pilot) One hour, near future series
The series: If Charlie Kaufman wrote Little House on the Prairie with a religious cult looming, it would be THE CYCLE OF SOIL, a grounded, near future series. Global Governance has chosen the very best of the population to live on technologically advanced, human-made "lilypads" while those left behind start neo-primitive In-Land community where mysticism dominates science even as they all become one giant epigenetic experiment. Based on the two-book series.
The pilot: In a divided, futuristic society, young Mira comes to realize they've inherited their grandparent's terrifying, supernatural abilities while across the world - and destined to converge - Salax understands that they can alter people's epigenetic information can be used to change future generations any way they want.
All genders are "they" because, well, this is the future.
The series: If Charlie Kaufman wrote Little House on the Prairie with a religious cult looming, it would be THE CYCLE OF SOIL, a grounded, near future series. Global Governance has chosen the very best of the population to live on technologically advanced, human-made "lilypads" while those left behind start neo-primitive In-Land community where mysticism dominates science even as they all become one giant epigenetic experiment. Based on the two-book series.
The pilot: In a divided, futuristic society, young Mira comes to realize they've inherited their grandparent's terrifying, supernatural abilities while across the world - and destined to converge - Salax understands that they can alter people's epigenetic information can be used to change future generations any way they want.
All genders are "they" because, well, this is the future.