Check-Mate by Liz Spear

Screenplays

New screenplays by Liz Spear are as follows:

Whispers on the Wind
A Welsh Period Coming of Age/ Family Saga. (Novel and screenplay) This has been optioned by Lee Levinson who compares it with How Green is my Valley the John Ford classic but the story is vastly different.

Logline:
Cruelly orphaned young Carrie Llewelyn dreams of running the family farm with her brother but his frighteningly suffocating love forces her in a new direction.

Synopsis:
Set against the breathtaking beauty of the Welsh mountains and lush Dulais Valley is a heartwrenching “coming of age” story depicting one young woman’s spiritual and emotional journey as she struggles against all odds to find her rightful place and to make a life for herself. An engaging tale played out against a tangled web of traumatic and life affirming experiences, which shape her into a woman never to be forgotten.

The Wedding Party - Very British Rom Com

Logline:
When Clarke and Janey wake up with different bed-mates after a drunken Hen and Stag Weekend, a pre-nuptial “itch” and other nasty repercussions put their wedding on hold.

Synopsis:
Janey jumps the gun when Clarke asks her to move in, which she takes as a marriage proposal. Thankfully, he comes round to the idea and they plan their nuptials, which includes a Stag and Hen weekend away. Although each group plans in secrecy they pick the same weekend and the same destination, Alicante, Spain.

The first night, flirty wisecracking Tina, the chief bridesmaid, ends up in bed with Enrico, a gorilla of a barman, and a womaniser. After a second night of binge drinking and ladette behaviour Janey wakes in Enrico’s arms while Clarke and Tina discover they're in the same bed and remember little of how they got there. Horrified - they try to put the evening behind them.

However, Enrico has given them more than they bargained for. His wedding gift is a nasty rash that infects Janey, and Tina who in turn infects Clarke. The wedding’s in three weeks and the clinic tells them the pills take a month to work and they must be celibate.

Forced to confess their drunken indiscretions to each other Clarke and Janey come to an understanding until Janey discovers that Clarke’s bedmate was her best friend, Tina. In Janey’s eyes this is the ultimate betrayal.

Clarke’s forced to leave his flat and struggles to win back her trust and love. He's hampered by a new job proposal and promotion, which demands he be unattached and the buffoonery of his best friend, Brian who’s also trying to win the woman of his dreams, Janey’s other good friend, klutz, Angie whilst dealing with a suicidal older woman at the same time.

The result is a good natured romp, which really does have a happy ending.

Killing me Softly
Psychological Thriller based on her novel of the same name.

Logline:
Handsome nightclub singer Tony must free himself from his, fanatically religious mother before he loses his mind and the authorities catch up with him for murder.

Synopsis:
The brutal murder of a young woman in the early hours of the morning triggers a manhunt.

Investigations reveal the killer has struck before and the police are further hampered by a copycat killer.

The elusive killer, handsome nightclub singer, Tony, strives to be free of his mother's obsessive love. The relationship is complex involving incest compounded by dark and contadictory religious beliefs.

The streets of Birmingham are unsafe until he meets and falls in love with a young school teacher, Amy, a relationship, which enrages his deranged and cunning mother.

Miraculously, with Amy in his life, Tony just manages to resist the urge to kill. He sees her as his saviour even more so after his arrest when she decides to stand by him. His mother has other ideas. In the final scene she makes up her mind to claim a miscarriage of justice and to continue Tony's killing spree to effect his release.

Her first victim is to be Amy.

The Electra Conspiracy
Suspense Thriller a sample of this can be seen on the page devoted to this screenplay currently in development.

Logine:
A young couple filming a biopic on an activist rock star get caught in the lethal crossfire between powerful competing political forces as they seek to investigate the crash that caused the singer's death.

Synopsis:
British film makers Jon Curtis and Amy Wilde just want to make an entertaining documentary about Electra, a pop icon famous for her singing voice and strong opinions about capital punishment and the sale of land mines. Unfortunately for Jon and Amy, they've chosen the wrong singer at the wrong time.

The Brandenburg Sect, a secret group of top Western politicians and businessmen who generally get what they want, decide Electra has to go; her subversive views are too popular with the masses.The Sect has already interfered once in Electra's relationship with the heir to the British throne. Now she's dating a wealthy, powerful Saudi.

Security forces under the Sect's control use Manchurian Candidate-style mind control to re-program captured convicted murderers and terrorists to kill for their side on command. Triggers for these re-programmed assassins have been set in Electra's musical recordings. Electra is close to discovering this misuse of her musical tracks when she dies in a fiery crash. Investigations reveal a conspiracy which Amy and John are determined to uncover and use in their film. It is not the

time to explore their growing attraction to each other - it is not the time to fall in love. They are marked people targeted by security services with their bank accounts frozen and identities stolen. In a race against the clock, can Jon and Amy alert the public to the truth before they too are eliminated? Or will the not so faceless men in black win the day?

