Projects on deck, in queue, and at bat . . .

Okay, a more normal posting from me now, about what I've been up to lately.

I'm maybe 2/3 of the way through the alpha draft of a screenplay for a mystery that I'm calling Too Many Tonys. I call it an alpha draft because it's not quite together enough to be considered a first draft. I've changed my mind about some key plot elements and I'll have to straighten all that out with a rewrite later. Right now, if somebody besides me read it, it wouldn't make much sense, because of that.

Once I get to the "Fade out:" for that project I'm going to put it aside for a couple of weeks to work on a short project I'm calling Niobe. It's more of a drama, and I don't expect it to be longer than 10 script pages. Maybe less. It's going to take some intense concentration on my part to get it down to that short because I've got a lot of story to tell and I'm not giving myself much time to tell it. It'll take some thinking to get it down to that length without making the story seem choppy. I'm also planning, eventually, to shoot this one myself, which is another consideration. That won't be until sometime next year, though, at the earliest. I'm not going to be setting this one aside--I'm going to focus on it until it's done.

Then, once I'm done with that script, I'll jump back onto Too Many Tonys and begin the rewriting process. Within a couple months hopefully I'll have this baby to the point where I can copyright it and register it with the Screenwriter's Guild.

After that, I've got another short project I want to do--this one is more horror than anything. I'm calling it Inside, and it's based on my own song of the same title. I plan on shooting this one myself, as well. I'm expecting it to be around 10 pages or so in length.

By that time I should be ready to start on this project that, right now, has me a bit intimidated. I don't have a title for it yet, but it'll be a science fiction piece that involves time travel. Yes, I know I've said I hate time travel stories, but this is such a good idea . . . anyway, it's one of those stories that could really make some statements I feel need to be made, and be entertaining at the same time. It's also going to take some intricate plotting, and the pacing is going to be especially tricky. It's one of those things that'll either be great, or really suck. There won't be any in-between.

Then there's another drama about a preacher with something to hide, based on a short story I wrote years ago, that I think would make a decent little movie.

At this point it gets a bit nebulous, but I do have some things I'm considering--most of these would require me acquiring the movie rights so they'd fall into the area of pipe dreams at this time:

• A prequel to the Predator movies
• An adaptation of Michael Moorcock's The War Hound and the World's Pain
• An adaptation of the Karl Edward Wagner and David Drake novel, Killer
• A romcom about a couple who has been living together for over a decade deciding to get married--and the Queen of England winds up attending the wedding (due to various and sundry hijinks and escapades . . .)
• A "bitter home boy" story set in a small Southern town I'm calling Misery Creek.
• A horror movie set on a space ship

Of course, all of this is subject to change. Hopefully I'll live long enough--and somehow find the time and money--to do all this. We'll see . . .