These are the three original story ideas I’m most keen on getting to work developing into screenplays:
***
13:00 AM
Born in 1966, 19-year-old Nate Reisner is a teenager living in 1985. Born in 1978, 17-year-old Ele Draven is a teenager living in 1995. In both 1985 and 1995 there exists the old Victorian-styled house on 130 Haverstraw Lane, abandoned since the 1960s. When Nate and Ele decide to visit that house late at night, they find in the attic a mysterious door which leads nowhere. In the nanoseconds between 12:59 & 1:00 AM, the door becomes a portal to a place beyond space and time. Stepping through that portal, Nate and Ele are transported to a universe where their dreams — and nightmares — are the stuff of reality.
***
Empyrean
A transgendered prostitute haunted by her past finds herself pursued by a fundamentalist serial killer who may be less than human.
***
The Slow and the Dead
Decades ago, a shower of comets struck the Earth, devastating the Earth and killing millions. Of the humans which survived the initial cataclysm, one-third died after a viral agent secreted within the comets was released, transforming them into non-violent but incredibly infectious undead known as “slow zombies” (slombies). Half of the remaining living — those who had escaped exposure to virus but were still susceptible to it — retreated to impenetrable fortresses, leaving the rest — immune carriers of the virus — to eke out lives in the harsh wilderness beyond.
One man — a scrounger with a motorcycle, a shotgun, and a large bag of chocolate chips — finds himself riding the empty wastelands, coming into conflict with murderous highwaymen, paranoid Unaffecteds, violent slombie cults, and unscrupulous sex traffickers.
***
The first two are the ones I’m more interested in getting to work on, but I don’t know which to start with. Empyrean’s the most spiritual/existential, but also supremely depressing and body-horrific; I’m not sure I want to go there right now. 13:00, on the other hand, is the most light-hearted and fun, but damned if I know what the actual plot’s about.