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THE TORTOISE AND THE HEIR
When hired to find heirs to a large will, a lone wolf San Francisco private investigator finds the heirs are being killed by the same assassin that murdered his girlfriend years before, and must decide whether to save the remaining heir, or abandon him to hunt down the assassin.
A tremor condemns a San Francisco hotel that was once a mansion. A will, found in the cornerstone, states nothing owned by the big 4 railroad barons can be sold till there is only one signer or direct heir. So all land in California ever within five miles of a railroad belongs to the heirs.
Ruthless junior corporate exec CHARLENE THORMAN (32) has the will, needs the heirs reduced to one that she can control, like she controls the corporation. She also needs every dime of the will to save her life. Charlene hires Stram to verify the will, and locate heirs.
Stram and Handwriting expert GAIL (40s) get curious, sneak into corporate headquarters and grab the will, intent on passing it to the heir. They spot Charlene hiring a hit man, TRUMPETER (30), who always chews a wood match, and carries a trumpet case. Stram locates heirs; but by the time he gets to them, the Trumpeter has killed them. Always looks like an accident, just like Max, Stram's girlfriend and Charlene's boss, death did 5 years ago.
Stram's down to the last name. He and Gail confuse Charlene's 2 man tail, and skip town. The last heir is GUTHRIE (20s), a folk singing vagabond who returns to his girlfriend CELIA's parent's estate on lake Tahoe. Guthrie's deceased adoptive parents were the estate's domestic help.
Stram, Gail, Guthrie, and Celia escape just ahead of Charlene's arrival. The chase, capture, and chase is on as the foursome race to the one man with enough judicial prestige to defend the will against the Corporation.
PROFESSOR SEWARD announces the will's discovery on his university's satellite hookup. The will is safe. But the will's only of value if there is a living heir.
Stram sees Guthrie doing a trick with a wood match, knows Trumpeter is somewhere in the auditorium. Trumpeter, on a backstage portable scaffold, takes aim at Guthrie. Stram opens a stage trapdoor. The scaffold falls. Trumpeter is at floor level, unconscious. He regains consciousness, raises his rifle to Stram. Nonviolent Guthrie steps backstage, clobbers the Trumpeter, saving Stram's life.
Filmmatic Horror (Semifinalist) [2022]
Santa Barbara International (Quarterfinalist) [2024]
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ScriptLinks
Post Your Script Here!UNDER OLYMPUS
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When Ani Met Jo Met Cris
A recurring meet-cute over the course of a decade, but make it super gay! A fateful road trip sets pragmatic Ani and passionate Jo on the path of Reluctant Travel Companions to Enthusiastic Lovers - until they trip down the life-altering detours of Jo’s pregnancy and Cris, her dashing midwife.
The Dumb Ox Bellows
A 13th-century friar struggles to revitalize Christian theology using logic and reason, but intellectual opposition from peers, malicious slander by envious brethren, and “slavery of the pen” under two Popes drive him to mental collapse and loss of faith in his life’s work -- until God intervenes miraculously to affirm its merit.
CHARON'S DIVIDE
Two childhood friends battle over land and the love of the same woman in 1880s Montana.
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In 1995, an apostate Detective investigates a Mephistophelian antique dealer linked to religious murders and unveils some horrific family truths.
Untouchable!
A blonde bombshell in stainless steel becomes a femme fatale - a relentless tiger with razor-sharp-toothed-pen spilling blood across the pages leaving nowhere, for the perpetrators to hide.
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In 1840, an unconventional widow risks her life when she joins forces with a charismatic journalist, brutalized tenant farmers and a traumatized exile she rescues in Montreal, to stop the most powerful men in Scotland from violently evicting Gaelic Highlanders, unaware of her own family's complicity in the ethnic cleansing.
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Lured by the reading of a billionaire rare book dealer’s will, an investigator and four other heirs are sealed in an airtight panic room, and with only four hours air, must solve the centuries-old mystery contained in the book ‘The Castilian Cypher’ in order to escape.
All My Trials, Lord
In a drunken stupor a handsome young singer kills a taxi driver while visiting Spalding County, Georgia.
