Suzanne Gillis - Screenwriter

GENERAL BACKGROUND
Professional Screenwriter since 1991 and Professional Screenplay Ghostwriter since 2007. Specializes in high concept, action adventure, comedy and family films as well as story development . Written over forty scripts, including scripts that have been optioned, produced and in development. Previously lived in LA, NYC and currently residing in the Boston which is where I grew up.

EDUCATION
Columbia University
Graduate School of Arts, Film Program, NYC
MFA - Honors in Screenwriting

Hampshire College
Amherst, MA
BA - Screenwriting & Narrative Film


RECENT SCREENPLAY GHOSTWRITING PROJECTS

THE BIG FIVE'S THREE 'O'
(Action/Comedy/Drama)
Ghostwriter and Story Development by Suzanne E. Gillis
Based on True Story
A group of five college guys who have taking annual vacation trips together for three decades embark on their thirtieth anniversary trip to The Great Bear Rainforest in Western Canada. Once the Captain of their rented sailboat dies, they are soon forced to face the 'world' alone with little to no survival skills, which proves to test both their long standing friendships as well as their fears about facing middle-age.

THEY SAID I WOULDN'T MAKE IT
(Drama/Family)
Ghostwriter and Story Development by Suzanne E. Gillis
Based on a True Story
A tight-nit loving black family is driving apart by poverty in the 1960s, when 11 children are taken from their mother and placed into Foster Care. Year later one of the oldest children who is severely handicapped seeks out his lost and broken mother, takes her into his own care and sets out to legally adopts his remaining foster-care siblings and ultimately restores his entire family.
Based on the Book: "THEY SAID I WOULDN'T MAKE IT" written by Dr. Fred Best

PHYSICS OF MURDER
(Thriller/Drama)
Ghostwriter and Story Development by Suzanne E. Gillis
A deeply insecure college professor with an overbearing highly acclaimed college president for a father, is driven to despair and murder after his highly publicized science project hits a new all-time-low which threatens both his career and marriage.

PRIEST HUNTER
(Period/Action/Drama)
1710 Ireland, a time when Catholic Priests are hunted and killed for practicing their faith, as one such Priest dies as a result of a betrayal between two young boys. Years later, the younger boy returns to Ireland as a Catholic Priest hoping to restore his land and his people to their ‘forbidden’ faith, while the older boy -- a notoriously dreaded ‘Priest Hunter’ -- is sent to stop him.

PURPLE HEART
(Action/Drama)
Ghostwriter and Story Development by Suzanne Gillis
A Boston Firefighter who loses his job, health and marriage after a serious fall in a fire soon discovers that the fire was set by two young serial arsonists and set out to stop them.
Based in part on actual events of a retired & injured Boston Fire Fighter.

THE KING’S ROOK
(Action/Sci-Fi)
Complete Rewrite and Story Development by Suzanne Gillis
A special government agent who possess unusual ‘psychic powers’ senses his
older brother is dead and heads to America to find out who murdered his brother.
Post Production - STELLAR FILMS

SAVING SARAH
(True Story/Drama)
Story Development by Suzanne E. Gillis
Based on a True Story
The true story of one family’s struggle to raise an autistic daughter who during her early teens develops a new psychosis that threatens to institutionalize her. Together, the family works through Sarah's debilitating problems and saves both Sarah and her family from living a life 'without Sarah'.
Based on the book: "MEMOIRS OF DAISY’ written by Valerie Bruce

MIRACLES OF GOD
(True Story/Drama)
Story Development by Suzanne Gillis
The true story of one black man's journey from a heathen life of idol worship in West Africa to becoming a world known Christian Pastor with seventeen Ministries throughout the world.
Based on the Book: ‘MIRACLES OF GOD’ written by Reverend Stephen Gyermeh

CHURCH NURSE
(True Story/Drama)
Ghostwriter and Story Development by Suzanne E. Gillis
Based on a True Story
A troubled teenage girl is seduced by a charismatic young Pastor only to discover years later that he is now seducing her thirteen-year-old niece who also serves as a Church Nurse at the same church where her mother is now a Co-Pastor. Together, she and her older sister take the Pastor to court where he is convicted for child rape and sentenced to forty years in jail. After two years of being threatened and accused of lying about the Pastor, other church members have finally come forth and confessed similar stories about the Pastor.

