Screenwriting : Let’s Celebrate What We Did This Year! by Maurice Vaughan

I wrote two new scripts, pitched them a handful of places, and made a bunch of new film/writer friends!

That's great, Pat Alexander! Congratulations! And thanks for everything you do for this community!

Happy New Year my good friend :)) In 2024, I wrote my first feature “Soul Mated”, I did Stage 32 coverage, break my feature with Kay Ross, pitched the script, produced the pitch deck, did Pitch Lab with Alexia Melochi and now I am ready to find the right team to champion my script in 2025. As Executive Producer, I designed with Geoff Hall the financial strategy and the marketing strategy for “Seeing Rachel” , launched SR You Tube Channel and we attended to the first edition of Tribeca Festival Lisboa for networking:)) All of this, besides my professional life as business mentor :)) You did so well Maurice Vaughan this year and I am cheering for you :)) I am grateful to have you in my life!

Hi Maurice, Happy New Year and congrats on all your amazing accomplishments this year—it’s inspiring! In 2024, we grew allblackanime to reach an even wider global audience, pitched our animated series Soturi to Amazon, and our film Midas released in theaters and just appeared on STARZ this week, where I had the privilege of playing the lead. It’s been a year of creative growth, bold steps, and laying the groundwork for even bigger moves in 2025! Here’s to all of us building on our wins, looking forward to collaborating and connecting with you further in the New Year.

Happy New Year, Sandra Isabel Correia! Congratulations on the incredible year! It's great to see Seeing Rachel moving closer and closer to production and release! I'm grateful to have you in my life too! I hope you find the right team for your script and hope you have even more success in 2025!

Hi, Laquan Copeland. Happy New Year! Thank you! Congratulations to you and everyone at allblackanime on the fantastic year! I hope Amazon scoops up Soturi! And hope you have more creative growth in the new year! I'm looking forward to collaborating and and connecting with you further as well!

Likewise Maurice Vaughan :)

Thanks, Pat Alexander!

Awesome Maurice

Thanks, Billy Kwack! What did you get done this year? Small, big. It's all something to celebrate.

Hi Maurice, just a sci-fi called Far Away. Once my buddy types it for me, I want to try a show it to an executive on here

Hi Maurice, I'm pretty hyped about James Gunn, joining Warner Brothers. Can't wait to see Superman next year

Thank you Maurice Vaughan we are ready for it!

You're welcome, Sandra Isabel Correia.

Congratulations, Billy Kwack! I'm excited for Superman! I like his suit!

I took a lot of first steps this year haha but I also started four scripts, finished one draft, as well as entered a bunch of contests and even won some of them :D getting a table read was also really fun and something I want to do again. Hoping 2025 will see me make even more progress :D

Congratulations on the first steps and everything you accomplished this year, Banafsheh Esmailzadeh! I had pages of my script read at a mini table read that I was invited to. It helped me see the issues in my scenes. I'd like to do a full table read one day. Hope you have even more success next year!

Thank you Maurice Vaughan~

You're welcome, Banafsheh Esmailzadeh.

fantastic effort

Thank you, Peter Bartels! Congratulations on everything you accomplished this year!

Holy crap Maurice Vaughan. You're a hard act to follow. That's phenomenal.

:D Thanks, Debbie Elicksen! Congratulations on what you got done! I'm looking forward to seeing what scripts and projects you come up with next year!

This year I wanted to write a synopsis for a project about a shark drug courier. But my cat gave birth to four adorable kittens, and I spent the whole year having fun with our big feline family. So, four kittens defeated a shark in the fight for my attention.

Glad you had fun with your feline family, Arthur Charpentier. I remember you talking about your shark drug courier idea on here a little while back. Are you going to write the synopsis next year?

Maurice Vaughan, I want to write something about cats.

The shark project is quite complicated. I need to study a lot of material, most of which is not available to me. We also need consultants on various topics - sharks, naval ships, weapons, drug trafficking. It's difficult to do such a project alone, and I have little enthusiasm.

John pitched a tv series. It was a first for me to see. He hasn’t pitched one since the 90s. It was for a major network and the whole process was really amazing to watch.

You, my friend, are a rockstar!!! and a king here on stage32!

John & Jamie Did he have a pitch deck, bible, or just a pilot? Also Congratulations!

It’s been an amazing year for writing. It all kicked off with negotiating an assignment with Mario Kassar (producer of Total Recall, Terminator 2, Basic Instinct) after he fell in love with a script of mine. That sadly fell through, but the validation was remarkable, and it was mad to find myself on a Zoom call with the man behind so many of the biggest movies of the 90s.

I turned all my spec scripts into novellas to share with my friends. It was wonderful to revisit all those stories, and thanks to everyone’s support, I sold over one hundred books. I also had two turned into wonderful audiobooks.

Then, my filmmaking brother, Shane Stanley, asked me who I really wanted to cast for a project we’ve been noodling away at for some time, and I said Frank Langella (Robot & Frank, Frost Nixon). We sent him the script, and he responded, saying it is "a beautifully written, totally unique manuscript" and "the first piece of honorable and worthy writing that has come his way in the last two years." To have an Oscar-nominated, seven-time Tony award-winning actor say that is just mind-blowing.

