 |
|
|
 FULL-LENGTH BOOK MANUSCRIPTS:
|
|
|
|
|
CURRENT WORKS (SCREENPLAYS, BOOK MANUSCRIPTS, CHILDRENS BOOKS, PLAYS AND BOOKS-ON-TAPE) AVAILABLE FOR MOVIE OPTION, PRODUCTION OR PUBLICATION BY DONNA BLASOR-BERNHARDT
|
|
|
|
WALTZ WITH ME, ALASKA - An Alaskan Love Story
|
|
Genre:
Non-Fiction, Family Survival Drama-screenplay
Logline:
1977-Leaving civilization for the Alaskan wilderness, unable to complete their log cabin before winter, a young family struggles to survive in an old army tent. Conquering impending starvation, injury, and sickness in minus 70° weather, the family experiences love, humor and insight into themselves, life, and the land they love.
Synopsis:
Waltz With Me, Alaska is the true story of Dick and Donna Bernhardt and their two young children who leave their modern Anchorage home and life to realize their dream of hand-building their own log cabin in the Alaskan wilderness, raise their family and live "happily ever after." Unable to complete the cabin before winter sets in, a 13 month struggle to survive in an old army tent with a dirt floor, no electricity, no water and no neighbors ensues. They battle to keep enough firewood cut to feed a woodstove with a cord-a-day habit. When Donna must sew up Dick's leg after his run-in with a hostile chain saw, they face agony, but not defeat. Killing a moose when winter staples grow thin, they endure the dismay of learning the animal was diseased and the meat is inedible.
With temperatures dropping to 70 below zero, every day is a day of peril, but peril and hardship are great teachers. The family works together, loves together, laughs and cries together, surviving the winter, completing their log cabin and "living happily ever after." (Also available as a book manuscript--see below)
Click here for photos of the tent and more detail.
email me to contact my agent |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 HAUNTED HOLIDAYS - THE MOVIE
Two Hour TV Pilot
Genre:
Supernatural mystery thriller movie/pilot with possible TV series spinoff. J.F. Walker, co-writer (See below under TV Series for the episodic spinoff details)
Logline:
Cassandra Crone hosts a supernatural weekend to lure prospective partners into joining her new travelbusiness-the old manor is bedecked in Christmas splendor, the table is set, and the roaring fire melts the chill from the winter storm as curious guests arrive, unaware that one univited ghostly visitor hides in the shadows growing stronger...waiting to continue a 300 year old legacy of evil.
Synopsis:
Haunted Holidays is a new adventure travel outfit promising supernatural thrills and chills for your vacation plans. At a Christmas weekend kick off to coax prospective partners, Cassandra Crone hosts an all-expense paid holiday weekend retreat in Crone Manor- America's Second most haunted house. Cassandra is no stranger to the paranormal, having grown up in the shadow of "The Crone Curse;" a legend spun around her family's tragic history
The immense old mansion has been the inspiration for many local ghost stories- especially the infamous Woman in Black, whose appearance is a portent of doom- even death. Cassandra's guests come from near and far, uncertain to what thrilling surprises Cassandra has planned for the spooky rehearsal weekend.
Guests initially believe the ghostly incidents to be no more than high tech theatrics, but even Cassandra is astonished when this seemingly innocent gathering sets the wheels of something sinister into motion… and the notorious Woman in Black proves to be more than a legend. With the unexpected arrival of Mary Reed, a young drifter, the weekend takes a frightening twist as she begins "picking up" scenes from the past, and the mystery deepens. The past begins to bleed into the present, entangling everyone in a web of intrigue over 300 years old.
But Mary is not the only guest without an invitation. Many presences lurk in the shadows of the old house, but one in particular is waiting in the darkness, and growing stronger. The snowstorm grows fierce. Everyone trapped inside the mansion must put their skepticism aside and join forces in order to survive the holidays.
