Scripts available:
Let me know if you’d like to read any of these scripts. I’m happy to send them to you. Thanks for your time and consideration.
Japanese For Baseball
Feature Historical Drama Script • 114 pages
written by Ray Keller
LOGLINE:
During World War II, when a teenage loner’s baseball team doesn’t have enough players, he recruits three boys from the nearby Japanese internment camp, but now he and his new friends must also battle the town’s violent, racist mayor trying to shut them down. (Inspired by actual events.)
Accolades:
Academy Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting – Semifinalist (2018)
ScreenCraft True Story Screenplay Competition – Finalist (2021)
PAGE International Screenwriting Awards – Winner, Bronze Prize (2021)
CoverFly Red List #8 Overall Drama Feature Script (2022)
Competition Feedback:
“This script has a heartwarming sense of magic to it. It successfully delves into timeless themes regarding family, death, grief, truth versus deceit, illusion versus reality, race, ethnicity, discrimination, underdogs, community, justice, teamwork and sportsmanship.” — JUDGE: ACADEMY NICHOLL FELLOWSHIPS IN SCREENWRITING
The Astrologer
Historical BioPic Drama Feature Script • 118 pages
written by Ray Keller & Richard Schmidt
LOGLINE:
In the early 1900s, when a young woman who has become America’s first famous astrologer is arrested for fortune-telling, she must find the confidence to prove in a court of law that what she knows is right, that astrology has value and is more than people think. (A True Story)
Accolades:
ScreenCraft True Story Screenplay Competition – Quarterfinalist (2021)
Academy Nicholl Fellowship – Top 15% (2021)
Austin Film Festival Screenplay Competition – 2nd Rounder (2021)
Portland Screenplay Awards – Finalist (2021)
CoverFly – Top 6% of all scripts (2022)
Competition Feedback:
“Armed with quick-cutting scenes and the incredible journey of Evangeline Adams – both as the US’s first prominent astrologer and as an entrepreneurial woman ahead of her time – this script quickly builds momentum and doesn’t relent until the final pages.” – 2021 Austin Film Festival Judge
Our Ugly Baby
Comedy Feature Script • 97 pages
Written by Ray Keller
A beautiful fame-obsessed pregnant couple signs their unborn baby to star in a blockbuster Hollywood film, but when the baby’s born hideously ugly, they kidnap the beautiful baby of dangerous arms dealers.
Accolades:
ScreenCraft Comedy Screenplay Competition – Quarterfinalist (2016)
Austin Film Festival Screenplay Competition – 2nd Rounder (2016 & 2019 & 2020)
WeScreenplay Feature Contest – Semifinalist (2021)
CoverFly – Top 8% of all scripts (2022)
Competition Feedback:
“A very fresh, entertaining story… a non-stop action-adventure road movie that feels like a Farrelly Brothers production, lots of insanity, irony and a heartwarming conclusion.” — Austin Film Festival Judge – 2019
The One Percent
Dystopian Drama Feature Script • 118 pages
written by Ray Keller & Richard Schmidt
LOGLINE:
In a dystopian near-future, the daughter of a wealthy businessman enjoys a privileged life inside a walled city, home of the wealthiest “One Percent”, but when she falls in love with a poor trumpet player and sneaks outside the wall to be with him, she uncovers her ambitious father’s sinister plan to maintain their status and now must stop him from destroying lives on both sides of their unequal world.
Accolades:
Austin Film Festival Screenplay Competition – 2nd Rounder (2018)
Table Read My Screenplay Genre Competition – Top 100 (2020)
ScreenCraft Action & Adventure Competition – Semifinalist (2021)
CoverFly – Top 12% of all scripts (2022)
Competition Feedback:
“The script excels in its world-building, creating an unsettling future world that sets itself apart from similar concepts through its specific rules of the world, characters, and vivid images.” The Script Lab Screenplay Contest
Mr. Sabotage
Dark Comedy Feature Script • 104 pages
written by Ray Keller & Richard Schmidt
LOGLINE:
An idealistic employee gets promoted after the other candidate dies in a copy-machine-sex accident. Assuming murder, management fight each other to hire him. But after they start a bloodthirsty corporate takeover, he must save the CEO while keeping his humanity.
