Thriller

THE INTERROGATOR (Military)

A U.S. Army interrogator in Afghanistan uncovers details of an al-Qaeda plot to detonate a Nuclear Device in Washington, DC during the President''s State of the Union Address (thereby wiping out the top layer of our government), but, in the process of interrogation, SHE bonds with her prisoner and fights to save him from the death sentence brought on by his own disclosures.

A young woman, DAWN STONE, enlists in the Army after her fiance' is killed in an al-Qaeda 9/11-type attack on the Statue of Liberty.

After interrogator training, Dawn's shipped to Kandahar, Afghanistan where she's assigned to interrogate ALI BIN HOC, a captured low-level Mujhedin EC (Enemy Combatant). Her first encounter with Ali ends badly. He refuses to speak to her because she''s a woman, and she, in turn, loses her temper with him. Her Sergeant, GEORGE BADER, who doesn't like women interrogators, terminates her interrogation of Ali and won't let her continue until she undergoes anger management counseling by the base chaplain. Reluctantly she does so and discovers from the chaplain that Sergeant Bader has set her up. She uses this information against Bader to gain his permission to continue her interrogation of Ali. Using skills she's learned in training and information from the Quran, she overcomes Ali's reluctance to talk to her, and in so doing, discovers that a U.S. bombing raid on his village killed his family. They have something in common.

Over the weeks that follow, Dawn gets more and more humintel out of him and a bond begins to form. But, Bader gives her a hard time. He doesn't trust the information that Ali gives her. He points out subtle inconsistencies in Ali''s stories, and shows her records that no civilian casualties ever occurred in his village. She begins to dig deeper and discovers that Ali is not the little fish everyone thought him to be. In a stunning display of subtle interrogation and the unauthorized use of "stress and duress" techniques, she learns Ali is really NADIR SPAK, a Mujhedin commander who led a recent raid on the air base before he was captured. She also learns there's another al-Qaeda attack coming on American soil, one that's designed to wipe out the top levels of all branches of our government in one shot.

When Nadir refuses to talk about the attack, breaking his trust in Dawn, a military tribunal sentences him to be executed for his role in the attack on the base. Sergeant Bader seizes on the fact that Dawn broke the rules of interrogation to get her information, so he cuts papers to have her transferred back to the states.

In a last ditch effort, with the help of the chaplain, she bargains with the military tribunal to have Nadir's sentence commuted if he gives up the details of the attack. She discovers that another prisoner who recruited Nadir into al-Qaeda killed Nadir's family in order to overcome his initial resistance and get him to join the group. She shows Nadir the tape of the prisoner's confession and Nadir describes the planned attack: the detonation of a nuclear device in Washington on the day the President delivers his State of the Union Address.

After saving her country Dawn witnesses her betrayal. Nadir is killed in a bogus escape attempt set up by the military tribunal. In reaction, she deserts the Army and travels to Nadir''s village to work with the women and children who are also victims of the war.

Written By: Chuck Loch Contact Author

A former operative in the government's "Remote Viewing" black ops is forced

back into duty by his ex-handlers, only to learn that the enemy lies within and

he must stop their agenda before they change the world as we know it.

Will Arlington, an ex-government remote viewer and the only individual trained in

"Remote Kill"--the ability to kill with the mind --finds his life skewed when his girlfriend

is kidnapped by his ex- government handlers for the purposes of forcing him back into the

fold: The Peagsus Project, a black ops that has gone renegade and buried so deep they're

talking to the dead. Will's only help finding his lover and stopping the Pegasus agenda is

Addison Crowe, the aide of a senator murdered by the Pegasus Project. Addison doesn't

have a clue about the "real" world --or does he? Appearances can be deceiving even to a

remote viewer and man who can kill with a single thought.

Together they travel from Florida through the Blue Ridge Mountains to the concrete of

Washington D.C. to track down Will's girlfriend and bring members of the Pegasus

Project to justice before it's too late; it's not any easy task when Pegasus has all the fire

power it needs and its own remote viewers to track their every move.

"Remote Kill" was inspired by fact.

Written By: Margo Prescott Contact Author

Log Line: A man of power tries to destroy a woman with none - and ‘rides a tiger’.