The weekend wears on, entangling some unlikely participants in the all-out supernatural struggle; where even the slightest coincidence has been predestined. But time is running out for Cassandra and her eclectic guests. They must discover the identity of the nameless spirit before dawn, on Christmas day, or become the next victims of the Crone Curse.
email me to contact my agent
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
Genre:
Action/Adventure/Romance-screenplay. David R. Stancliff, co-writer
Logline:
Though forces of evil haunt American history, one woman's love for husband and country cannot be subdued. When the spirits of truth and justice and her unstoppable courage unite, she is able to right the past, save the present, and empower the future.
Synopsis:
Masonic brothers and lifelong friends, Fitzgerald (a northerner) and Chadwicke (a southerner) are split by the Civil War. Rebecca, who carries a timeless love for both, chooses Chadwicke. Chadwicke is killed in the battle at Gettysburg. Dark events involving Fitzgerald surround Chadwicke's death. Fitzgerald, now a Union general, bolts through southern lines to visit Rebecca. In time, Fitzgerald claims Rebecca's love. Only the reincarnation of these three souls in the future at the site of Chadwicke's death, and a single shred of evidence carried through time by one long-dead soldier, can undo Fitzgerald's treachery.
In the present, Rebecca is once again engaged to Chadwicke but also drawn to Fitzgerald. Rebecca and Chadwicke are unaware of their past life associations. But Fitzgerald knows. To hide the truth in the past and regain Rebecca, he maneuvers tortured souls in spirit-plagued Gettysburg. Chadwicke suffers from battle-scarring dreams, caught in a web of time. To save him and reveal Chadwicke's murderer, Katherine must pierce time entering the battle at Gettysburg. Her only weapons an old watch and a photo, she enters a cataclysmic clash of forces between past and present and restores love and honor in the past, present and future.
email me to contact my agent
|
|
|
|
THE ALCANEERS
Genre:
Ensemble Comedy-screenplay-Sid Venne, Tom Power, Chris Mattingly, co-writers
Logline:
Shooter, Alaska, built along the Alaska Highway, has two things the rest of the world does not: Quantum Quartz and extremely independent citizens. When these rather odd residents are threatened with losing their town and their way of life by a large corporation and the federal government, the only solution to their predicament is to barricade the highway itself, causing havoc, laughs and worldwide attention.
Synopsis:
Shooter, Alaska, is a town like no other: no bank, no stop lights, no fast food joints and more sled dogs than people. A rough frontier town with few conveniences, built along the Alaska Highway, its small population are headstrong, independent to a fault, comical characters who value their way of life above everything else. But their backwoods, happy lifestyle is about to come to an abrupt end if a large corporation and the federal
government get their way.
Lining the small town's streets, decorating it's houses, played with by the children, is Quantum Quartz-the rarest mineral on earth-and found only in Shooter. Beyond it's decorative attributes, the California-based Advanced Technology Corporation has discovered it has potential as a new weapon and enters into an agreement to supply the federal government with all the Quantum Quartz it needs. Will Shooter residents sell out to the corporation? Of course not. Enter...the masters of intimidation, the ATC men in their pinstriped-suits and the Feds in their dark sunglasses and black helicopters, who soon discover these oddball, quirky citizens aren't going to give up easily.
When the Shooter power plant is sabotaged, the entire town is without power, but still they won't sell. Lead by an ousted state trooper and his sidekick, an Alaskan indian with a Swedish accent, the townspeople barricade the Alaska Highway, shutting themselves inside, and stopping all travel, stacking up trucks, buses, RV's, and tourists in Shooter. Soon gasoline is at a premium, water is scarce, there is no electricity, and RV toilets are overflowing. The Alcaneers, single-handedly stand off the military, FBI, CIA, BSA and the National Enquirer, bring worldwide attention to their plight in a series of schemes, zany snowmachine chases, and a daring parachute jump, and eventually thwart the corporation's dastardly designs on their town and lifestyle.
email me to contact my agent
|
 |
|
|
CYBERGHOST
Genre:
Romantic Comedy-screenplay. Frank DeVaal, co-writer
Logline:
A pair of struggling screenwriters get unexpected help when the ghost of another writer, murdered in 1940, takes up residence in their computer. Determined to win an Oscar, he manipulates their lives and work, leading this wacky trio to fame, fortune and love.