Accolades:
Austin Film Festival Screenplay Competition – 2nd Rounder (2018)
ScreenCraft Comedy Screenplay Competition – Quarterfinalist (2018)
The Script Lab Screenwriting Contest – Quarterfinalist (2020)
Austin Film Festival Screenplay Competition – 2nd Rounder (2020)
CoverFly – Top 11% of all scripts (2022)
Competition Feedback:
“Our readers really loved how strong this script’s voice is. The creativity in this piece really made it stand out!” – Austin Film Festival 2018
Better Off Undead
Horror/Comedy Feature Script • 108 pages
written by Ray Keller
LOGLINE:
When a nerd in need of a liver transplant heads to his ancestral home of Transylvania to find a donor, he learns that in his life or death journey, there is one more option: become undead.
Accolades:
Austin Film Festival Screenplay Competition – 2nd Rounder (2015)
Creative World Awards – Quarterfinalist (2015)
ScreenCraft Comedy Screenplay Competition – Quarterfinalist (2016)
Competition Feedback:
“Visual storytelling is crafted well, and there’s a nice twist.” – Terry Zinner – 2015
Karma
Drama Short Script • 8 pages
written by Ray Keller & Richard Schmidt
LOGLINE:
A woman realizes a boy in town looks familiar, so she runs over his bicycle
Accolades:
HollyShorts Screenwriting Competition – Quarterfinalist (2022)
Competition Feedback:
“A very fascinating story with a nice set of high stakes, intrigue, and mystery.” – Slamdance – 2021
Bait and Switch
Action/Comedy Feature Script • 104 pages
written by Ray Keller & Richard Schmidt
LOGLINE:
When a bored and stifled home-baker housewife is kidnapped by the FBI because she resembles the missing girlfriend of a drug kingpin, she must escape and find that girlfriend in order to prove her own identity and innocence, or be killed.
Accolades:
Wiki Screenplay Contest – Honorable Mention (2021)
Competition Feedback:
“An action-packed rollercoaster of a ride.” – 2021 Austin Film Festival Judge
National Insecurity
Action/Comedy Feature Script • 98 pages
written by Ray Keller
LOGLINE:
A neurotic NSA agent illegally uses spy data to win back her ex-boyfriend, but somehow the NSA now thinks he’s a real terrorist and that she’s gone rogue, and they send their top assassin to kill them both.
Accolades:
Austin Film Festival Pitch Competition – Finalist (2014)
Wiki Screenplay Contest – Semifinalist (2020)
ScreenCraft Action & Adventure Competition – Quarterfinalist (2021)
Competition Feedback:
“This was a fun script, reminiscent of movies like SPY and THE SPY WHO DUMPED ME.” — Austin Film Festival Judge – 2018
The One Percent – TV
Dystopian Drama (one-hour) TV Pilot Script • 56 pages
written by Ray Keller & Richard Schmidt
LOGLINE:
In a dystopian near-future, Cali, daughter of a wealthy businessman, enjoys a privileged life inside a walled city, home of the richest “One Percent”, but when she falls in love with a poor trumpet player and sneaks outside the wall to be with him, she uncovers her ambitious father’s sinister plan to maintain their status and now must stop him from destroying lives on both sides of their unequal world.
Accolades:
The Script Lab Screenwriting Contest – Semifinalist (2020)
Wiki Screenplay Contest – Finalist (2020)
ScreenCraft TV Pilot Screenwriting Competition – Quarterfinalist (2020)
Portland Screenplay Awards – Finalist (2020)
CoverFly – Top 13% of all scripts (2022)
Competition Feedback:
“THE ONE PERCENT is a timely and chillingly possible prediction for our current times; in many ways, the themes and world echo A HANDMAID’S TALE in its not-quite-sci-fi reality.” – Austin Film Festival Judge
The Miracle Squad
One-Hour Dramedy Procedural one-hour TV Pilot Script • 55 pages
written by Ray Keller
LOGLINE:
When potential miracles happen, the Catholic Church sends in the Miracle Certifiers squad, run by an overworked priest who’s losing his faith and sanity, a skeptical atheist scientist and a super-hip young tech genius nun; they’re tasked with proving these miracles, some ludicrous, some serious.
Accolades:
CoverFly Top 20 Television Comedy Projects (2022)
Competition Feedback:
“There’s a lot to like here. Some of the jokes/gags are inspired and creative. There are some great lines used throughout.” – Barnstorm Media Feedback Loop – 2022
Generosity
Produced Feature Drama Film • 119 minutes
Written by Ray Keller & Richard Schmidt & Carmen Sasser
LOGLINE:
How close is anyone to homelessness? David loses everything; teenage runaway Chloe does what she can to survive; old Sam shows them the ropes; TV reporter Charlotte tries to help; corporate president Bob hates the homeless. As their stories intertwine, who’s begging, dependent or good starts to blur until all hell breaks loose.
Accolades:
Official Selection at First Take Film Festival (2008)