Author: Victoria Grimme

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The Fifth Floor

Type: Television series
Length: 30 minutes
Genre: Dramedy

When Washingtonian socialite Olivia Wyatt receives tragic news that decimates not only her reputation but also her bank account, she and her teenage daughter Gwynnie must relocate to New York City to rebuild their lives… from scratch. 

Her resourcefulness lands her a job as a saleswoman at an exclusive department store, Harper James, where she struggles to “make her numbers” and create a better life for herself and her daughter. Her goal? To climb the ladder to the personal shopping salon on the fifth floor, where she can service a very select, and very wealthy, clientele.

But to be a success, she must out-maneuver her manipulative, back-stabbing co-workers–the Bitches of Fifth Avenue.

The Fifth Floor is a heartfelt and hilarious peek into the secretive world of the ultra-rich and ultra-fashionable and is based on Champagne at Seven and Cutthroat Couture by former retail executive and fashionista Toni Glickman.

Written by Amy R. Martin and Khris Baxter

Pilot and pitch available upon request

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Sunday Morning in Sin City

Type: Television Series
Length: 1 Hour
Genre: Period Drama

Sunday Morning in Sin City is a quirky, irreverent drama set in the late 1970s about two twenty-something evangelists who plant their flag in the city most other Christians want nuked: Vegas. Struggling to find a church that’s a good fit for their unconventional, contemporary style of faith, they decide to create their own—and spawn one of the nation’s first megachurches right in the mob’s debaucherous backyard.

After falling victim to a robbery that disrupts their plans of evangelizing through Thailand, our idealistic young newlyweds are forced to put their heads down and go to work in Sin City just to make it all back. 

Led by their vision for a better world and refusal to blindly follow tradition, their stroke of bad luck gradually becomes a streak of serendipity after they plant roots that grow into a towering religious empire. Their inclusive, community-based approach draws people from all corners of the city: hotel workers, gambling addicts, prostitutes, musicians, drag queens, hitmen—the people behind the city’s curtain, all of whom yearn for something more.

This is not a story about corrupt megachurch founders or cult leaders. This is a story about some broken kids and their friends trying to live an authentic life in a city of illusion and image that seems hell-bent on changing them.

Written by Khris Baxter & Michael Warnecke

Pilot and pitch available upon request

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Original Intent

Type: Novel and feature
Length: TBD
Genre: Thriller

Prosecutor Audrey Hale has been consumed by rage and obsessed with vengeance ever since her sister Claire’s life was derailed by a group of privileged prep school boys years ago. When the justice system failed to hold those boys accountable, she took matters into her own hands. And she has been patient and methodical in meting out her retribution. 

But now one of those boys is about to be confirmed as the next Justice on the U.S. Supreme Court, the most revered and least transparent of America’s political institutions, where he will concentrate his power and cement his legacy for generations to come. And he — along with the shadowy political operatives, billionaire donors, and ideological hardliners behind the ultra-conservative Palatine Society — intends to silence his detractors before they shed light on his sordid past.

Now on the defensive, Audrey must play cat-and-mouse with the judge while trying to finish what she started. Little does she know, however, that she’s about to discover just how deep the rot goes, and that her nemesis may be part of a larger conspiracy hell-bent on shackling not just one woman, but them all.

Original Intent is a multiple-perspective, female-focused conspiracy thriller about a local prosecutor struggling to get justice in a system rigged by and for the men who created it.

Written by Amy R. Martin and Khris Baxter

Novel in development

Book proposal and screen pitch available upon request

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Coupled for Christmas

Type: Feature
Length: 90 minutes
Genre: Christmas romance

When a bookish science reporter is assigned to write a Christmas feature with her polar opposite, a free-spirited Dutch travel writer, she’s forced to re-examine her long-held belief that opposites never attract.

Written by Amy R. Martin

Script and one-sheet available upon request

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Skateland

Type: Feature
Length: TBD
Genre: Heartfelt comedy

Skateland is a quirky 1980s-era comedy about a teenager with performance anxiety (also known as “stage fright”) who, nearing the end of her freestyle artistic roller skating career, resolves to win Nationals to save her home rink from foreclosure. 

After choking (again) at a critical regional qualifier, she vows to go out on top by competing as the female partner of a pairs team, even though she’s never skated pairs before. Losing this time isn’t an option. Losing this time means losing more than just a gold medal. It means losing the rink that is her second home and the club of skaters who are her second family. She may not be able to land a double axel in competition, but can she land a new pairs partner—and a first at Nationals? 

Skateland is about the meaning of success, how we should approach challenges and setbacks, and what our failures can teach us about the people we’re meant to become.

Written by Amy R. Martin

Script in development

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Hobson’s Choice

People wait for the casket of the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg to arrive at the US Supreme Court in Washington, DC, September 23, 2020. - Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, whose death has opened a crucial Supreme Court seat that Republican President Donald Trump has promised to quickly and controversially fill against the wishes of Democrats, will lie in repose beginning September 23, 2020 at the US high court. Trump will announce his pick to replace Ginsburg Saturday, with Senate Republicans promising a swift vote on the nominee. (Photo by SAUL LOEB / AFP) (Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)

Type: Television series
Length: 1 hour
Genre: Drama

Out of more than 10 million lawsuits filed in the United States each year, the Supreme Court decides fewer than 100. Hobson’s Choice is about the men and women who are hell-bent on getting their cases to the High Court — and the one woman who knows how to make it happen.

