Screenplay | Screenplay Submission to Screenplay Agents

Query Letter Submission Library

Below are some of the query letters sent through our submission service.

Genre: True Story

---

Title:  1066

Logline:  The last Anglo-Saxon king of England has to contend with Welsh rebels, Viking raiders, a jealous wife and mistress, a rebellious younger brother, and an invasion by the French. All within one year.

Synopsis:
1066 was an eventful year for the people of England. In January, King EDWARD (the Confessor), died without an heir. According to the traditions of the Anglo-Saxons, a new king was elected. HAROLD GODWINSON, the earl of Wessex. But he was not able to sit easy on his throne. Within a few months, he had to fight a rebellion led by his brother, THOSTIG , and an invasion by WILLIAM, duke of Normandy, who claimed that Edward had promised him the crown. At the same time, circumstances force him away from the mistress he loves and allow him to fall in love with his wife for the first time. The story of the last Anglo-Saxon king of England is one not just of politics and war, but of love and loss, family ties, and the hope for a better world for ourselves and our loved ones.

---

Title:  The Melody Called Life

Logline:  A famous celebrity unknowingly saves the life of a child. Their paths cross and they both find out that the connection between them runs deeper then they could have ever imagined.

Synopsis:
A heartfelt story about a famous songstress, who must find her desire and passion to sing again after the kidnapping of her baby. A heroic journey of one child''s desperate search for love and recognition in a dark world surrounded by abuse. Used as a source of revenge and imprisoned in the place she calls home, the child finds comfort and solace inside the music and voice of the celebrity. A compelling story of a mother''s undying love and a child''s fight to stay alive. Two seperate paths of life with one common goal- each other. Based on true events- it''s an inspiring, cinderella story of courage, hope and the determination to believe that dreams will come true. The power of music truly can change and save a life.

---

Title:  Friends in Low Places

Logline:  When a group of 4 struggling best friends each go their seperate ways, one soon realizes the only way to reunite the group to make themselves happy is to sell a script based on their actual story.

Synopsis:
Matt is a regular 20 year old Jewish kid from Long Island who his struggling in his transition to adulthood. Working as a camp counselor, he meets Kyle, Sando, and Fogarty. Kyle is a black kid from the ghetto, Fogarty is a drunk Canadian, and Sando is an Australian living off his girlfriend in England. They quickly form an unlikely bond and often find themselves in hilarious situations, such as getting dragged to temple by Matt''s Aunt Shirley on a day off from camp. However, outside of camp they all deal with their own unique problems. When they reunite for a second summer, the magic is recaptured yet they know their time together is coming to an end as it is time to start their real lives. As he continues to struggle, Matt discovers that writing about his friends allows him to escape reality. As each of his friend''s situations worsen as well, Matt begins his quest to write and sell a script based on their group in effort save his friends and to bring them back together for good.

---

Title:  STRIKE

Logline:  This is the story of an American city, an Irish union official and the world’s most powerful corporation. The period is 1936-1937 and the General Motors’ sitdown strikes in Flint.

Synopsis:
In 1936, union organizing was growing, but it was still a struggle. Corporations fought unionization with firings and fists, and violated the Wagner Act, which prohibited anti-union activities by employers, at will. Spies pretended to be militant unionists but reported on union activities back to the company. Assembly line speedups were common and wages were barely livable for the 50,000 GM employees at several plants in Flint. GM ran Flint, and the company had union families threatened with eviction, credit denied at stores, wives pressured into writing letters claiming they were ill to their husbands in the plants, and more. “The city was divided, and some of the big companies did everything they could to hurt us,” said sit-downer Charles White. A Pinkerton spy from Plant 2 reported there were only 100 men inside that building. Plant guards there created an incident so police could be called in.

---

Title:  WORLD THINK TANK:Someone out there has the answer

Logline:  Reality TV - Problems submitted from around the world. Teams compete for solutions. Ideas may be submitted by experts(Ex:scientists) & non-experts(Ex:Bushmen).