Since joining her American Agent Patricia Miller Liz has struck up a prolific and productive writing partnership with fellow writer Debbie Majinska. Emails fly between them regularly as they plan and refine their latest script.

Both optioned WGA repped writers and both recently making it to the second round of the Austin Screenwriting Competition with individual screenplays, Debbie and Liz have five completed screenplays of varying genres and are working on a sixth.

Dr. Love
Romantic Comedy – an ensemble piece

Logline:
A group of women enrol in an experiment to make their men think feel and understand what it is to be her not realizing that some of them will think feel and understand what it is to be him!

Synopsis:
Six couples’ relationships are in trouble, but a newspaper ad promises volunteers their lives will be changed forever. By mixing each woman’s DNA with a secret formula serum and injecting it into her unsuspecting partner, the man will think, feel, and understand what it is to be her.

In an attempt to sway their men to Dr. Love's private island, the resulting treatment is an eye-opener for all; especially Jenny who discovers she's stronger and better off without her cheating husband.

Hellerby's Haven
This family comedy script could be described as What about Bob meets Dennis the Menace!

Logline:
A top executive takes early retirement but his sanctuary becomes hell when an ex-colleague turns up with his unruly family believing him to be a replacement father.

Synopsis:
Jack Hellerby’s (think Tom Hanks) last two weeks at work are blighted by widower and newcomer, Andy (think Ben Stiller/ Owen Wilson) Jack begins a peaceful retirement with wife, Patricia, but when Andy and his unruly family turn up at their lake-side sanctuary Jack’s pristine life is turned upside down.

Jack can’t understand why his wife, Patricia likes this motley crew. He has more than enough trouble relating to the children and their pets, Tomboy, Danny and her slowworm, mouse and frog but especially seven-year old Nat and his Golden Labrador. It doesn’t help that Jack suffers a cleanliness and tidiness phobia. In a story filled with incident, and when Nat’s in danger on the lake, Jack discovers he has a big heart and plenty of room in it for klutz Andy, his kids and their unusual pets.

Christmas Presents
A feel good Christmas MOW

Logline:
A novice angel earns her wings by reuniting the members of three families whose unhappy lives have become uniquely intertwined.

Synopsis:
Two angels, fun loving Marsha and prim and proper Alicia are sent to New York City at Christmas time – Alicia needs to earn her wings and Marsha is her mentor. After divine intervention they find a place to stay and the two angels begin their work.

Melissa (16) delivers a baby in the ladies’ room of a huge department store. She’s kept the pregnancy a secret – too terrified to confront her parents: Will, a doctor and Laura, a homemaker. Melissa carefully nestles her baby in a fancy “Gift Bag,” which she places beneath a store’s gigantic Christmas tree.

Joshua, the store’s Santa (70) estranged father of Will, together with his assistant, dwarf Rudy also an angel find the baby and Joshua, following his instincts, insists on taking him home.

That same day, Anna (12) is struck by a taxi cab during a shopping trip with her friend, Mandy (12). Anna’s a ballerina, and must face the fact she may lose her leg. She’s placed in the care of Will.

After surgery, Anna’s leg is saved, but she can no longer dance in the lead role of The Nutcracker Suite on Christmas Eve. Will spots that the young dancer is suffering from anorexia and all that illness entails. Anna’s friend, Mandy, forced to live with her Aunt Casey (34) and her baby cousin after her mother’s death, lives a miserable existence. Anna knows Mandy is a wonderful dancer and encourages her to take her lead role in The Nutcracker.

The angels work overtime to bring family members together and for them to reach new understandings. Even Mandy’s Aunt Casey is made to see the error of her ways.

Each family is movingly reunited on Christmas Eve. Alicia has earned her wings, and she and Marsha move on to help others in need.

The Secret of Gidon
Children's Fantasy Adventure suitable for animation.

Logline:
Two children explore a derelict house and are recruited into an amazing world of Inner-Earth Dwellers to defeat a shape-shifter night witch determined to rule all.

Synopsis:
Tyree and Suki are ordinary kids with nothing to do in the long summer break until a magical quest unites them. They must save the world of Gidon from the clutches of Night Witch, Sclarvete.

A fountain of ice sustains the lives of Inner-Earth Dwellers, and needs its enchantment renewed. Only humans with special qualities can do this. Sclarvete is determined to prevent this as in its liquid form her awesome powers return.

A perilous adventure awaits the children and their companions: a black fairy, an overgrown earth goblin, and a blue panther, who encounter the deadly Swamp of Despair, the old crone Grushka, the Vale of Mystery, Fire Imps, and Cannibals, ending in the final battle at the fountain wall in the Hall of Whispers, where a British fifty pence piece proves crucial in the war between good and evil.

