SCREENWRITING, TO BE PRECISE

Three psychic strangers in Illinois -- a man who speaks to ghosts, a woman who reads minds, and a girl who dreams the future -- are pulled one-by-one into a deadly, decades-old mystery. As their paths cross, each is challenged to face their demons and trust in one another to catch a soul-stealing murderer.

This is a story about family, friendship, trauma & death, and the ways those things can inform and shape one another across generations.  It's complex, and funny, and colorful, and intense, with supernatural elements grounded in real, flawed human characters.  

For comps, think "Better Call Saul" meets "The Haunting of Hill House".

I love this project so much, I named my design LLC after it.

35-year-old man-child DUNCAN bravely prepares for his worst nightmare: karaoke night with his girlfriend's city friends. When he delivers a performance that literally ends his relationship, Duncan is thrust into a downward spiral, made all the more complicated by a surprising and grisly discovery on his property.

This is a story about what it means to grow up, and why it's worth the struggle.  It's about facing your fears, owning your potential, and putting others first.  

Duncan is a character born from something deeply, embarrassingly personal to me.  He represents parts of my own journey from my teens to my (almost) forties -- albeit in a heightened, exaggerated sort of way -- and looking back now, there are many times when I'd love nothing more than to strangle 20-year-old me...  Through Duncan's journey, I hope to explore some big & scary ideas, through an optimistic, empathetic, and funny lens.  

Determined to find her long-lost brother, an engineer takes a dangerous job that leaves her the only survivor. When she's subsequently framed for the death of her crew, she escapes with colorful outlaws and kicks off a Solar-system-spanning race to the truth.

My earliest and fondest memory of any movie experience is watching Star Wars with my dad.  We rented all three movies (on VHS!) and watched one a night, in three consecutive nights.  And I've been hearing lightsabers and tie fighters and Darth Vader's breathing in my head ever since.

I'm also a huge fan of grounded science fiction, like "The Expanse".  I love imagining a space-faring future in our own Solar system, but one where humanity is having space battles and all kinds of incredible technologies and ships and alien encounters...  

So "Space Pirates" is my attempt to marry all of my favorite influences.  I always pitch it as "Star Wars" meets "Alien" meets "The Expanse" -- and that always feels inadequate.  It has colorful characters, complex world-building, mega-powerful AI characters, chases, heists, action scenes...  This is a story I'm incredibly passionate about, and I'm excited to keep sharpening it.