Synopsis:
Sample Problem: Small city in Texas decides to stop euthanizing its stray dogs. Stray dog population now at 600 and growing. Small town does not have funds to hire more employees to care for or feed dogs. Dog poop piling up. Noise from barking is unbearable, bringing down property values.... Sample Solution: Locate biologist to find a way to recycle or clean up poop. Locate engineer to design dog runs to provide "dog generated" electricity for community. Find physicist to create sound neutralizing device for barking. Build small house for volunteers who want to give a week of their time to relieve local staffing problems. Find donors for dog food. By presenting this in a Reality TV format, problem solving by-passes bureaucracy, allows for instant idea sharing, and develops a synergistic problem solving venue. Follow-up will be important. Successful projects can be adopted by other communities.... World Think Tank...someone out there has the answer!!!

---

Title:  Separate Journeys

Logline:  SEPARATE JOURNEYS is a full feature screenplay about the Lewis & Clark Expedition dramatizing the adventure, peril, bravery and stunning visual beauty of the western exploration.

Synopsis:
Besides the adventure, SEPARATE JOURNEYS portrays the remarkable friendship and partnership of America's greatest explorers. Meriwether Lewis was a brilliant, multi talented leader from the Virginia gentry, who also battled manic depression, alcoholism, malaria and drug addiction during the Expedition. William Clark, a level headed Kentucky frontiersman, superb waterman and cartographer, balanced Lewis and kept his friend from going over the edge during the exploration. The compelling story of the Lewis & Clark Expedition has only been recounted in documentaries until now. SEPARATE JOURNEYS (WGA 1081286) has recommended coverage and is timely with the 200th anniversary of the expedition's completion coming in 2006. I am a screenwriter and history professor. Please Email me and I will include a release form if you wish to read the screenplay for possible representation.

---

Title:  The Christmas Truce

Logline:  Young soldiers question the war in this fact-based story about the impact of the World War I Christmas truce in which British and German soldiers stopped fighting to celebrate Christmas together.

Synopsis:
Will is a teenaged WWI soldier who grew up in a poor London neighborhood and was raised to despise Germans. In spite of his youth, he’s a serious soldier who has accepted the horrors of trench life including rats the size of cats and dead bodies in various stages of decay. On December 25, 1914, the Germans approach the British with a Christmas tree and good German beer and request a truce to bury the corpses. Will works side-by-side with the Germans to collect the bodies and bury them and befriends several German soldiers in spite of the warnings of gung-ho soldiers who disapprove of the truce. However, the truce ends and Will is forced to fight his new-found buddies. This is a fact-based story that was chronicled in history books, newspapers and diaries.

---

Title:  DINOSAUR MAN, A True Story

Logline:  True story of EDWARD COPE, 19th century American fossil hunter, his rise and fall, expeditions to untamed West, and bitter feud with Professor Marsh of Yale

Synopsis:
When only 18 years old, wealthy Philadelphia Quaker Edward Cope is taken under the wing of Joseph Leidy, America's most esteemed expert in natural science. The 1858 discovery in New Jersey of the first complete dinosaur fossil sparks the ambitious Cope to venture to the plains and badlands of the West to search for fossils, particularly when Cope's bitter rival Professor Marsh from Yale organizes his own expeditions to the West. Despite his illness, wife and young child, Cope is determined to endure danger and hardship, roving bands of hostile Indians, and depletion of his financial resources to find fossils. Although brilliant, ambitious and determined, Cope's ungracious personality and his naivete about politics nearly cause his demise, whereas the smooth operating, well connected and politically savvy Professor Marsh gains every advantage, at least for a while.

---

Title:  The white witch of Rosehall, Jamaica, West Indies

Logline:  A True story of Jamaica, West Indies in 1831. A beautiful young British girl learn Haitian Vodoo and marry a rich plantation owner. Three husbands died. Now she falls in love with the new book-keeper.

Synopsis:
In December 1831, Robert Rutherford a handsome 25 year old British gentleman came to Jamaica, West Indies to learn the plantation business. He met Annie Palmer the strikingly beautiful white widow and owner of the Rosehall plantation. She seduced him. She told him her three husbands had died in the house. Rumors were that she was a witch and had killed them. Robert's housekeeper, a beautiful half white, half black, free girl name Millicent fell in love with him. Millicent warned him about Mrs. Palmer. She might kill him too. He never believed it. When Annie Palmer caught Millicent in Robert's bed one night; she used her Vodoo powers to kill Millicent. In her anger she boasts to Robert of her Vodoo powers and finally admitted to killing her three husbands. Millicent's grandfather Takoo a Vodoo priest with powers of his own, killed Annie Palmer and led the slaves to rebel and burn down the plantation to revenge his granddaughter. Robert Rutherford returned to England.

