SCREEN ADAPTATION

Claire Ingham, Managing Director of Red Room Films, led a Treatment Weekend on 7/8 June 2008 for 15 selected writers to provide an introduction to the art of adaptation.  The writers have now been given the task of writing a treatment for their proposed adaptation, to be submitted on Friday 4th July 2008.

Following submission of their treatments, 5 writers will be selected for the second phase and offered one-to-one support in preparing for Lottery Script Grants from Screen West Midlands.  Successful applicants will then be teamed up with a mentor to assist in the process of writing their screenplay.

The 15 writers are:

Andrea Blundell

Andrea Blundell has recently returned to the UK after 5 years of working in Toronto's film industry where she had the unique opportunity to work on both sides of the fence, both as a screenwriter and as a Creative Analyst deciding who gets the funding.  She is presently hired to adapt acclaimed Canadian novel The City Man to screen and was nominated Canada's "Emerging Screenwriter" by Women in Film and Television.

Treatment Proposal: Under the Tongue (Andrea Blundell)

Under the Tongue is the story of two sisters coming of age in an Evangelical cult, balancing worries about approaching Armageddon with whether their new Stepfather will let them wear lipstick.  When devout Faith finds herself suddenly popular at her new high school and her rebellious sister Blondine finds acceptance with the Church's youth group, one sister falls from God's good books as the other rises.  But the lines of good and bad blur when the youth group becomes the centre of a scandal that rocks the small community and both sisters find themselves implicated.

Paul Brodrick

Paul worked in theatre and television production for nearly fifteen years before turning to writing.  He has co-written a pair of episodes of Supply and Demand with Lynda La Plante for ITV, wrote regularly for The Archers on Radio 4, and has also written for Doctors on BBC One and Family Affairs on Five. More recently, he adapted Dancing with Mr D as an Afternoon Play for Radio 4 and wrote a drama documentary about the My Lai massacre in the Vietnam War, All American Boys as a Friday Play, also for Radio 4.

Treatment Proposal: The Botathen Ghost (R.S. Hawker et al)

Victorian England.  Rosie, recently orphaned, is sent away with her nurse to live with her ancient great aunt in the family mansion.  As the winter draws in Rosie finds a new friend, but is the little girl calling her to play outside tp play really her friend?  And what is the dark and terrible secret the rest of the household are trying to hide?

Helen Cross

Details to follow.

Nick Hennegan

Details to follow.

Stephen Jackson

Stephen Jackson is a cartoonist who runs Chuckletown.com, a writer who has been shortlisted for the International Playwriting Festival and the Keats-Shelley Prize for Poetry, and an illustrator who wants to turn his own book Mirrorworld - an optical illusion adventure for kids - into an animated family film.

Treatment Proposal: Mirrorworld (Stephen Jackson)

When the muddling bungling Muddlemob raid Lemonville and kidnap all the inhabitants, only schoolboy Seymour remains in the deserted town.  Reluctantly he must make his own marmalade sandwiches and set off into the mountains to rescue everyone from Blue Cat Castle.  But first he must outwit the Muddlemob and face the Mirrormonster...

Trelawney Kerrigan

Trelawney started her writing career in international journalism writing news and showbusiness stories.  For the past several years, she has been focusing on building a career as a drama writer for television and radio, working predominantly with the BBC.

Treatment Proposal: Helen of the High Hand (Arnold Bennett)

The works of Arnold Bennett beautifully bring to life the unique spirit of the people of the Potteries.  In Helen of the High Hand, Bennett reveals the wit, warmth and need for emotional closeness hidden behind the proud facade of miserly James Ollerenshaw and the headstrong niece who breathes life into his tightly controlled world.  Written in 1910, this story celebrates a community that today fights to retain its dignity in the face of an economic wilderness.

Jessica Luxembourg

Jessica is an award-winning writer (International Student Playscript Competition, Arc Productions sponsorship) whose work has been performed at venues including the Hackney Empire, London (Babel Junction), The Soho Theatre, London (The Devil's Own Goldfish Scam) and the Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh (Insane Jane).  Her short film (Phil's Job) won the Time Out DVious Shorts Award and was produced by Blaze The Trail with Nick Rowe (Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels) in the title role and screened at Cannes, Melbourne and Raindance film festivals.  She is a graduate of the MA in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglie, and of Cambridge University.

Treatment Proposal: The Christopher Complex

The Christopher Complex is an adaptation of the Charles Dickens novel Great Expectations into a feature length "feel-good" teen movie set in the present day in and English boarding school based on Rugby, and in inner city Birmingham.  It's about two teenagers from very different backgrounds who both manage to recover from the traumas of their pasts and escape the malign influenace of their families when they learn to love and support each other.

Nicola Monaghan

Nicola Monaghan is the author of The Killing Jar, which won a Betty Trask Award, the Author's Club First Novel Award and the Waverton Good Read.  Her second nove, Starfishing, was published in March.  She is a Fellow of the National Academy of Writing, based at Birmingham City University.