It is the year 2000, Australian-born computer analyst Srian Davis is working in war-torn Sri Lanka, her mother''s birthplace. A week before she is scheduled to return home she is tasked to assist an EAPAT (European-American Protocol Against Terrorism) intelligence officer.

But bizarre events in London are overtaking her. Evidence of murder in the (true-life) 1961 ‘mystery death’ in Africa of New York-based UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold thrusts Srian into a fight for her life against powerful adversaries in Europe. But like the late Dag Hammarskjold - known for his mystical muse - Srian has a mystical trick or two of her own up her sleeve.

Written By: William Higham Contact Author

NAKADA'S TOUCH (Psychological thriller/horror)

Log line: A ''safe and easy'' assignment - all she has to do is survive it!

The legend of a 200-year-old Zulu cannibal sorceress, a modern-day psycho and street boys missing in a coastal city''s red-light district.

It is 1990 - a watershed year in South Africa''s tempestuous history. Nelson Mandela is released after 27 years of detention, emergency powers are lifted and apartheid (racist) laws are crumbling.

Into this volatile mix walks top-gun political journalist Sally Kaplan, a New Yorker on a working holiday in Port Farewell. A risk-taker, her work visa under threat by a white government lashing out in its struggle to come to terms with a new political era, Sally is taken off the political desk and re-assigned - the ‘safe and easy’ non-political street boy story - - a journey into a killer’s madness and the unholy labyrinths of an ancient subterranean lair.

It’s Silence of the Lambs meets Copycat

Written By: William Higham Contact Author

THE WORKSHOP (Dark Comic Thriller)

A vet registers for a creative writing workshop but his writing sample is so poor that the professor drops him from the workshop. The vet shows up for the second meeting with proof of his talent. After being humbled by the professor, the vet returns with a gun..

Written By: Kirby Wright Contact Author

A traveling salesman finds himself at the center of a series of murders that match his itinerary, as well as that of an attractive flight attendant with whom he's falling in love, but who may also be a killer preying on lonely men.

Written By: Fred and Jan Yager Contact Author

(Characters are based on those created in the novel Untimely Death, by Jan and Fred Yager) - First episode is a two-hour movie pilot entitled "Crime 101." A vicious killer sets out to silence anyone who might know the secret behind the untimely death of an attractive criminology professor, whose nude body is found by her best friend and co-worker, Professor Kimberly Stone. Within a week two other women are also murdered and the only living link to all three victims appears to be Professor Stone. Driven to find her best friend's killer, Kimberly joins forces with a reluctant homicide detective as they scour Manhattan's netherworld on the trail of a tortured soul who has chosen Kimberly as the next target.

Written By: Fred and Jan Yager Contact Author

JUST YOUR EVERYDAY PEOPLE

Two couples, seemingly unremarkable people, go out for a routine end of the weeknight of drinking, dancing and flirting. Four everyday people just kicking back until one of the women comes on to a stranger at the bar setting off a chain of blackmail, betrayal and murder.

Written By: Fred and Jan Yager Contact Author

CLOSE TO THE SOURCE

A discredited and burned out reporter, feeling guilty over the death of a younger journalist, uncovers a plot to assassinate a popular black presidential candidate but no one believes him.

Written By: Fred and Jan Yager Contact Author

BLOOD LAKE (supernatural-horror-thriller)

A burned-out park ranger joins an alcoholic wildlife biologist to track down

a supernatural creature stalking a state park by night.

The peace and quiet of a state park is destroyed when a camper is torn

from his tent before his lover's eyes. The animal at large is unknown.

Ranger Pete Grissom takes charge of finding the predator. A

bumbling superintendent Chalmers does damage control…A second

strike kills two campers after their tent-trailer is flipped upside-down like

a toy...local media and citizens demand the park be closed. Hysteria is

fanned by land developer Sayyed Al Said. Ranger Grissom is angered

by Chalmers' decision to bring in wildlife biologist Evelyn Lightstone to

assist in tracking the killer…As more campers fall, Grissom and

Lightstone resort to all of their wilderness skill to hunt and trap their quarry.

