"Alternate States"

February 16, 2016

Just as Writers Under the Arch (WUTA) finished up a table reading of this script, "Alternate States" (Logline: Bad things happen when four characters in three parallel worlds step through the holes in the boundaries separating them.), Inktip.com informed me that a producer has downloaded the script and apparently is interested enough in it to send it to two outside readers.

Flattering, even if nothing more comes of this, and fingers crossed of course, but I'm not holding my breath. In the right hands, this could really be something, I'm convinced, but this script, perhaps especially, might be a hard one to place, as this is an example of, on the one hand, "Old White Guys Talking" and, on the other, of something reminiscent of "Twilight Zone".

While not all of these characters are Old, not all of them are (necessarily) White and not all of them are Guys, this is dialogue heavy, like the novels of LeCarre and the films made about his characters; and, like some of the very best Twilight Zone stories (at least the way I remember them), there's an subtle tension that builds slowly at first and then with increasing velocity until, finally, the story erupts and things fly apart. Probably too much dialogue and too slow for today's audiences, but, as always, we'll see. Better to let the other guy say no than say it for him.