My latest feature, 'Witch Mother,' asks: What if the rage of the Pendle witches never rested?
Logline: Five centuries after the Pendle witches were hanged, a fame-hungry student livestreams a ritual that awakens a vengeful spirit determined to possess nine-year-old Jenny Device’s soul in order to free her own. To save her daughter, Martha must embrace the darkness — and become the Witch Mother she was born to be.
The seed of this story is deeply personal. My brother-in-law is directly descended from the Pendle witches — specifically the Device family. In 1612, a nine-year-old girl, Jennet Device, gave testimony that condemned her mother, Elizabeth, and eleven others to death.
That history haunted me. I kept asking: What if Elizabeth’s fury never ended? What if her vengeance carried through the centuries, targeting Jennet’s bloodline?
That’s how 'Witch Mother' was born.
What about you? Where did the spark for your current script come from?
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Spite and pettiness. Priority One was kicked off as a result of some extremely lazy writing I had the misfortune to witness. I watched a character who had struggled with all the same things I had finally reach the place where they wanted to live again only to be killed off in a glorified suicide dressed as a hero's sacrifice. It angers me if I'm being truthful. I hated the reasoning being "realism" though the story to that point had been so utterly unrealistic and I hated the unspoken message his death sent, intentional or unintentional. It said that no matter how hard you work to claw your way out of the pit you're in, you're just going to die anyway. So I thought... I can write it better, not in an arrogant way but more in a determined capacity. I suppose really, I wanted to prove that a show could deal with these things, could survive long-term and not have to resort to cheap deaths and storytelling to stay relevant and maintain stakes.
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Witch Mother sounds interesting, Selma Karayalcin. I'm outlining a Fantasy Action feature script. The spark came from taking two completely different movies and combining them.
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an enigmatic vision of 3 individuals (two
male, one female) on a small ferry boat
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Hannah Augenstine: love the spite and pettiness! That's a great motivator!!
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Maurice Vaughan - It will be interesting to guess the films !! Very original concept!
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Michael Thorn: Intriguing!
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My current script came from a statistic about projected job losses due to AI, how we continuously replace and upgrade technology, and my fascination with creation myths lol
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"31", a wordless (no dialogue) short depicted in various animation styles (with myself remaining in live action), based on a recurring dream of mine.
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Well, my book titled Terminal Cascade, which I converted into a script, came from a deployment I did to set up Telemedicine in Bosnia as part of Operation Joint Endeavor. I was attached to the Combat Casualty Research Center...and a plot was born...