After winning top national awards in journalism, public relations and marketing (Wendy's "Where's the Beef?", Johnson & Johnson, GE, AT&T and more), Mr. Gleason Earned Best Screenplay at the Buffalo Niagara Film Festival for his screenplay DOUGLASS: The North Star, a biopic about the life of Frederick Douglass.
He has written two other screenplays: The Feeney Luck and The Big House. Another biopic about the life of Hall of Fame baseball manager John McGraw and his friendship with fellow HOFer Hughie Jennings is on deck.
Meanwhile, he just finished the second book in the HEAVEN RIDE trilogy and will soon be adapting that for the large screen.
Mr. Gleason lives in Colorado where he enjoys plants, sports and wildlife photography.
Unique traits: Humor.
Douglass: The North Star Historical ⋄ Biography LOGLINE: A self-educated slave escapes to freedom. As a fugitive, he sets the world ablaze with his fiery oratory, overcoming extraordinary odds to earn his freedom, where his written and spoken eloquence impact President Lincoln and influence the outcome of the Civil War, putting an end to the slave trade in America.
The Big House Thriller ⋄ Film-noir As guests arrive for the Higgins-Carlisi wedding at a 1795 farmhouse along the Hudson, a prisoner escapes from the maximum security prison across the river. His menacing presence is no accident and it reveals secrets that the Higgins family have buried for more than a decade.
The Feeney Luck Romance ⋄ Comedy Kevin Feeney is the unluckiest person on the face of the earth. When he meets the woman of his dreams, he must travel to Ireland to erase a generations-old hereditary curse if he is to win her love.
The Giant & The Tiger Sports ⋄ Biography After surviving hardscrabble beginnings in the late 19th century, John McGraw becomes a key player on one of the most successful, most combative and most hated dynasties in baseball history. Hughie Jennings escapes the hard-scrabble life working in the coal mines of Pennsylvania to play pro baseball. McGraw was so despised that opponents said he ate gunpowder for breakfast and washed it down with warm blood. Jennings was beloved by fans in every city he played, and back home in the Lehigh Valley. Their devotion to each other carried through illness, injuries, heart-wrenching tragedies and before the footlights of the vaudeville stage. They learn that the greatest battles are the ones you fight are for friends.
MACHINE: Marv Heemeyer vs. Granby, CO Action ⋄ Drama Marv Heemeyer, a new guy in town with a muffler repair shop, becomes at odds with the Granby City Council and a neighboring business over a sewer easement issue. After the impasse foments, Heemeyer takes aggressive action, armoring a bulldozer with two feet of steel and cement and using it to level the businesses and homes of his antagonists. Based on a true story.
HEAVEN RIDE Thriller ⋄ Sci-fi Best friends David Brownington and JW Gomez discover secrets of the human soul and a device can send people to heaven and bring them back. They turn it into the most lucrative business the world has ever seen. A major flaw is discovered - the people who take Heaven Ride return without their souls. David and JW find they are victims of a major conspiracy and must fend off ruthless rivals intent on stealing the technology while they strive to shut down the monstrosity they wrought.
North Star: The Life of Frederick Douglass
(
Film
by Inspiration Point Productions
Screenwriter
Best Screenplay, Buffalo-Niagara Film Festival
(2009)