Synopsis:
Hollywood, 1940. A young screenwriter is killed by a loan shark's thugs; his spirit moves into his typewriter. Sixty years later, two aspiring screenwriters meet during an online seminar. Though they live thousands of miles apart, they decide to co-write a screenplay via email. One of them buys the dead writer's typewriter at an auction and places it next to his computer. The ghost secretly moves into the computer.
Manipulating the computer, he accidentally finds himself in a computer game where he falls in love with a beautiful cybergirl. As his skill with computers and cyberspace grows, the ghost writes his own script and substitutes it for the one the young writers wrote. A Hollywood producer offers the pair $1 Million for the script, but when they try to physically work together, the chemistry is so strong they can't work and they go back to e-mail. Zipping through the often perilous regions of cyberspace, playing cupid, the ghost tries to hook the writers up. He must also free his cyberlove from the game that imprisons her...a game that will soon expire and self-destruct.
email me to contact my agent
|
|
|
|
THE H.A.A.R.P.
Genre: Sci-fi/adventure/action.
Meant to be a Carl Kolchak/Nightstalker movie, but could be any retired newpaper reporter.
Logline:
When retired a newspaper reporter on a winter vacation in Alaska, discovers what a comatose U.S. president, glorius global displays of northern lights, rapid climactic changes, worldwide communications and power blackouts, people suddenly vanishing, and a dying baby with a strange malady all have in common, he also solves the mystery of the father he never knew--an Air Force pilot--who disappeared eighty years earlier with his squadron of planes over the Atlantic Ocean.
Synopsis:
Investigating the supernatural for years, there is little now retired newspaper reporter, Carl Kolchak rules out entirely. But in his wildest dreams, he never imagined a winter holiday in Alaska would solve the mystery of the father he never knew--an Air Force pilot--who disappeared with his squadron of planes while testing new radio communications over the Atlantic in 1922. A green glow and Capt. Kolchak’s last ominous words, “My God, it’s... absolutely nothing,” are his only clues. No trace of men or planes were found, becoming part of many mysterious human disappearances throughout the centuries.
Carl asks Megan Meyer to bring her baby, Michele, and house sit for him while he vacations. He watches the Iditarod Dog Sled Race and a wondrous display of northern lights. Newspaper headlines tell of two mushers disappearing on the trail in the race; aerial and ground searches have found no trace of them. Five Alaskans in twelve months have mysteriously vanished.
Reading of the U.S. government’s High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program (H.A.A.R.P.) in interior Alaska, supposedly harmless testing to improve global communications, he learns natives believe otherwise. Sneaking onto the grounds, Kolchak is caught and imprisoned inside and discovers H.A.A.R.P. is a coverup to allow tests in controlling weather, global communications and mental processes. At the core of H.A.A.R.P.’s testing lies a relic retrieved from a crashed “space ship” which is the source of the phenomenal auroran displays. Even the operatives behind H.A.A.R.P. don’t realize the true power of this relic--interdimensional travel.
Alarmed at Kolchak’s apparent disappearance, Megan calls his best friend, ace investigative reporter Jeremiah Rhoades for help. Kolchak is Jeremiah’s mentor and best friend. Just the opposite of Kolchak, he believes everything can be explained logically, a no nonsense guy. Rhoades, also Megan’s ex-fiance, refused to believe her tale of a virgin pregnancy and fleeting memories of a “space ship.” Leaving Michele with her grandmother they leave for Alaska, where they confer with scientists who believe H.A.A.R.P. will destroy earth’s ionosphere.
