My name is Craig Weeden. I write solo and with comics legend Jimmy Palmiotti (Harley Quinn, Painkiller Jane, Deadpool, Black Panther). Jimmy and I have partnered on a variety of projects for film, TV, and comics. We're adapting Jimmy's graphic novel QUEEN CRAB into a TV series for MiLa Media. Our graphic novel KILLING TIME IN AMERICA was published by PaperFilms. Reprint rights have been sold to publishers in Spain and Portugal. Our graphic novel FOUND is currently being serialized on Zestworld.
On the solo front, I wrote the feature-length action thriller DARK RED for Leigh Simons Productions, then was hired to work on their documentary NO FALLEN HEROES. My crime thriller DIAMOND PAYBACK was optioned to Emmett Furla Oasis Films. Prior to the option, DIAMOND PAYBACK was a Finalist in a couple screenwriting competitions and a Script Pipeline "Recommend," under the title LOST STONES. I'm a contributing writer of screenwriting-focused articles for Pipeline Artists and Zestworld.
In an entirely different universe, Mia's Gift: A Muzzles the Manatee Story, a middle-grade novel I wrote with my wife, won three national awards and reached #5 on Amazon's Hot New Releases list. The awards are listed on our Muzzles the Manatee website. In addition, you'll find the first two chapters of Mia's Gift, along with a couple animated kids TV shows I wrote.
I hold an MA in English and an MFA in Creative Writing. I'm listed in A Directory of American Poets and Fiction Writers, the International Who's Who in Poetry and at Poets & Writers. My work's been published in over a hundred literary and general magazines, such as the Southern Poetry Review, New Orleans Review, Tennis Magazine, Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine, and in a dozen anthologies. I’ve taught Creative Writing and/or Screenwriting Workshops at numerous universities.
CLOSE TO EVEN Budget: $1M - $5M | Drama After a scumbag entrepreneur bankrupts his company and wipes out the bonus his top exec was counting on to pay for her dying husband’s experimental treatment, the devastated widow, now broke and homeless, has no choice but revenge. Close to Even has four great female roles, ages 42, 36, 55 and 67.
DIAMOND PAYBACK Budget: $1M - $5M | Thriller When a straight-laced football agent is conned out of $2M in borrowed Russian diamonds and the cops can’t help, he’s got to team up with an outlaw biker and recover the stones… or pay with his life.
CLOSE TO EVEN - ISA Drama Screenplay Competition - Quarter-Finalist
(2021)
QUEER COMPANY - Creative Screenwriting Unique Voices Screenplay Competition - Quarter-Finalist
(2021)
DIAMOND PAYBACK - Table Read My Screenplay Genre Screenplay Competition - Top 100
(2021)
DIAMOND PAYBACK - Creative Screenwriting Unique Voices Screenplay Competition - Semi-Finalist
(2020)