Francisco Castro

Screenwriter, Playwright and Producer

Farmington, New Mexico

Member Since:
February 2023

Last online:
today

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About Francisco

At the age of 3, Francisco and his family were forced to flee the Philippines. His father was a bodyguard and an advisor to Senator Benigno Aquino, the main opposition leader against the dictator, Ferdinand Marcos. When Aquino was thrown in prison, the government came after his father. In the middle of the night, the family was smuggled out of the country. Francisco and his brothers were drugged, fell asleep in a small town outside of Manila, and woke up in a small town in southern Louisiana. Francisco studied martial arts and was weapons trained at Gunsite and the Chapman Academy Of Practical Shooting. He contemplated joining the FBI but instead, realized he wanted to become a writer.

After graduating with an MFA from Loyola Marymount, he won a seat at the Warner Bros. Dramatic Writing Program and was staffed on WITHOUT A TRACE, earning a nomination for the Humanitas Prize for his episode, In Extremis. His spec sci-fi pilot, GEMINI, attached David Eick (BATTLESTAR GALACTIC, CAPRICA, FALLING SKIES) and Universal Studios. Also, he was selected to be part of the Humanitas Prize Organization's New Voices Program with his spec pilot, EXECUTIVE PROTECTORS. Shane Brennan (NCIS, NCIS: LOS ANGELES) was attached to the project.

Most recently, Francisco comedy play, ANYTHING SERIOUS, won Best Original Play at the NoHo Fringe Festival and his Filipina-led, sci-fi mystery pilot, DAISY CHAIN, won Best Teleplay at the 2022 Other Worlds Film Festival.

Unique traits: Francisco is a huge fan of Bigfoot.

Gender:
Male

Ethnicity:
Asian

Certifications

Photos

Videos

Full Drama Actress Roundtable: Jennifer Aniston, Sofia Vergara, Nicole Kidman, Anna Sawai and More

ANYTHING SERIOUS produced by Above The Curve Theater and directed by Joe Lorenzo

Loglines

GALACTIC CENTURIONS OF BOBCAT HIGH Budget: $10M - $30M | Sci-fi ⋄ Family A rebellious teen discovers that he’s meant for greater things when he learns that the top-secret project run by his estranged father will bring them together to defend the Earth from an alien invasion.
DAISY CHAIN Budget: $1M - $5M | Thriller ⋄ Sci-fi A mysterious double-homicide reconnects two women --- a Filipina deputy and a Caucasian small business owner, high school nemeses back in the day--- and throws them in the middle of a massive conspiracy led by a reclusive billionaire who plans to alter the fate of the planet.
ANYTHING SERIOUS Budget: $10M - $30M | Romance ⋄ Comedy Jessica and Martin, friends since college, have been chasing their dreams and haven’t let anything get in their way. But when life throws them several heart-breaking curveballs, they find comfort in each other’s company. It’s just for now and nothing serious. Or so they both think… (FRIENDS meets NOBODY WANTS THIS)
GHOST TOWN Budget: $1M - $5M | Mystery ⋄ Family After surviving a near-death experience, Assistant District Attorney Greg Dalton, 40s, takes his troubled family out of Los Angeles to a small southern town with a mystery that could change their lives forever.
DEAD LEGENDS Budget: $1M - $5M | Drama ⋄ Crime An FBI counter-intelligence team hunts down an elusive Cold War relic out to buy top secret information from a disgruntled military scientist.
YEAH, DUDE, I'M A SPY Budget: $10M - $30M | Action ⋄ Comedy On a Hawaiian vacation with his successful brothers, a down-n-out pro surfer must reveal his true identity as a CIA agent when he and his brothers become entangled in a mission to protect a military prototype and rescue a kidnapped agent.
CLIFF MONSTER Budget: $10M - $30M | Horror After a series of mysterious deaths, a Latina deputy must protect her small New Mexico border town from a creature thought to be extinct.
DAY DRINKERS Budget: $100K - $1M | Drama ⋄ Comedy A patchwork family of four friends in their 50s, all recovering from losses in their lives, confront their Golden Years with Happy Hour.
THE SHIFT Budget: $1M - $5M | Sci-fi ⋄ Mystery An innocent woman discovers she is a member of a mysterious group that's being hunted to extinction.
DISCIPLES Budget: $30M+ | Thriller ⋄ Action When a CIA operative hunts down the rogue spy who murdered his father, he uncovers a conspiracy that began in his childhood and reaches all the way to the White House.
THE INCIDENT Budget: $10M - $30M | Thriller ⋄ Sci-fi A disparate group of people stays the night at a desert motel and wakes to find themselves stranded on a desolate world, fighting to survive against hostile life-forms and desperate to find a way home.
EXECUTIVE PROTECTORS Budget: $5M - $10M | Thriller ⋄ Mystery An elite security detail led by a resilient female executive protector must protect a Saudi Oil Tycoon and his family who have been targeted by an unknown assassin.
STRUCKER'S ROAD STOP Budget: $1M - $5M | Comedy After a fall from economic grace, an Asian American MBA whiz kid returns to his Mid-west roots to lick his wounds and manage his ailing father's truck stop and the crazy employees that work there.
INDIAN WELLS, CA Budget: $1M - $5M | Comedy Attempting to reclaim his life, a twenty-something loser travels into the quirky, wealthy town of Indian Wells, CA in order to pull off a diamond heist before a sadistic crew pulls the exact same heist.
THE LAST GUARDIAN Budget: $5M - $10M | Horror ⋄ Action A geek and cheerleader hide in a house in the woods that was built to withstand an apocalypse prophesied during the Civil War at the Burning Of Atlanta. Can they survive? Or will their high school animosity be their undoing?
THIS IS MY F-ING WEDDING!!! Budget: $1M - $5M | Romance ⋄ Comedy While preparing for her wedding, a southern belle finds her greatest obstacles to be her over-protective mother and frat-boy brother, but it might be an angry clown that saves the day.
GUS Budget: $10M - $30M | Drama ⋄ Comedy Once best friends in high school, GUS, PAULIE, and JIMMY, all in their 60s now, set out to reclaim their youth only to discover their lives.
THE TECHNICIAN Budget: $10M - $30M | Thriller ⋄ Action Jake Landry, a former Special Forces operator suffering from PTSD, accepts a job to protect an Army friend and his family, but after his friend is killed and the daughter is kidnapped, Jake finds himself in a race against time to rescue the daughter and bring down a sadistic Triad boss. In his pursuit, he discovers the daughter could be his child.
GEEKS Budget: $30M+ | Action ⋄ Comedy After stealing a physics exam in the hopes of getting good grades, two college geeks find themselves wanted by federal agents for committing espionage. They go on the run to prove their innocence and uncover a spy attempting to steal a top secret military prototype.
A MURDER ON THE LONELIEST ROAD IN AMERICA Budget: $5M - $10M | Sci-fi ⋄ Mystery A journalist investigates the mysterious death of a Deputy in the small desert town of Ely, Nevada and finds a cover-up by a corporation attempting to conceal a vast conspiracy.
BROADSWORD Budget: $30M+ | Thriller ⋄ Action When the U.S. Secretary of State finds herself in the middle of a political coup in North Korea, her elite Diplomatic Security team must get her out of harms way only to discover a militant faction has set their sights on assassinating the Secretary Of State and starting a war with the US.
THE OUTLIER Budget: $100K - $1M | Thriller ⋄ Sci-fi A female radio show host receives a call from a mysterious government insider that puts her life at risk. She must stay on the air or she will become another victim in a vast conspiracy.
UNSUB Budget: $5M - $10M | Mystery ⋄ Crime After three mysterious homicides, an Indian American female FBI agent with PTSD tracks down a suspected serial killer and uncovers a world-altering conspiracy.
STAY MELLOW Budget: $100K - $1M | Comedy Three Filipino brothers living in Los Angeles deal with the ups and downs of relatives, relationships, and Republicans.
TREASURE Budget: $30M+ | Romance ⋄ Adventure A hapless, unhappy architect teams up with a bitter, recently divorced female attorney and searches for a priceless artifact in a lost Mayan city in order to pay the ransom for his treasure-hunter brother who is being held hostage by a psychotic drug lord.
THE SPLINTER Budget: $5M - $10M | Horror After inheriting land left to her by her estranged father, a struggling young Navajo woman uncovers the century-old curse that took her father's life and now wants her.