When Michele develops a strange and deadly malady, Megan resorts to Indian village medicine men who tell her the child is not of this earth. Rumors of an odd “black aurora” discounted by scientists, persist in the native community. Rhoades writes a series of short articles drawing attention to H.A.A.R.P.’s head operatives and the facility. Though he is threatened, beaten, and told to drop the matter, for Kolchak’s sake, he cannot.
Finding Kolchak nearly frozen to death on the road after he escapes H.A.A.R.P., they regroup, seemingly at a halt. Kolchak cannot prove what he has seen, and Megan cannot save her child. Angered, Kolchak bursts from their cabin, taking the dying baby into the midst of the beautiful northern lights, pleading with the heavens to save Michele. A “space ship” (an interdimensional vehicle) appears through a black aurora--an interdimensional rip--created by aliens to allow passage through the time/space continuum. Drawing everyone into the ship, these benevolent aliens explain Megan’s supernatural conception and the reason for it, involving both Jeremiah and an alien father from another dimension. An alien transfusion saves the baby.
On board, an overjoyed Kolchak finds his father, who along with many others, had accidentally entered a dimensional rip. In order to save their lives, the aliens were forced to morph their human DNA, and though still human, they can no longer return to earth. After Kolchak tells the aliens of the relic inside H.A.A.R.P.they destroy it in order to save both the earth and their own dimension.
Jeremiah is forced to believe the unbelieveable. He, Megan, Michele, and Kolchak must now make a choice--return home or continue through the rip with the aliens and live on another world
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
HAUNTED HOLIDAYS -THE SERIES
Genre:
Supernatural mystery thriller TV series J.F. Walker, co-writer (See "Haunted Holidays" logline and synopsis above under Screenplays/Movies for description of two hour pilot)
Do you believe in the supernatural? If given the opportunity to spend the night in a REAL haunted house, would you? The supernatural excursions agency, Haunted Holidays, can make all your dreams (and
nightmares) come true. Cassandra Crone, whose lineage dates from a long line of supernormal events, is out to solve some of her own family mysteries while providing paying customers with a frightfully good time. She and her team book thrillseekers into the realms of supernatural mysteries in the world's most exotic, enigmatic and paranormal locations. She has room for one more, are you coming?
The Concept:
HAUNTED HOLIDAYS-the series-An hour-long TV action/drama/supernatural series full of hauntings, mysteries, thrills and chills based on real and fictionalized, places and events around the world.
Centering around Cassandra Crone's "Haunted Holidays-Supernatural Excursions Agency," a newly formed business promoting supernatural travel adventures, Cass, with her hand-picked partners, escorts small groups of clients to various places around the world, all hoping to catch a glimpse of things "unexplainable." Accompanying her guests on these adventures, Cass continues her search for her own family legacy, carries on her father's work and seeks a way to end the Crone Curse. The series will encompass stories and legends of ghosts, banshees, bigfoots, witches, aliens-anything out-of-the-ordinary. Each episode will begin with a different quote appropriate to the story from Edgar Allen Poe.
An eclectic group assists Cassandra with these adventures, among them, her wheelchair-bound great-aunt Tilda, the beautiful native American medium Aurora, an author and complete skeptic, a young high-strung psychic girl, and her new male-interest, Derek, who quickly shelves his non-belief in supernatural things in the pilot, and becomes more open-minded and helpful throughout the series. Derek and Cass will develop an ongoing relationship in the series. Other characters assisting in the adventures add to the mystery and suspense of each show. Characters like Gilbert Throckmorton, radio host of the "Ghost To Coast," and Bertha Belle, the ever happy chef who cooks for guests on these adventures and is having a love affair with the Crone Manor butler.
