begging, pleading, imploring, groveling

Remember when I mentioned writing a screenplay with my sister and her daughter Lizzy? Well, it's done. And it's fantastic.

my fearless editors

Our official logline:

Stars Fall is a modern rendition of Jane Austen’s 1818 novel Persuasion. Rising pop-star, April Rain falls in love with Freddy West, a grocery clerk, but is persuaded by her manager and father to end the romance. Five years later, has-been April and now chart-topper Freddy are asked to sing together at her sister’s wedding.

Want to hear more? Of course you do.

The BBC version of Persuasion is somewhat gray, but our modern rendition is filled with color-- a gorgeous beach sunset, a Mad Hatter themed birthday party, the requisite makeover scene (with a twist), a posh bridal shop, Austenesque gardens and a glorious fall wedding. The most famous moment in Persuasion comes when Louisa falls from the pier-- this time, it's the Santa Monica Pier with the ferris wheel, roller coaster, crowds and a forty foot drop to the ocean.

One of the strongest facets of of our updated story is casting our two leads as singer/songwriters. While not quite a musical, Stars Fall has several scenes where songs fit in naturally. We've included song descriptions and suggestions, but ideally, the movie would be produced with an original soundtrack.

Writing this screenplay has been incredibly therapeutic-- whenever my sister and I are tempted to revisit the excruciating events of the past year, we turn instead to discussing bits of dialogue or how to flesh out Rosy's character. The screenplay is charming, happy, laugh-out-loud funny and a delight to the eyes and ears: pure, delicious escapism.

Zoe
August 24, 1943-June 14, 2009

Here is where the begging, pleading, imploring, groveling come in. Today is our mother's birthday-- a day that that I determined we would begin marketing our work-- and I have nowhere to send it. My calls to a dozen production companies and agents were met with the singular question, "Who do you know? We only take scripts by recommendation from someone in the business."

Um, I don't know anybody.

It's completely counterintuitive to me to ask for help; we've studied the books, learned the formatting and the lingo, revised and revised and I believe our writing should stand on it's own. But I need someone to read it first.

So please, please, if you know someone. If you know someone who knows someone, will you please email me (or facebook or leave a comment here)? Or if you simply want to read our screenplay yourself (and help me find those last few typos), I'd love to send it your way.

And thank you, always, for reading and listening and praying with me.