Lost Mountain
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
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
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
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.
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:
Good luck to all the entrants! We look forward to reading the winning stories and to working with the authors.
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.
Maxwell Abramson has joined Lost Mountain as a Development Associate. Max is a recent graduate of Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, where he honed his interests in screenwriting and filmmaking. At Lost Mountain he is learning about the industry, conducting research, reading and reviewing stories for potential adaptation, covering scripts, assisting in writing treatments and pitches, and helping boost our online presence. Welcome, Max!
Type: Television series
Length: 1 hour
Genre: Period drama
Inspired by true events, Mile Zero, set in the late 1970s and early 1980s, is a gritty crime series about a resourceful teenager who turns to smuggling drugs in the Florida Keys after his adoptive parents deem him a perpetual fuck-up and kick him out.
Determined to make something of himself and prove his parents wrong, Jack Tyler leaves Washington, D.C. for Key West, where he quickly learns that everyone seems to be in on the smuggling game — from the waiters and bartenders to the fire chief and even the mayor. He partners with Eddie Cardenas and rises through the ranks of Eddie’s father Octavio’s syndicate, finally finding the purpose and belonging he craves.
Before long, however, marijuana smuggling morphs into the far more deadly and dangerous world of cocaine smuggling, and the boys attract the attention of law enforcement, including Jack’s adoptive father, FBI Special Agent Don Tyler.
In over his head, and questioning his chosen path and its consequences, Jack must navigate a constant barrage of jealous partners and competitors fueled by unbridled lust for money and power; family rivalries; and corrupt cops and agents.
Mile Zero is the end of the Great American Highway. And for many, Mile Zero is where the pavement finally runs out. Only Jack can decide if it’s the end of the road for him.
Written by John H. Cunningham and Khris Baxter
Pilot and pitch available upon request
Type: Television series
Length: 1 hour
Genre: Drama
Coal Bridge is a high school sports drama about a young, Black financier who leaves behind a lucrative career in Manhattan for the chance to rebuild a high school wrestling program in an economically depressed, southwestern Virginia coal mining town.
Drawing on his past experience as a college wrestler and gifted with an innate ability to see value where others don’t, he puts together a team of raw talent that challenges the established, competitive programs in the region, while upending the social order in this insular, Appalachian community already struggling with losses brought on by poverty, mental health, and the opioid crisis.
Coal Bridge explores the themes of race, class, and personal sacrifice
Written by Jon Pineda & Khris Baxter
Pilot and pitch available upon request