Laura Hobson stands alone. She is the top female Supreme Court advocate in the country. In truth, she’s one of the only women in the job — an exclusive club that otherwise looks like the Iowa caucuses: old, male, and white. Underappreciated at the white-shoe DC law firm where she has toiled away, Laura finally wakes up, walks out, and vows to start her own firm.

But Laura soon realizes she has a problem, several actually: no office, no employees, no clients, and no idea how to build a law firm.

As our story unfolds, she cobbles together a team of brilliant and deeply flawed lawyers and a series of headline-grabbing cases — cases destined for the High Court and that take on the status quo on guns, the death penalty, sexual harassment, cryptocurrency, and more.

And if she makes history in the meantime? Well, that’s just the job. 

Written by Khris Baxter & Paul Thompson

Pilot and pitch available upon request

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Reader Lauds Big House Designs at Austin Film Festival

Reader Lauds Big House Designs at Austin Film Festival

Lost Mountain staff were pleased to receive complimentary feedback on the company’s female-forward dramedy, Big House Designs, at last month’s Austin Film Festival. The teleplay, written by Amy Martin and Khris Baxter, achieved “second-rounder” status at the festival, putting it in the top 20% of all scripts submitted to the competition.

According to the reader, “Big House Designs is a unique and funny pilot that somehow manages to combine Texas politics, prison, and fashion into a very entertaining package.”

Big House Designs is a half-hour comedy-drama about a troubled but shrewd beauty queen turned political wife who partners with an incarcerated fashion designer to create and launch the most celebrated and inclusive new brand in the fashion industry.

The series explores race, class, gender, and identity at the crossroads of haute couture and the American federal prison system.

The reader admires the originality of the concept, the pacing and rhythm of the story, the dialogue, and the strength of protagonist Ivy Copeland. “Ivy is particularly engaging, and comes across as distinct, independent, and unwilling to fit into the box that everyone has in mind for her. She’s quick-witted and a lot of fun.”

Another Lost Mountain pilot, In Deep, received a request after it was pitched on site in Austin by co-writer Kristin Battista-Frazee.

Both pilots and/or pitch decks are available from Lost Mountain upon request.

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LM To Consult on Cinematic Short Story Contest

Uncharted Magazine Logo

LM To Consult on Cinematic Short Story Contest

Uncharted Magazine Logo

Lost Mountain has partnered with the folks at Uncharted Magazine to support its first-ever “Cinematic Short Story Contest.” The contest is now closed and judging is under way.

Writers had to submit their most cinematic short stories. The prompt? “We want stories that we can clearly visualize, that make us feel like we’re there in the moment, and that activate all of our senses. We want worlds that pop up in our minds, characters who are fully articulated and bent on breaking their rituals. We want stories with vitality and velocity that rely on swift cuts of action and reaction.”

The staff at Uncharted provided additional guidance to entrants. “Consider crafting your story based on the most important moments in your character’s life, and fully envelop us in this story. Think of the opposites of shadow and light, and the gray areas in-between, and write the stories we can’t look away from. We especially love stories that incorporate aspects of all genres, so consider how these combined elements might enhance your story. We’re drawn to stories that take advantage of their conflicts to create tension and resonance.”

Lost Mountain is thrilled to provide the writers of the top five stories with individualized one-on-one consultations, which will include:

  • Instruction in the basics of screenwriting or an overview of the film and television industry
  • Specific suggestions on cinematic story elements such as structure, pacing, tone, dialogue, and characterization
  • Referral to helpful resources, such as books, webinars, classes, and online platforms
  • Advice on preparing marketing materials such as loglines, one-pagers, pitch decks, series bibles, and lookbooks
  • Advice on pitching stories to producers and studios and executives

Good luck to all the entrants! We look forward to reading the winning stories and to working with the authors. 

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News

LM Dramedy Big House Designs Named “Second Rounder” at Austin Film Festival

LM Dramedy Big House Designs Named “Second Rounder” at Austin Film Festival

Lost Mountain’s half-hour comedy-drama, Big House Designs, was named a “Second Rounder” at the 2024 Austin Film Festival, one of the top four film festivals in North America. Second-round status is granted only to the top 20% of all scripts submitted to the festival. We are delighted with our contest showing.

The same script recently earned accolades from a BlueCat Screenplay Competition script reader, who described it as a “poignant, compelling drama” with a “strong, inspiring protagonist” and “immensely impactful scenes.” 

“The screenplay introduces the audience to the story of Ivy Copeland, a newly appointed First Lady of Texas who, dissatisfied with the conservative, close-minded role designated to her, makes a decision to go against the flow,” the reader writes. “[It] does an impeccable job establishing Ivy’s character, presenting her to the audience as a multifaceted, iron-willed individual whom the readers want to follow. Following Ivy’s search for a new purpose, which she, in the script’s finale, finds in opening her own fashion brand alongside a convicted inmate she accidentally befriended, the pilot masterfully fleshes out Ivy’s rebellious nature through natural dialogue and subtle yet telling actions she takes… Ivy is an excellently developed lead the readers are eager to see succeed.”

Thank you to this reader. We agree! 

The pilot and pitch for Big House Designs are available upon request.