Family Matters
Horror/ thriller

Logline:
A disturbed young woman devastated by the death of her parents kills suitable victims to become her new extended family.

Synopsis:
Mimi, an only child, devastated by the death of her parents in the 9/11 tragedy, loses her mind. She inherits her parents’ wealth and, consumed with grief, resigns her teaching position to become a charity worker in the small town of Leo’s Bend, Vermont, where she spent her childhood summers. Once there, she charms locals, but secretly kills suitable victims to become her new extended family –to share in her special Thanksgiving celebration.

Liz has also written another screenplay, Valley of the Gods with novelist Joan C. Guyll based on Joan’s book of the same name.

Valley of the Gods
Epic drama

Logline:
A young Geneticist finds the prince of her dreams is a ruthless, manipulative drug addict who wants to steal their child to save his high caste race from inbreeding.

Synopsis:
A self-centred Himalayan prince, RAJ, from the highest caste in the world chooses a mate in an attempt to cure the genetic interbreeding defects of his remote kingdom. The virgin, LEA, a Londoner, happily believes in her fairytale romance, until she sets foot in the Valley of the Gods and finds that her lover is not Prince Charming after all.

Stuck in the rustic mountains, feeling no better than a lab rat, she struggles to come to terms with a clash of cultures, drugs and lifestyles.

In a sinister twist, her newborn child is chosen to be the sacrificial lamb for the local God of War and she is forced to

escape her living hell, venturing into the forbidding wilderness of Zanskar, facing ferocious bears and avalanches with her unlikely saviour, German drug trafficker, KARL, who seemingly dies in the avalanche.

With Raj and his cronies in hot pursuit Lea manages to escape to England but her Prince tracks her down seven months later. The timely reappearance of Karl dispatches Raj and his thugs. Lea and her baby are saved.

Debbie Majinska
Debbie is an accomplished screenwriter in her own right and has three screenplays, which are available.

Malicious Minds
Crime/thriller/true story

Synopsis:
Two best buddies embark on a weekend hunting trip and end up in the wrong place at the wrong time. An altercation between the two young men and J.R. DuVall over who shot a deer, transforms J.R. into a demented animal who seeks revenge after losing the first round of the power struggle. With the aid of his brother and three others, he hunts the guys down and murders them. For eighteen years, the DuVall Brothers brag openly about killing the hunters, grinding their bodies in a wood chipper, and feeding the remains to their pigs... before the all-you-can-eat pig roast, that is. They threaten others they will meet the same fate if they breathe a word to anyone. Over the years, several eek out the truth and mysteriously end up dead. A tenacious detective, "Bull" Drake, is assigned the case. He works endless hours, hitting dead ends, until he retraces his steps from the beginning and finds a woman, Jane Weston, who witnessed the brutal slayings. Bull convinces Jane to
help put the DuValls behind bars. In 2003, with no bodies and no physical evidence... and Jane as the only murder witness, the DuVall brothers face a trial and folks in this circle of family and friends face a frightening choice to come clean with their venal secret.

Stolen Memories
MOW/drama/true story

Synopsis:
Ellen McFadden, an only child, must summon up her inner strength to help her windowed mother, Dorothy, (80) get the professional care she so desperately needs but stubbornly refuses to receive. Dorothy Thompson lives alone, but finds herself increasingly dependent upon Ellen's help. As Dorothy's condition deteriorates, her acute memory loss and confused state
provokes her to become angry and lash out at her loved ones -- especially Ellen. On New Year's Eve, Ellen
faces the bitter truth and admits her mother to the Geriatric Psychiatric Unit at Indianapolis Metro Hospital. Once there, Dorothy refuses to eat in an attempt to get back at Ellen by staving herself. Ellen faces her mother in court, where the judge wisely issues a mandate for Dorothy to remain in the hospital under the care of a psychiatrist. Eventually Dorothy is released to an adult foster care home, where she and Ellen receive guidance from an new psychiatrist. The doctor helps Ellen realize she must be strong for her mother's sake as well as for the well-being of her own family. Eventually Dorothy adjusts to her new home and comes to appreciate Ellen. The story ends on a positive, upbeat note with
mother and daughter reuniting in a joyous moment when Dorothy movingly bestows upon Ellen a gift from their past that speaks to an everlasting love. ***(Vascular dementia is one of the main causes of dementia, second only to Alzheimer's.)

Liz Spear's (Elizabth Revill's) acting agent is:

BAM ASSOCIATES,
41, Bloomfield Road,
Bristol,
BS4 3QA
www.ebam.tv
email: casting@ebam.tv
Tel/fax 0117 971 0636

Liz Spear's literary Agent is:

Patricia Miller,
White Orchid Literary and Talent
3580, Reserve Court,
Highland, MI 48356
(810) 632-6441
(810) 632-9396 – fax
Email: pmiller@white-orchid-agency.com
Web site: http://www.white-orchid-agency.com

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