Treatment Proposal: The Killing Jar (Nicola Monaghan)

When Kerrie-Ann was little, she was taught about the world outside her rough estate by Mrs Ivanovich, the butterfly expert next door.  Years on, she still dreams of the Amazon Rainforest, and feels as trapped by her life with drug dealer Mark as the insects in the bottom of the old lady's killing jar.  Struggling to protect her brother Jon, and deal with the Mark's various addictions, happiness may be cheap in the East Midlands, but love is costing Kerrie-Ann more than she's prepared to pay.

Tiffany Murray

Tiffany Murray is a novelist whose novel Happy Accidents (Harper Perennial, 2005) was shortlisted for the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize.  Her second novel, Diamond Star Halo, is due to be published in 2009.

Treatment Proposal: Diamond Star Halo (Tiffany Murray)

Details to follow.

Brendan O'Neill

Brendan is a Birmingham based screenwriter.  He is developing a number of feature ideas ranging from Scampenstein - a Frankenstein-wit-dogs childrens comedy drama feature animation - to Paper Aeroplane - a gritty inner city "Rapunzel on smack" tale.  Other activities include finding an agent or published for his magic realist novel Unitx O'Mooner - a novel about a young alien who crash lands in Ireland in 1969.  He has also had poetry published widely.  He is interested in writing team style collaborations on sit-com series.  Website:

www.o-neill.org

Treatment Proposal: The Tain

Brendan is adapting the ancient Irish story of the boy warrior Cuchulainn for the big screen and hopes to have it realized using CGI in the same way as Beowulf.

Elizabeth Parkes

Elizabeth has been writing for her own enjoyment since her twenties.  When she left full time teaching, she joined Coach House Writers, Oldswinford, Scrawl Reading Circle and Swan Playwrights, Kidderminster.  She has had a play produced at two local theatres.

Treatment Proposal: Amos Barton (George Elliot)

George Elliot's first novel is set at a time of change just before Victorio came to the throne and contains a clear anti-hero as the main protagonist.

Campbell Perry

Campbell is a freelance writer, specialising in music theatre for children and young people and is, currently, on a writing attachment with the Birmingham Rep adapting a Michael Morpurgo book for the stage.  Recent work includes a full-scale community musical for Mac, a cantata for Birmingham schools (Mac), a project based on The Tempest, for the National Theatre and an Arts Council funded piece for children aged 4 years + which toured in the West Midlands.  He is also working on a play for babies aged 12 months+.

Treatment Proposal: By The Tide Of The Humber (Daphne Glazer)

Lyn, by a quirk of fate, meets Eddie, the prison officer who found the body of her convict boyfriend Max, hanging in his cell.  Their meeting sparks an intense and passionate affair.  However, a shock discovery about her own mother's death, her father's stubborn silence and Eddie's ever-present wife and family act as a catalyst which puts Lyn on a path that will change her life forever.  Lyn sets herself a daunting physical and psychological challenge.  From the wilds of Spurn Point she pits herslf against the fierce tides of the Humber in an attempt to seim its width.  But, has she the courage and fortitude to find her true self and be set free from the ghosts of her past?

Louise Ramsden

Louise has written several pieces for BBC Radio 4, including two Afternoon Plays, a drama-documentary, two short plays for the Woman's Hour slot and the co-written series Blood in the Bridal Shop, broadcast last year. Three of her stage plays have been produced at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, including Gas and Air, which was selected as Critics Choice in The Scotsman and later transferred to London.  Her most recent stage play, Hundreds and Thousands, was written with the support of Theatre Absolute, and will be produced next year by Buckle for Dust, the theatre company of which she is co-Artistic Director.  She is currently developing new ideas for Radio 4, and for stage.

Treatment Proposal: Mark II (Chris Farnell)

Phil's best friend has just come back to life.

Thanks to the cloning techniques of Laz-R-Us services, the new MArk looks scarily like the original - but his arrival at school stirs up trouble.  After a terrible accident makes him question his real identity, the clone discovers a secret message from the olf Mark that turns his world upside down.

Can Phil save Mark II when his life goes off the rails?  And will the clone ever be accepted as the real thing?  A 21st Century Frankenstein story about grief, friendship, and what makes us individuals.

Christine Watkins

Christine writes for live performance and multi-artform work.  She has had one screenpay produced by the British Film Institute and two by S4C.

Treatment Proposal: Gone to Earth (Mary Webb)

18 year old Hazel loves her isolated life in the wild Shropshire hill country with a passion.  When local landowner Jack Reddin and newly arrived minister Edward Marston discover her, Hazel's natural sensuality is faced with a harsh choice.

Polly Wright

Details to follow.

SELECTION PANEL:

Catherine Edwards - Programmes Director, Script

Claire Ingham - Managing Director, Red Room Films

Alan Mahar - Publishing Director, Tindal Street Press

LEAP OFF THE PAGE ARCHIVE

For full details about the Leap off the page! programme, click here to view the archive.

Script teamed up with Light House to produce 3 short films as part of this writer development programme.

WORKSHOPS

We are now in the planning stages for more screen writing workshops around the West Midlands. If you have ideas for workshops you would like to attend, then let us know.

SCRIPT READING SERVICE

You can now send your script to us and receive a feedback report from one of our expert readers. For more information about this service please go to the Resource section.