ON MY FATHER’S WINGS
(True Story/Drama)
Ghostwriter and Story Development by Suzanne E. Gillis
Based on a True Story
The true story of a young commercial pilot who was forced to fly and land a ‘instrument dead’ twin-engine plane during a huge storm which forced all the airports in the entire Eastern Atlantic Seaboard to be shut down.
NOTE: This story was documented by FAA as one of the great rescue missions in aviation.

FREEDOM’S EDGE
(Period/Drama)
Story Editor and Story Development by Suzanne E. Gillis
1940’s Holland. A young Jewish family escapes Holland onboard a ship headed to South America while being hunted by a troubled Nazi who will do anything to stop them.
Based on the Book: ‘FREEDOM’S EDGE’ written by Dr. Jagdish Goswami

MARY MAGDALA
(Period/Fiction/Bible)
Story Development by Suzanne E. Gillis
The personal journey of Mary Magdala from social outcast in Israel to becoming the thirteenth disciple of Jesus.


LIST OF PERSONAL FEATURE SCREENPLAYS (WGAe/w)

THE GENERAL’S WIFE
(WWII Period Drama/Thriller)
Story Development by Suzanne E. Gillis
Screenplay by Suzanne E. Gillis & Charles Gibb, PhD
A German youth loyalties are suddenly torn when he discovers that his American
mother is delivering messages to Allies while his Nazi father reports Intelligence for the Third Reich.
CONSIDER
Blue Cat Screenplay Finalist

THE NAUGHTY BOY
(Holiday/Action/Family)
Story Development by Suzanne Gillis
Screenplay by Suzanne E. Gillis
When the demand for electronic toys threatens to disrupt Christmas, Santa must turn one high-tech addicted "naughty" into "nice" by Christmas or else give up making his ‘outdated’ toys.
RECOMMEND from Gallager Literary Agency
Previously in Development

DOG GONE DUBIE
(Comedy/Family)
Screenplay by by Suzanne
A washed up Brooklyn food-lover who longs to own his own gourmet hotdog business falls in love with an ambitious career driven Manhattan dietician and must realize his own dreams in order to prove his worthiness of her love.
CONSIDER from
HONORABLE MENTION - ‘The Happy Writer’s' Screenplay Contest

UNDER MY SKIN
(Comedy/Romance)
Original Screenplay by Suzanne Gillis
A thrice divorced once famous Beverly Hills Plastic Surgeon whose career is now in the dumps, is talked into transforms a love-sick West Hollywood Chef into a gorgeous female only to find himself suddenly in love with his ‘newest’ patient.
TOP TEN SCREENPLAY on for Two years
HONORS- Columbia University Film Program

CUPID'S DAY OFF
(Comedy/Romance)
Original Screenplay by Suzanne E. Gillis
When New York City’s most beloved Cupid is forced to take Valentine’s day off in order to ‘rebalance the marriage numbers’ -- he decides to get even with his Superiors by spending the day experiencing what all this ‘love business’ is about first hand.
Previously Represtented

THE MOTHER LOAD
(Comedy/Romance)
Original Screenplay by Suzanne E. Gillis
When a career-driven business woman discovers that she has a history of dating men who all suffer from severe 'mother problems’ she vows to never to date another man again until she meets his mother first. Soon she is dating a man who seems to have the perfect mother – until she meets his ‘real mother’ who turns out to be a complete and utter nightmare.
Previously Represented

UNDATABLE YOU
(Comedy/Romance)
Original Screenplay by Suzanne E. Gillis
When a newly divorced owner of a famous dating service makes a public announcement that 'she can make anyone in the city of Boston completely dateable.' She soon is forced to find a suitable 'date' for her most 'undatable' client of all who threatens to destroy her business.
Optioned

IN-BETWEEN
(Fantasy/Drama)
Original Screenplay by Suzanne E. Gillis
A virginal teenager finds himself suddenly dead and assigned to an Arch Angel ‘from hell’ whose sexual past is the stuff he always dreamed of. Together they embark on a strange journey in-between life and death as they right the wrongs they have done to the women they have loved in small rural town of Hadleyville, New York.
Optioned

THE GAME KEEPER
(Animation/Action Adventure)
Original Screenplay by Suzanne E. Gillis
1980s. When three pre-teen boy who are obsessed with fantasy role playing game of Dungeon and Dragon purchase a more elaborate and mysterious game from a strange mysterious neighbor, one of the teens baby brothers gets sucked into the game where the others must find a way of rescuing him from the evil Wizard Zorak who eats all children in order to maintain his evil powers.
Previously in Deveopment