They discover a connection between the campaign of terror and the

land developer…a descendent from an ancient Egyptian lineage…

the creature's true nature is revealed…a terrifying chase ensues…there is

little hope they will survive.

Written By: Steven Folkes Contact Author

A game warden unwillingly teams up with a female narcotics agent to stop

a poacher who trades animal parts for heroin, and slaughters humans

as easily as he does black bears.

Northwood's Game Warden Dave Quinn busts two poachers that leaves

one of them impaled on a rack of antlers-giving Quinn a tie-in to gang

leader Ethan Tranquil…RCMP, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, agent

Martha "Marty" Parker and her team raid a warehouse drug buy…one of

the buyers, Ethan Tranquil, trades a bloody animal organs for dope.

He escapes the firefight and flies out in his private aircraft…Marty

pursues meeting up with Quinn at gunpoint when she stumbles onto a

raid. Later, Quinn freezes up during another bust, almost getting Marty

killed. When Quinn's secret is revealed…they become a team…Marty

goes undercover…Marty's cover gets blown…now it's a deep-woods

gun battle ending in Quinn's jet-ski pursuit of Tranquil float-plane…big-city

and backwoods cops combine to create an unstoppable force of nature.

Written By: Steven Folkes Contact Author

THE BLACK DAHLIA MYSTERY

A beautiful woman. Many admirers. One unforgettable death.

It is the early morning of January 15, 1947. Fog hovers over a dark, weeded, vacant lot on 39th Street & Norton Avenue. Mysteriously, a 1947 black Ford sedan turns onto Norton Avenue and slowly pulls over in front of the vacant lot. A neighbor, witnesses the strange occurrence. Watching the car pull away from the lot, the sedan disappears slowly into the morning mist... Four hours later, a woman walking down the sidewalk of Norton Avenue finds something so horrible and gruesome in the vacant lot. From shock, the woman runs down the sidewalk and screams in terror...

Later, Detective Hoffman and Detective Johnson are called to Norton Avenue. They discover that a body has been found in the weeds. The naked body of a young woman, bisected in two at the waist with the blood totally drained and the body neatly cleaned. But that isn't the only thing found... Two days later, they identify the young victim as twenty-two year old, Elizabeth Short. The detectives are puzzled. Why would anyone want to kill this girl? But the question is, who committed such a ghastly crime? A presence is now left at the empty, vacant lot at 39th & Norton Avenue. An eerie wind blows through the grassy weeds...

Going back, it is April 1945. Tampa Bay, Florida. A young Elizabeth Short announces to her family and friends that she is going back to Hollywood, California to become an aspiring actress. Along the way to the Hollywood dream, she finds herself trapped in many relationships with different men who admire her beauty and presence too much. Elizabeth struggles to find love in her life that she desperately needs, but only finds heartache from her search. With complications of her love life, she soon realizes she is being followed. Who could it be? As of this result, she makes her way to San Diego where she befriends young Dorene Ferguson and her inquisitive mother, Emma Ferguson.

The mother and daughter take Elizabeth into their home and after one month they know something isn't right. The Fergusons realize that Elizabeth is being followed and is hiding from someone. When the family confronts her about her secretive past, she becomes even more of a mystery. After noticing Elizabeth is afraid to be seen, she is told that she can no longer stay in the family's home. She then decides to make her way back to Hollywood, where she must face whom or whatever is lurking forward from her past, leading up to her gruesome, unsolved, 1947 murder.

Written By: Brett Howard Nelson Contact Author

THE HULA GIRL MURDERS

A wannabe kung fu star discovers he has to be both Charlie Chan and Jackie Chan when

his grandfather's murder forces him to solve a fifty-year-old mystery that lands him in

the crosshairs of a killer.

Are there skeletons in your family closet? Maybe some secret that sends you

skidding down a razor's edge? A secret that reveals your true destiny...

