Screenplays

Original Screenplays

1. The Incident on Ni’ihau (historical – true story): On Sunday morning, December 7, 1941, Naval Airman First Class Shiginori Nishikaichi, who was part of the second wave of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, crash-landed his damaged Zero on the privately-owned island of Ni’ihau. Aided by the island’s paymaster, Yoshio Harada, who was Hawaiian born to Japanese parents, he escaped capture by the island’s residents. The armed Nishikaichi and Harada then terrorized the island’s residents for several days before he was re-captured and killed by one of the islanders. (Quarterfinalist in Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting; Two-time quarterfinalist in Page International Screenwriting Awards)

2. The Bequest (thriller): A bequest in a will turns into a nightmare for the beneficiary when the dead man appears to be alive and well.

3. Tsunami (action): A volcano, an earthquake, and a submarine landslide combine to create the perfect tsunami – and it’s headed for Hawaii. Tsunami pitch deck

4. Paradise Lost (legal drama – true story): When a young naval lieutenant’s wife claims to have been raped by five Hawaiian men, her mother – a mainstay in New York high society – and husband kidnap one of the men to coerce a confession. When they are caught after killing him and trying to dump his body in the ocean, it nearly touches off a race war in 1932 Hawaii. Clarence Darrow arrives on the scene in the last case of his career to defend the killers of someone who, it turns out, was most likely innocent of the rape charge in the first place. (Two-time semifinalist in Page International Screenwriting Awards)

5. The Catch (thriller): A serial killer is killing lawyers according to lawyer jokes. (Semifinalist in Page International Screenwriting Awards; Semifinalist and two-time quarterfinalist in Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting)

6. Kanaka Blues (thriller): A law professor arrives in Hawaii to search for the killer of her mentor and quickly finds herself squarely in the killer's sights. (Quarterfinalist in Page International Screenwriting Awards)

7. Blind Justice (legal drama) (co-written with Eric Witkoski): Renegade lawyer Gerald Michaud finally has a case he believes in – and it’s one he can’t win: Taking on the giant pharmaceutical company whose drug may have caused an elderly nun to go blind. Based on a true story.

8. The Big Empty (romantic dramedy): When a dying Texas town offers to give away land for free, rumors of a massive oil reservoir beneath the surface lead to an out-of-control land run.

9. The Melancholy Dane (legal thriller): An idealistic young lawyer defends her uncle on a murder charge, only to discover he may be a serial killer. (Finalist in The Chesterfield Film Company’s Writer’s Film Project)

10. Writ of Execution (thriller): A lawyer in a large law firm discovers that one of his partners is a contract killer for the government who launders his contract payments through the firm as legal fees. (Semifinalist and quarterfinalist in Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting; Finalist in The Chesterfield Film Company’s Writer’s Film Project)

11. Pro Se (thriller): A disgruntled lawsuit loser, who represented himself pro se, ends a campaign of harassment against the law firm that represented his opponent by going on a shooting rampage, then holding a group of lawyers hostage on the fiftieth floor of a downtown Dallas skyscraper. (Semifinalist in The Writer’s Network Screenplay & Fiction Competition)

12. Manifest Intent (legal thriller): A young lawyer, on the cusp of making partner at a major law firm, faces the biggest crisis of his young career – someone is killing off the witnesses in his career-making lawsuit.

13. Every Pig Got a Saturday (thriller): A young honeymooning couple from Texas crosses paths with an escaped killer in Barbados.

14. Isle of Broken Dreams (historical fiction): A young woman, trapped in the world of prostitution in World War II Hawaii struggles to break free.