Cassandra Crone still lives in Crone Manor, the large 300 year old mansion touted as America's second-most haunted house in America. Her great aunt Tilda says it is THE most haunted place in America. After discovering her father's will in the pilot and inheriting Crone Manor, her evil uncle Colin, will continue to be a problem throughout the series, trying to rob Cass of the house. Her lineage includes characters known and unknown. In the pilot she and her guests come face-to-face with one of them-the very unwelcome 300 year old witch/ghost, Elsbeth Crone-who is determined to destroy those living in "her" house. An old necklace, discovered in the pilot and blessed with white magic, helps in keeping Elsbeth at bay, but is not the complete answer, as will be discovered in the series. Elsbeth is always there, always waiting. Colin is always lurking, always plotting.
The series is meant to explore the realms of the unexplainable while unraveling the mysteries of Cass's heritage-Crone Manor-it's hauntings, curses, and catacombs. Cass, Derek, Scary Mary Reed, Anne and Tilda learn more about their ancestors and reveal more mysteries of Crone Manor as they visit different places in each episode. Cass experiences many things in the pilot; battling Elsbeth's evil, the discovery of her missing father, the death of her mother days after release from a sanitarium. Yet much is left undone, running as threads of mystery and eventually discovery, within each episode.
A visible, yet invisible, thread running throughout the series is the Edgar Allen Poe references beginning each episode. This is an intentional thread to bind the series together, yet there is an underlying plot which may be shown in the final episode when the series has run its course. While there are several ways the series could end, one possible scenerio would be that Poe's "The Raven" was actually written while he boarded briefly in Crone Manor- the Crone crows being the inspiration for it. It may also be revealed that the white witch who created the necklace to hold Elsbeth at bay was a distant ancestor of Mr. Poe's and this is where Malcolm's search was leading prior to his death at Elsbeth's hand. The Poe connection could be the key to permanently ridding the Crone's of Elsbeth. It is possible that Poe had the answer all along, locked within a manuscript, and no one realized it, not even Mr. Poe himself when he wrote it. By combining the message in the manuscript or the message's direction with the necklace, Elsbeth could be destroyed. This is only one possiblility and the series would not be locked into this as a final solution.
When an episodic "haunting" is pure fiction developed by the writer, there are no restrictions to the history, discovery or solution to the mystery. If the event is "public domain" such as the heads on Easter Island, the story will center around fictitious characters and events with Easter Island as the backdrop, and NOT a solution as to the origin of the statues. Haunted Holidays will never attempt to prove anything that has not yet been proven in history.
email me to contact my agent |
|
|
|
 HINDSIGHT-TV Series
Logline:
What if you looked through someone's eyeglasses? What would you see? Would you see what you see...or would you see what the owner saw? In Erik Yeager's case, he sees what the owner saw....
Concept/Synopsis
Based on fact and fiction, HindSight is an hour-long TV action/drama series centered around Erik Yeager, a half white/half Alaskan indian with a special "gift" caused by a childhood accident. His doctor/mentor, Dr. Grant, dubs it "optipsychometry" (the ability to see a person's past events while wearing that person's glasses). Jasper, Erik's African-American best friend, appeals to him to use his gift and find his twin-sister, Janine. At the core of the series is Erik's gift, his friendship with Jasper and the ensuing search to find Janine, an Alaska Pipeline Company corrosion engineer who has discovered a revolutionary oil spill coagulating formula. Her mysterious disappearance initiates the formation of the HindSight group-a secret group of professionals including Jasper, Dr. Grant and Randi-Erik's NYC girlfriend-who help in his ongoing search and other visionquests. Janine is seen throughout the series only in flashbacks. Each week involves them in a new mission traveling the world solving mysteries, bringing criminals to justice, finding lost souls and treasures, and righting wrongs. At times, these events are linked to Janine's disappearance.
The series evolves as Erik's ability improves, adapting his gift to include any lens regularly used by the same person (contact lens, telescopes, periscopes, microscopes, camera lens). Erik will also see things no other human has ever seen using a special apparatus allowing him to see through animal eye lens. How would a bear, bird, dolphin or an alien from another world perceive our world? Only Erik and the television audience will ever know. He will see what took place at the signing of the Declaration of Independence when he slips on a pair of Benjamin Franklin's reading glasses.