I always thought my grandfather was just a cook in a San Francisco noodle house. But

when he was murdered, I discovered a secret that rocked me. He had actually been a

famous private detective in Honolulu during the 1950s. Which would be cool. if he

hadn't vanished under a cloud of suspicion right after a notorious murder in a

joint called The Hula Girl Club. That was August 1958. And I'm convinced it

has everything to do with why he was killed. I'd be the first to tell you, I'm

no detective... I was ready to hit the big screen in a kung fu movie. But I owed it to

my grandfather to get to the bottom of this thing. Clues led me to Honolulu where I

joined forces with a pretty Hong Kong crime reporter. Together we dug up the past

and found long lost evidence proving a wealthy industrialist committed those murders

and framed my grandfather. Then the bastard destroyed the only proof I had. So now

it's up to me.... choose between an imperfect justice or let a killer go free.

Written By: Rene Claire Spencer & Richard B. Payne Contact Author

Tom Garrison, a former marine, has his own internal battles, a failing marriage and a recent loss of a senior executive position. He meets up with JIMMY, a former high school football buddy and is invited on a hunting trip along with two other former friends BOBBY and NICK. Unbeknownst to Tom, his former buddies are not the guys he once knew. Bobby is a massive alcoholic with a dangerously fragile mind. Nick is a fast talking ex-con who lives his life on a very sharp edge. Jimmy is a lost soul desperately trying to cling to his youth. When Bobby loses control of his truck on a dark desolate road, a man driving a Porsche winds up dead. Nick, upon checking the dead mans identification, discovers that the victim is the only son to a prominent mob boss. Tom realizes that he needs to take charge of this very dangerous situation but when two million dollars worth of diamonds are found inside the crashed Porsche, they quickly descend down a spiral of greed, betrayal and murder. Tom soon finds himself matching wits with a street-wise mob boss and a half- breed Apache Sheriff with the nose of a bloodhound and the eyes of an eagle.

The white snow covered mountains fill red with blood as Tom is thrown into very dangerous game of HIDE AND SEEK.

Written By John Pizzo Contact Author

IN PURSUIT OF AL QAEDA (true story)

One FBI Special Agent knew they were coming and he tried to stop them

For years, terrorists across the globe have plotted to destroy the American way of life and any group of freedom-loving people. The CIA in all its wisdom, have mistakenly funded these groups, in some vain attempt to get them on our side. To pay them to do our fighting overseas. On September 11, 2001 all that changed.

John O'Neill, 40, a hard-charging, veteran FBI Agent is picked to head the Bureau's elite counter-terrorism unit in Washington D.C. Problem is, the FBI's terrorism task force had dwindled down to one-fifth its size. It almost wasn't on the radar screen.

O'Neill tries to institute changes in the FBI's strategies, its flow of information from agency to agency - which is almost non-existent. His attempts fail miserably. One hand doesn't know what the other is doing. The built-in safeguards in the CIA, FBI, NSA, has effectively tied their hands behind their backs.

Enter Ramzi Yousef, Osama Bin Laden and their core of ultra-extremists and fanatics. A group of madmen who will stop at nothing to achieve their goals.

February 23, 1993. Yousef attempts to destroy the World Trade Centers. Although his efforts fail, it results in the deaths of innocent people and injuries to a thousand. O'Neill sets off on a desperate mission to arrest the culprits. His efforts push the boundaries of political correctness as he "bulls his way" into tough situations declaring, "It's my job to weed out terrorists and I'll do it by any means necessary." The FBI inner circle welcomes his efforts but many "higher-ups" detest his attitude.

Project Bojinka is uncovered in the Philippines - a plot to bring down 12 airliners in one day. O'Neill finally captures Yousef, the mastermind behind this plot and the 1993 Trade Center attack. Information comes to light that Bin Laden is training pilots to fly suicide missions around the world. But, this startling intel doesn't seem to get past the government red-tape bureaucrats in Washington.

June 1996. The Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia are blown up by extremists. O'Neill's team responds, but receives little cooperation from the Saudi government. It's clear they have some agenda the U.S. doesn't know about.

August 1998. Two American Embassies are destroyed simultaneously in two separate African countries. Bin Laden is the culprit again. But, the U.S. seems to believe this is "just a cost of doing business overseas."

October 2000. Bin Laden's henchmen attack the USS Cole in Yemen, killing seventeen sailors. O'Neill's team ruffles political feathers in an attempt to catch the killers. The FBI Director yanks him out, citing Ambassador conflicts between the countries.

