Congrats again to Matias Caruso who takes first place again in the August Movie Poet short contest with “Invalid Directive” – A humanoid boy, undefeated chess champion, loses his first game and finds his world turned upside down… because of a girl’s kiss.

And, congrats to Stephen Brown who took second place with “Coma” (which you can read here ) – The struggle to hold on to someone we have lost is a strong emotion… sometimes too strong an emotion to let go. The topic was “SciFi Here and Now”.

Each month, Movie Poet runs a free online five page screenplay contest. On the first of each month a new contest is announced. During that month, you can enter your script. During the next month, you can read, vote, and comment on all the entries. Finally, during the third month, the results are announced.

The goal of the site is to help writers improve their craft, celebrate our best work, and connect writers and their scripts with filmmakers.

This month the theme is “Chemistry” – Write a love story and name it after an element from the periodic table. The love must be between people (no aliens, animals, or inanimate objects) and the title must be the name of the element and not its symbol (Hydrogen not H).Head on over to Movie Poet and give it a go. – Don

Just a little heads up that the final deadline for TheMovieDeal Screenplay Competition is tomorrow, September 30th

You can still save $15.00 on your submission using promo code SI8138 on the ‘Enter Now’ page at http://www.TheMovieDeal.com.

Here are the particulars.

This is a new Indie screenplay competition which offers a production deal to the grand prize winner…. The winning writer of The Movie Deal! Screenplay Contest will receive a production deal, plus airfare and accommodations to the set of their own film.

Independent filmmakers Craig James Pietrowiak & Scott Prestin, currently in pre-production on the $4 million feature starring Ving Rhames, William Forsythe, Armand Assante and John Gries, have launched The MovieDeal! Screenplay Contest to find their next INDIE script! The goal is to produce a hit bigger than ‘Project Greenlight’ ever dreamed of. We’re looking for an original, innovative, yet marketable idea that could garner the success of the hits ‘Napoleon Dynamite,’ ‘The Blair Witch Project,’ or ‘Open Water.’ It doesn’t matter what genre, it just has to be Indie and interesting.

You don’t need AGENCY representation to enter. We want the best scripts in the market, which as independent filmmakers we know usually comes from up-and-coming talent, just like you!

Entries to The Movie Deal! are invited in 10 categories for feature length genres, as well as TV pilots, and short films. For submission details and other information, please visit: TheMovieDeal.com and remember save $15.00 on your submission using promo code SI8138.

The Fat Kid, the Skinny Kid and I just got back from a few days a lovely Cape May, New Jersey. We spent several overcast days building sandcastles, swimming in 68 degree water and eating.

The usual Sunday Unproduced Scripts update will come later in the week.

I forgot to give you all the heads up on last weeks unproduced scripts. Julio has his Dark Fantasy series Gharan in which people with unusual talents and abilities are drawn to inter-dimensional pathways called “Red Rooms”. If you are keen on the Heroes genre, you might want to give this a look. Also, Domenic has has American Whiskey about an ex-patriot teaching in China.

We also have Script Girls scripts sales for this week. Season of the Witch, three tragic stages of a young woman’s life unhinges her, cold war superspy comes out of retirement, two 20-something guys’ friendship is put to the test when one becomes engaged and finally, Moby Dick! Man, I’m glad they’ve gotten around to filming this book. This is just what is needed to throw some originality into the recent fare of remakes coming out. Spoiler alert! Ahab dies at the end. – Don

Every summer, the WGA writers magazine Written By posts several unproduced scripts. This summer’s theme was animation. You can read six unproduced animation scripts over at Written By the magazine of Writers Guild of America, west. – Don

Zooing Time – July 28, 2006 unspecified draft script by Michael Mullin – hosted by: Written By – in pdf format

Nightbirds – February 2008, unspecified draft script by Steve Lloyd Hayes – hosted by: Written By – in pdf format

Rover + Juliet – undated, unspecified draft script by Steven Wolfson & Jed Wallace – hosted by: Written By – in pdf format

Leo & the Fizzwig – May 15, 2008 unspecified draft script by Sam Bobrick & Julie Stein – hosted by: Written By – in pdf format

Merc & the Space Invaders – undated, unspecified draft script by Jacqueline Feather & David Seidler – hosted by: Written By – in pdf format

Sock Hop – undated, unspecified draft script by Adam Pava – hosted by: Written By – in pdf format

ScriptGirl sez, archeological discovery starts worldwide search, man has 92 minutes to live and wonders how to live them, California law man rescues daughter, aliens and humans with special abilities save the earth, and high tension love triangle between female bank manager, thief and FBI agent.

Thanks to Erick for this link to the script of the pilot episode of Fringe (pdf format).

A television drama centered around a female FBI agent who is forced to work with an institutionalized scientist in order to rationalize a brewing storm of unexplained phenomena.

Also, you can watch the pilot on IMDb free.

There are more TV scripts and teleplays on the TV scripts and teleplays page. – Don

Over on the Unproduced Scripts page there are 15 new or revised scripts up for your reading please.

Among them is Bre’s Bee Girl, your your typical irreverent comedy with a film noir flavor about gangsters, revenge, masturbation, and a superhuman Bee Girl.

There is also Mike’s Pimp Juice about tainted red Pop-Ade that turns anyone who drinks it into a pimp or ho. Enter three unlikely heroes: King Aloysius, a real life pimp, Sancho, the soothsayer on the street, and Guy Kracker, the whitest white man on Earth.

Head over to the Unproduced Scripts page and find something guaranteed to offend you or delight you or both. – Don

Professor plays cat and mouse with detective, lonely woman has imaginary conversations with Paul Newman, Sigmund the Sea Monster hides in kids tree house, Liberace biopic and Hockey Player Shawn Avery’s summer internship at Vogue.

Hey Folks,

Over on the Unproduced Scripts page we have 24 original works (or derivatives) up for your reading pleasure. There are more Scarefest 2 scripts and another in the Terminator series – Terminator 5: Ashes of War from Ross who was one of the first to have his unproduced works posted to SimplyScripts back in 2000. You can thank, among others, Ross for kicking off the unproduced scripts section. He was one of several folks who send me their works wondering if I would post them. I did post his work and now we have over four thousand Unproduced Scripts on the site and a Screenwriting Discussion Board. – Don