The Tribeca Film Institute announced the continuation of its screenplay development program with a call for scripts with scientific or technological themes and/or characters, yesterday.
The Tribeca/Sloan Screenplay Development Program is funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
Co-founder of the Tribeca Film Institue Jane Rosenthal said: "The Sloan Foundation program has been at the forefront of advancing and developing science and technology themes in film."
"Four years into our partnership with Sloan, where we pair emerging talent with established screenwriters and scientists, we are seeing our mission actualised with a number of projects along the road to production. We look forward to the day when we see these works on the screen."
The Tribeca/Sloan Screenplay Development Program seeks scripts that have a scientific or technological theme and storyline or have a leading character who is a scientist, engineer, or mathematician. The program will not accept science fiction story lines. One writer and/or writer-producer will be provided with financial support and insight from an advisory panel of leading filmmakers and experts in science and technology over the period of one year.
Advisors will provide input on script revisions and assist in moving the script from development into production. The program also hosts events to highlight the work and attract industry interest during the Tribeca Film Festival.
Individuals interested in applying to the program should visit www.tribecafilminstitute.org for official guidelines and required submission materials. Submissions will be accepted until December 15 2006 (postmark deadline).
Sloan Program Director Doron Weber said: "We're delighted to continue our historic partnership with the Tribeca Film Institute which,in a few short years, has not only developed an unusually impressive body of scripts but has secured major production deals for several of them."
"Science and technology, which, for better or worse, increasingly define our modern world, offer filmmakers an unprecedented range of great stories and wonderful characters rarely seen on the screen."
Current participants in the program include:
Kenneth Lonergan will adapt his Broadway-bound play The Starry Messenger to the screen. Lonergan was the first Signature Selection, a designation for seasoned professionals chosen to participate in the program. Science advisor Dr. Marc Chartrand, former director of the Hayden Planetarium, will consult with Lonergan on the scientific content of the screenplay.
Nicole Perlman’s Challenger is the story of Richard Feynman’s role in the investigation of the Challenger explosion. Perlman, named by Variety in 2006 as one of this year’s "10 Screenwriters to Watch", is consulting with screenwriter Janet Roach (Prizzi’s Honor) and science advisor Dr. Robert Frosch, former director of NASA. Challenger is headed to the screen with director Philip Kaufman and David Strathairn in the role of Feynman attached.
Director Dan Zeff and producer Andrew Bendel’s comedy Project Mustard, inspired by a real 1960s British space project. Zeff and Bendel are working with screen and television writer/producer Tom Leopold (Seinfeld, Cheers, Will and Grace, Ellen, Caroline in the City and Hope and Faith) and with former astronaut Dr Jay Apt as their science advisor.
Oscar-nominated director Peter Bogdanovich has signed on to direct The Broken Code, a biopic about unsung research scientist Rosalind Franklin. David Baxter's screenplay is the first project from the highly competitive Tribeca/Sloan Development program to be fully funded. Screenwriter/director Nora Ephron (Bewitched, You’ve Got Mail, Sleepless in Seattle) was the screenwriting advisor.
Past winners have included Shawn Lawrence Otto with Hubble, the story of astronomer Edwin Hubble, Penny Penniston for Now Then Again, a romantic comedy with physics at its heart and Gretchen Somerfeld for Face Value, which reveals screen siren Hedy Lamarr’s contribution to the creation of wireless technology.