---

Title:  In Short Tall Grass

Logline:  A group of downtrodden Native Americans form a professional football team to play the world champion New York Giants.

Synopsis:
I've completed a screenplay entitled "In Short Tall Grass" that I would like to submit for your consideration. Based upon a true story and taking place in the years leading up to the Great Depression, it is a story about a group of Native American athletes that unite in rural Oklahoma to establish a professional football team. Overcoming both athletic adversity and social alienation, this unique group of men toil in obscurity for years before reaching the pinnacle of both their personal and professional lives by facing their most difficult challenge, a match against the best football team in the country, the world champion New York Giants.

---

Title:  Siege at Beecher Island

Logline:  Outnumbered 20 to 1, Army scouts fight for their lives against Cheyenne and Sioux warriors fighting for their way of life.

Synopsis:
In the summer of 1868 Major George Forsyth wanted more than anything to lead men in battle against hostile Indians. For his sins they granted his wish. "Siege at Beecher Island" is the true story of Forsyth's Scouts, 50 frontiersman enlisted by the Army and led by Major Forsyth and Lt. Frederick Beecher to hunt down the Cheyenne war chief Roman Nose and his band of Dog Soldiers. Fighting to keep their way of life, Roman Nose and his warriors attack the scouts holding them siege on an island in the middle of an almost-dry river for nine days. It is also the story of two young men coming of age on the violent frontier. Sigmund Schlesinger, a Jewish youth whose bravery is tested by hostile Indians and prejudiced white men. And Jack Stillwell, who walks 100 miles to bring back the African-American 10th U.S. Cavalry, the famed Buffalo Soldiers, to rescue the besieged men.

---

Title:  My Prisoner

Logline:  A German prisoner-of-war is assigned to baby sit an eight-year-old American boy while his mother works as a secretary for the brass in this true story set in Illinois during World War II.

Synopsis:
During World War II, nearly 400,000 German prisoners were held in military camps throughout the United States. In order to work as a secretary in one such camp in Illinois, MILLIE VINCENT reluctantly agrees to let German POW RUDY STEINER to care for her fatherless eight year old son, ANDY. Neither Millie nor Andy are happy with the situation, especially when Rudy teaches Andy the German word for “shithead.” Rudy struggles ideologically with die-hard Nazi POWs within the compound and is confronted by their manic leader, HANS. Under most unlikely circumstances, Rudy, Millie and Andy find themselves falling in love with each other to a point where Rudy sells his Iron Cross medal to an American guard so he can give money to Andy for his birthday. Trustee prisoners were allowed to leave camp with an unarmed guard on occasion and Millie takes that opportunity to have Rudy over for dinner and a romantic dance. Rudy’s camp friend KARL is beaten to death in is barrack by Nazi fanatics and local citizens watch in awe at a German military funeral procession down the streets of their town. Meanwhile, Rudy helps Andy grow stronger so he can make the local baseball team and stand up to the team bully. Warm, soft summer days of fishing and swimming holes end suddenly when Rudy confesses to Millie that he has a wife and child in Germany. Tragically, Rudy learns a short time later his family was killed in the Allied bombing of Dresden. Rudy blames Hans and other Nazis for prolonging the war and goads him into striking Rudy. GUARDS catch Hans in the act and ship him to a “special” camp holding trouble-making POW’s. Rudy tells Andy he is being “repatriated” or being sent back to Germany because the war is over. Andy tells Rudy he hates him and runs off. The next morning, Andy and Millie learn Rudy is leaving at that moment on the train. Andy runs to the train, sees Rudy and begs him not to go. When he can run no further, he falls face first in the dirt in misery. Rudy is not sent back to Germany but instead is forced to slave labor in French coal mines for several years. None of his letters to Millie and Andy are ever received nor does he receive any mail. Fifteen years later, Andy, now a soldier himself, decides while on leave to Germany to find his adopted father, Rudy, and bring him “home.” It is a profound decision for Rudy who both fears neo-Nazi reprisals and his own heart. Rudy and Millie reunite at her house. Andy announces he is being shipped to Viet Nam. Rudy tells Millie they will wait for him together.

---

< Back to Submission Library