Hitting Rock Bottom

Synopsis

Based on the best-selling novel of the same name, 42 high school-aged males and females are sent to a newly created military-style boot camp school as a final chance in turning their lives around. Rival gang members, druggies, and violent offenders are combined with other at-risk students expelled from their traditional schools. Inspired by the movie Freedom Writers, their teacher, a retired hard-nosed police sergeant, is given the task of not only formulating the new campus but fostering a relationship with his students who came from various dysfunctional families. The Academy stressed order, structure, and when necessary, discipline. In partnership with the U.S. Army, the cadets begin noticing a change taking place not only in themselves but in their outlook on life. Through recreations of their stories told as voiceovers and enacted on the screen, the viewer will “feel” the life they are currently experiencing and how the Academy and its staff turn them into a family. This script recently (3/29/23) became a quarterfinalist in the Emerging Screenwriters competition.