View all 26 loglines

Credits

DELIRIUM (2017 - 2018)
Film by Martini Films / Johnny Martin Co-Writer/Co-Producer A group of young men dare a classmate to reach the porch of a legendary old house, said to be haunted by the thirteen victims of a family massacre. In hopes of making a viral video they arm him with a video camera to prove he was there or to capture him fleeing in terror before even reaching the house, as others have. When he doesn't return, the guys must go in to get him. Inside they discover the truth about the house, the fate of their friend and their own fate as well.
FORETOLD (Short) (2016 - 2017)
TV Movie by Red Pictures Media Writer-Producer ARRIVAL meets MR. ROBOT, FORETOLD is a serialized sci-fi series about a troubled, former First Daughter who, after given the signs to the end of the world, is driven to extremes to stop it. Or will she be the cause it?
"In Extremis" / WITHOUT A TRACE (2001 - 2002)
Series by Warner Bros / Bruckheimer TV / Peter Markle Writer Dr. Anwar Samir, a third year resident at a New York hospital suddenly goes missing following a disagreement with his superior and the rejection of a proposal by his girlfriend. Given his Saudi Arabian background, almost inevitably suspicions arise of terrorist links. Witnesses and colleagues begin to question past "suspicious" behaviour, and disagreement manifests within the team itself as to the presumption of guilt as the Joint Terrorism Task Force also becomes increasingly involved.

Awards

2ND ANNUAL GROWN-UP MOVIES SCREENPLAY CONTEST - Finalist - "Gus"
(2024)
HORRORIGINS FILM FESTIVAL - Finalist - "Daisy Chain"
(2024)
2ND ANNUAL FEMALE DRIVEN SCREENPLAY CONTEST - Finalist - "Daisy Chain"
(2023)
2ND ANNUAL FEMALE DRIVEN SCREENPLAY CONTEST - Finalist - "The Outlier"
(2023)
7TH ANNUAL SCI-FI/FANTASY CREATIVE SCREENWRITING CONTEST - Semi-Finalist - "The Incident"
(2023)
OTHER WORLDS FILM FESTIVAL - Best Teleplay Winner - “Daisy Chain”
(2022)
BIG BEAR INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL - Third Place Winner - “Dead Legends”
(2007)
SCREAMFEST - Best Screenplay Winner - “Desolate"
(2005)
HUMANITAS PRIZE AWARD - Nomination - TV Episode - “Without A Trace: In Extremis”
(2004)
PILOT QUEST - Best Pilot Winner - “Ghost Town”
(2002)
WARNER BROS DRAMA WRITING PROGRAM - Recipient
(2001)

Education

Loyola Marymount University
(1994-1996)