4th of July Spotlight: DEAD MEN

Today we celebrate our Independence Day! Yes, I am parroting Bill Pullman's unforgettable speech from that equally unforgettable piece of vintage Hollywood cheese Independence Day--soon to be transformed, for better or for worse (probably worse), into the first part of a trilogy.

But truly folks, on behalf of the entire ScreenCraft team, we'd like to wish you a very happy 4th of July. This is a day earmarked for barbecue, craft beer and celebrating our national culture and identity, not necessarily in that order. Toward that end, I'd like to call attention to a television pilot called Dead Men by T.A. Snyder. T.A. was one of the three winners of our inaugural fellowship program last year, and he's a writer with a singular voice, an impeccable command of the craft of screenwriting, and a truly original point of view. Dead Men was submitted to us as a first-rate feature that has in a very short time become a pitch room sensation. T.A. has subsequently reworked the project as a series pilot because the narrative demanded a broader spotlight and framework,  and the project has, rightfully,  gotten significant traction. It is currently being shopped to myriad top-level agencies.

We are spotlighting it on the 4th of July because it is genuinely relevant: Dead Men is a pilot based on a true story about a veteran lawman and a young idealist who struggle to lead the hunt for America's first serial killers, roughly twenty years after America won the Revolutionary War and declared its independence. The script is a grisly crime thriller set against an unusual backdrop, and it packs an organic political wallop. One of the fantastic things about this project is that it is authentically a period piece...but it also has organic contemporary thematic parallels. Dead Men is very much about our struggle to carve out our national identity and integrity in the face of adversity and terror, and that struggle has arguably never been more relevant than it is right now.

Check out: the pilot teaser; a portion of the series bible; the Siege of Liberty Station sequence of the script that takes place on July 4th, 1799; a sizzle reel; and some of the concept art for Dead Men below. Happy 4th of July to all.

DEAD MEN Pilot - Teaser Script (PDF)

DMbible5pages

DEAD MEN excerpt - 4th of July Siege (PDF)