I rewrote a Civil War film and had the former head of Robert Duvall Productions, Brad Willson (Days of Thunder, Falling Down), describe me as having written "one of the best scripts he's ever had the honor of producing" and is "one of the most collaborative writers he's ever worked with in the 40 years he's been making movies.” Again, the validation was out of this world.

Then, a previously released movie I wrote and co-produced, Double Threat, was released in Latin America and went to number one in sixteen countries on Netflix and reached #8 globally.

I got invited to fly over to Tennessee to shoot the Civil War script, which meant I got to see Shane and cinematographer Joel Layogan after five years apart and make a whole new bunch of friends in the process. Then we spent a few days in New York to go see Frank, who attached himself to the script he loves.

I returned home to quite a bit of interest and a few potential projects. Best of all, I formed a working relationship with an amazing manager, Kristen Heimo, whom I met in the States, so your boy now has a rep, and we’re all forming this really tight circle of collaborators.

Autumn was all about settling into my new place, and that meant I got to do something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time now, get the posters for my movies up on the wall. Doing that was such a momentous moment and it brings me joy seeing them up there on a daily basis.

I finally finished the year with a read request from a former director of Morgan Creek, and feeling very much blessed. There’s still a long, long way to go, but I can’t wait to see what the next twelve months have in store.

This was year 13 of chasing the dream for me, and boy have I had some tough ones in the past. If 2024 didn’t seem to work out for you, don’t let it get to your head. Life is a lot bigger than what happens within 365 days, plus it’s not a competition or a zero-sum game. Just keep putting one foot in front of the other and continuing that journey as best you can. I wish I could go back ten years and tell that depressed guy who thought he was a hack and that he’d never catch a break that it would all work out.

Amazing production of work! And he SELLS! What a model for us!

Wow! What a year, CJ Walley! Congratulations! I just woke up, and you got me fired up to write. Fantastic last paragraph! Thanks for sharing the encouragement with everyone!

I love watching funny cat videos, Arthur Charpentier. A cat project sounds interesting. Keep me posted on it.

Congratulations on pitching to a major network, John! Congratulations on everything you accomplished in 2024, John & Jamie!

:D Thanks, Xochi Blymyer. You're a rockstar too! I just checked your profile. You've done a lot of Stage 32 Certification courses. Congratulations! I can’t wait to watch the new season of ALL AMERICAN and see what you accomplish in 2025!

Maurice Vaughan, thank you very much! I wish you a Happy New Year! I wish you great success in the new year.

You're welcome, Arthur Charpentier. Thank you! Happy New Year! Hope you have great success in 2025 too!

Mostly, I linger here hanging on every word of Maurice's sage wisdom. :)

Beside that worthy pursuit:

Ghosted three scripts

Finished a long gestating script

Read about 60 scripts for comps

General mayhem

Happy New Year, all. Best of luck. Should old acquaintance be forgot...

You got a lot done, E Langley! Congratulations on everything except the mayhem! Happy New Year! "Should old acquaintance be forgot." Let's all stay in contact so that doesn't happen.

Maurice, CJ, Pat, Sandra Isabel, John, Jamie, and Laquan, you were really on fire here in 2024! Congratulations...and here's to more and more success next year (and beyond)!

Well...I completed three screenplays (one actually begun a year ago today), fine-tuned eleven others (three of those eleven were shortened by one page each, another by two pages), and...received an encouraging phone call from Stage 32's Cayla Tyne back in July. (She really liked "Pixie Dust" the way it is!)

Two producers found me on LinkedIn: Tommy Morgan (in August) and Dennis Erichsen (in October). Tommy encouraged me to start looking for a literary agent (I'm still working on finding one)...and Dennis and I are working on a psychological thriller he's got in preproduction. (He tabbed me to come up with a screenplay based on his backstory.)

Here's wishing everybody here on 32 all the VERY BEST!

Happy New Year, Jim Boston! Thanks! You did a lot this year! Congratulations on everything! To more and more success next year (and beyond)!

Happy New Year Jim Boston we are rockstars as you are :)) Cheering for you in 2025! Let’s goooo

Two screenplays and one novella; one best screenplay award and several Semi-finalist placements.

Congratulations, Robert Franklin Godwin III! I've thought about writing a novella. What's yours about?

Maurice Vaughan The novella, BLOOD LEGACY, is now a screenplay. When a two-thousand-year-old vampire teams with Gen-Z climate activists, he uses supernatural powers on polluters with psychological vengeance to save humanity, until he finds a love he cannot have and one he must reclaim.

Dracula's supernatural allure— his fangs, coffin, red cloak, and a list of phobias—have fueled countless interpretations of the original story, from camp to blood and terrifying gore, and nearly everything between.

I was more interested in the emotional and psychological impact of the curse. How someone granted eternal life might adapt to changes across centuries. As a result of this focus, there is a lot of blood but not much gore. A a reviewer on Goodreads.com wrote about the novella "It is a horror with a heart." I like that . The Blood Legacy novella is on the Barnes&Noble website and on Amazon.

BLOOD LEGACY sounds interesting, Robert Franklin Godwin III! One of my goals for this year is to read more books. I added yours to my read list.