O'Neill abruptly retires, citing his desire to quit "butting heads with people who don't care," knowing full-well that the worst is yet to come.

September 11, 2001. O'Neill is killed in the Trade Center attacks in his new position as head of security. His prophecy full-filled. Yet, in his death, his warnings have worked information freely flows between agencies. American security has vastly improved.

Written By: Mike D. Burns, Brian Turk Contact Author

The country's largest "smart building" is a new California mall - a hi-tech

super structure that can do everything from clean its own restrooms to thwart

terrorist attacks - and the latest in consumer safety and security. But it's

anything but safe and secure for the six high school seniors that sneak in after

hours when the building starts thinking for itself.

Written By: Lauren Peterson Contact Author

A spent archeologist battles true-believers for a mysterious relic that bears hidden powers ... and confronts his own dark past. The afflicted man struggles with partial paralysis and overwhelming guilt at having caused many deaths as a boy in a Corpus Christi hurricane. Will he save his estranged daughter who's disappeared with the relic in the Near East -- and can he prevent "Christian terrorists" from massacring innocent Muslims and Jews? Is to INDIANA JONES as UNFORGIVEN is to JOSEY WALES.

Martin Banham is a jaded, crooked old archeology professor who fleeces people by auctioning forged artifacts. He suffers from paralyzing arthritis, and has terrifying memories from childhood when he was the sole survivor of a hurricane that struck Corpus Christi, Texas, and drowned dozens of nuns and children after he cut their lifeline. For his entire life Martin has lived in fear of the ocean. He’s estranged from his daughter Danya, also an archeologist, who discovers a mysterious relic on a Dead Sea dig.

While fleeing from investigators who’ve uncovered his fraud, Banham finds himself thrust into the middle of a maelstrom of competing political interests searching for Danya, who’s vanished with the relic. He’s aided by her husband Lynn, an expatriate restorer of Roman catacombs, who’s returned to the U.S. looking for Danya. Their quest takes them overseas via shipping container to Rome, the West Bank and Jerusalem.

The search is obstructed by Dr. De Luca, an Italian obstetrician who traffics in human stem cells, and who discovers the relic is a cruet that allegedly contains ancient residue of human blood. De Luca uses DNA found inside the cruet to inseminate a group of unwitting women aboard his floating ob-gyn clinic. When the experiment goes awry and the babies are stillborn, De Luca goes searching for his last viable subject, a woman who's learned the truth and escaped -- Danya. Meanwhile, Banham is betrayed when he discovers that Lynn, in truth, is Rudy, a fugitive Christian terrorist who’s manipulated Banham into locating Danya, ergo the cruet and DNA, and who’s responsible for a string of political assassinations and bombings.

This psychological thriller deals with culpability and redemption, featuring twists and turns that escalate to a thrilling climax aboard -- where else? -- a small boat adrift at storm in the Mediterranean Sea. To where did Danya disappear? Whose DNA is inside the impregnated women? Why is Banham’s arthritis suddenly cured? And what sin did the boy Marty commit many years ago during the great Corpus Christi hurricane that enabled him to survive, while so many others perished?

The title CORPUS CHRISTI is a metaphor on several levels. It re-envisions the INDIANA JONES genre, featuring an ailing, flawed anti-hero who finally redeems himself, as in ROAD TO PERDITION. It deconstructs the stereotype of the “heroic archeologist,” replacing the romantic lead with a protagonist who is beset and afflicted, as in UNFORGIVEN. This edgy character-driven thriller follows the exploits of a hapless yet sympathetic protagonist, and spins a multicultural tale with humane themes of tolerance and forgiveness.

Mark Olsen is a professional copywriter. He has an MFA in film production from the USC School of Cinema-Television and an MA in theatre studies-playwriting from the University of Leeds Workshop Theatre, which published one of his plays. He serves on the executive board of the Scandinavian Film Festival of Los Angeles, and was an assistant to producer Frederic Golchan.

Dan Olsen teaches screenwriting at the Fullerton College School of Continuing Education. He has an MFA in screenwriting from Chapman University School of Film and Television where he was a Marion Knott Scholar. He was an assistant to producer Edgar J. Scherick.