SHORT Screenplay Reading: BILLY, by David Creighton (screenwriter interview)
New Releases
•
13m
In this satirical look at over-positive parenting, a desperate teacher tries to explain a student's litany of crimes to a couple who can see no wrong. It's Modern Family meets SNL.
CAST LIST:
Narrator: Elizabeth Rose Morriss
Teacher: Steve Rizzo
Pakistani Mother/Terri: Kyana Teresa
Pakistani Father/Biff: Sean Ballantyne
Get to know the screenwriter:
1. What is your screenplay about?
The script tells the story of an exasperated teacher, desperately trying to convince a pair of over-positive parents that their son is a living terror. If I'm doing the cliche answer: It''s SNL meets Modern Family.
2. What genres does your screenplay fall under?
This is a pure comedy
3. Why should this screenplay be made into a movie?
It would be really cheap. One classroom location, 3 main characters and two non-speaking extras.
4. How would you describe this script in two words?
Zany fun.
5. What movie have you seen the most times in your life?
It's a Wonderful Life, just because it was on TV every year growing up, and my parents loved it.
6. How long have you been working on this screenplay?
I did my first draft in the 2000s. I only recently picked it back up to revise.
7. How many stories have you written?
Hundreds. So many I've lost count/ Heck, I've done at least a hundred different fantasy wrestling shows alone; and they range from 8 to over 100 pages.
8. What is your favorite song? (Or, what song have you listened to the most times in your life?)
They Might Be Giants' “Birdhouse in Your Soul.”
9. What obstacles did you face to finish this screenplay?
My dream cast originally included Bill Cosby, and that's a non-starter now!
10. Apart from writing, what else are you passionate about?
Games of all kinds. RPGs, board games, PC games, card games and more. My current fav is a collectible minatures game called HeroC;lix, which features little plastic super-heroes trying to knock each other out.
11. You entered your screenplay via FilmFreeway. What has been your experiences working with the submission platform site?
It's a crapshoot. There are some truly shady, or fly-by-night festivals, out there. That and, with a limited budget, some festivals are simply out of reach due to my limited budget.
12. What influenced you to enter the festival? What were your feelings on the initial feedback you received?
WildSound offers some of the best help to screenwriters of any festival out there. The simple ability to have even an audio recording of a script can be a huge help. For the price, it's well worth entering.
Up Next in New Releases
-
1st Scene Reading: THE RINGMISTRESS, ...
A funambulist battles gem smugglers, pirates, her estranged mother, and the Russian mob, to win the Golden Clown at the Monte Carlo Circus Festival.
CAST LIST:
Narrator: Elizabeth Rose Morriss
Juliette/Dauphine: Kyana Teresa
Ivan: Allan MichaelGet to know the writer:
1. What is your ...
-
1st Scene: Reach for the Sky, by Eric...
In 1964, a young idealistic industrial arts teacher accepts a teaching job at an economically disadvantaged rural high school. There he defies the bureaucracy – and risks his career - by ignoring the approved curriculum and instead challenges a group of poor performing students to build an airpla...
-
1st Scene Screenplay: Empress, by Lis...
WU JAO , an outspoken half-sister bartered by her step-brother to restore his waning reputation at Imperial Court, is dropped off at the palace gates to become the Emperor’s youngest concubine. Plunged into a breath-taking world of seductively scheming (multi-cultural) concubines, Silk Road polit...