Shortcomings of his gift are always problematic. He sees what others saw, but since he isn't psychic, he can't see what they didn't see. Some problems he may encounter: A murder victim wearing glasses didn't see his attacker-Erik can't either. Or the world as seen through the eyes of a mentally ill witness to a crime or someone on hallucinatory drugs--is it real or is it drug-induced vision? Minor recurring characters include 1) Doug Johnson, Janine's trusted nerd chemist friend, 2) Bradley Van Hughes, Randi's not-quite loveable obnoxious wannabe love interest buffoon, 3) Mrs. Michaels, Randi's problematic, well-to-do next door high-rise apartment neighbor.
email me to contact my agent
|
|
|
TERMINAL CONNECTION
-One-Hour Television Show
|
|
|
Genre:
Sci-fi
Logline:
What would you do if you were George, faced with living in a highly polluted world, in 2204, where a local gang
beats you, you have a nagging wife, three unruly kids, and a boss who hates you? When George Ogden DeMert
discovers he’s got a very special computer at work, he makes it all disappear.
Synopsis:
In the year 2204, the world is highly polluted and dying. No living plants are left and the sun has been replaced by Solaray lamps on every street corner. Trees are fake, the world is 80% concrete and pavement, and New York City has grown so big that the only recognizable landmarks from the 19th and 20th century are the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty . The Empire State Building is dwarfed by the huge building complexes surrounding it. Gangs are everywhere and people travel on automated AutoBuses and AutoWalks.
George Ogden DeMert is a nice guy, but he lives a miserable existance. His wife is a shrew, he has three unruly kids, a
gang of thugs keep beating him up, and his boss hates him. Even his co-workers begin to turn on him.
When George’s workplace on the seventh floor of Nu-Technologies gets new computers, he struggles to learn his. His
boss gives him more and more work, and he learns his boss has a shady secret: he’s having an affair with George’s wife. George’s life couldn’t get any worse.
But George has begun to master his computer--a one of a kind machine. He discovers after many trials and failures, that
his computer holds the power of Destruction and Creation. And George will get even, even if it's an accident.
email to contact my agent
|
|
|
THE TENT - An Alaskan Love Story
|
|
|
Genre:
Non-fiction, autobiographical, book manuscript. 502 pages, 86,041 words.
Synopsis:
As a six-year old living in Kansas, who would have thought this little girl would have a lifelong love affair with Alaska? When her parents decide to move, Donna asks her grandfather, "Where Is Alaska?" He replies, "You're going to the end of the world." Donna is whisked away to the end of the world with her parents, little sister and the family dog--all crowded into an old rust-bucket Dodge pickup. In the middle of winter the trip up the newly opened Alaska Highway was perilous by any standards, but through the windshield of that old truck, she fell in love with the north. Donna grew up in Anchorage and later finds her second love...
The Tent is the true story of Dick and Donna Bernhardt and their two young children who leave their modern Anchorage home and life to realize their dream of hand-building their own log cabin in the Alaskan wilderness, raise their family and live "happily ever after."
Unable to complete the cabin before winter sets in, a 13 month struggle to survive in an old army tent with a dirt floor, no electricity, no water and no neighbors ensues. They battle to keep enough firewood cut to feed a woodstove with a cord-a-day habit. When Donna must sew up Dick's leg after his run-in with a hostile chain saw, they face agony, but not defeat. Killing a moose when winter staples grow thin, they endure the dismay of learning the animal was diseased and the meat is inedible.
With temperatures dropping to 70 below zero, every day is a day of peril, but peril and hardship are great teachers. The family works together, loves together, laughs and cries together, surviving the winter, completing their log cabin and "living happily ever after." (The Tent is also available as a screenplay--see above)
Click here for photos of the tent and more detail.
email me to contact my agent
|
|
|
TV SERIES
SCREENPLAYS/MOVIE SCRIPTS:
PLAYS:
