IN THE WORKS
Texarkana Waltz
the movie
Plays adapted for the screen are wordy, there's no way around it. But as Sidney Lumet once said "Dialog is not uncinematic." Some plays are cinematic to begin with. Shakespeare's, for example. Texarkana Waltz waltzes in and out of Dallas, Morgan, and Houston's road trip in the present, Eddie's prison drama in the near past, and Houston's imaginary Western in the distant past, stories that are informed by movie genres and imagery, with a hint of Hamlet and a bit of Brecht backed up by Texas Swing.
My thoughts be bloody (working title)
Check out the Astor Place riot. If you think that's crazy, this ten-part TV series following the life of an actor in the 1800s will blow your mind. Think Kenneth Branagh performs Julius Caesar for Gangs of New York from Deadwood to Broadway.
The viola
In this tale of cultural revenge, a Banksy-like artist outbids at auction one of the richest guys in the world (Rich Guy's minions drop the ball) for a fantastically rare viola. Rich Guy uses the full force of his wealth and power to try to wrest the viola from the Artist. Bring it on, says the Artist, who is playing the Rich Guy while creating a controversial new work that sells for many times the cost of the viola. Making art can get nasty. Sometimes things break, people get hurt, points are made. Does the viola survive? Does Rich Guy survive? Is it art?
satellite of love (Working title)
When the King and Queen of the planet Arden try to force Princess Calliope to marry Prince Vyshis of Gorgon, she runs away with the help of Perseus, a knight-errant. Vyshis pursues them to a planet in a spiral arm of the galaxy -Earth. This send-up of a '50s sci-fi movie explores love in all its intergalactic forms.
A trick or treat
Hades, King of the Underworld, hates it when his Queen, the goddess Persephone, leaves the Underworld to usher in spring and summer. So he decides to take a lover, the beautiful Eirene, Zeus's youngest daughter. As soon as Persephone leaves, Hades has his henchmen kidnap Eirene, who has run away from Olympus to party with mortals. Hades right-hand man, Phaevian, sees this as an opportunity to redeem himself. Phaevian was a god serving Zeus until he started the Trojan War. Outraged, Zeus turned Phaevian into a mortal and sent him to serve Hades as punishment. Phaevian hatches a plan to rescue Eirene, return her to Zeus, and regain his powers as a reward. With a little help from the Furies, Sibyls, Hyperion, the mysterious Dream Lords, and the psychopomp Charon, the ferryman of the dead, Phaevian sets out to return Eirene to Olympus. When Eris, goddess of chaos, tells Persephone what Hades is up to, they go after Phaevian and Eirene with a vengeance. As they make their escape from the Underworld, Phaevian and Eirene find themselves falling in love. Can he rescue her and return her to Zeus, or will Hades' passion prove too powerful? Will Eris and Persephone turn them into pigs? Can a dead man get the girl?