Stephen Fouasnon

I've been working on this script for a few years now. The complexity involved is mainly what set me back, also at a certain point I wasn't sure which direction to take the story in.

The central idea is that you can go back and live your life over, something most people have imagined at one point or another. But instead of taking that story and running with it, I wanted to see what it might look like after someone had given it a shot. My belief was that no matter how many attempts, you'll never "get it right" because life is about the unexpected surprises, the hard lessons learned, the successes gained by blood, sweat, and tears. Things that come easy don't seem to carry much value, easy come easy go, right?

Luca, the protagonist, has to learn this the hard way when in the middle of an attempt to go back and try again, he gets kicked backward through his previous attempts. His last 7 lives. What he has to reckon with is the mayhem he wrought on those around him, being driven solely by his selfish needs. He has to fix these relationships and situations to survive, and it won't be easy. Betrayal, loss, revenge, sabotage are all things he'll have to contend with on his journey backwards through the hell he created. Hope you enjoy the first five. As always, thanks for reading.

-Stephen Fouasnon

Home Sweet Home is another comedy feature, except this one is a WIP. I’m currently at the turning point in the first act, and I have a pretty clear idea where it’ll go, I just haven’t done the work yet.

The story is about two realtors whose worlds are crushed after the 2007 financial meltdown. Their careers never truly recover from it, and in a final Hail Mary they attempt to renovate a crumbling home that is 100% haunted.

What they don’t realize is that the ghosts are actually the spirits of former residents who were pushed out by gentrification, and are now seeking revenge on the two down on their luck realtors, Tanner and Gil. I intend for the majority of the story to take place in the home, and despite a few elements in the first five pages, the rest of the script is mostly indie in nature.

I am really curious to see how this one turns out, and am hoping to look back at this post by the end of the year, and see how the story has changed, and the ways in which it didn’t.

The Lemon Tree was my first attempt at a romantic comedy feature. I love the genre and have seen a ton of rom coms over the years. My favorites are probably About Time, Sleeping With Other People, The Big Sick, and Love Actually. I have other favorites, but they're more comedies that center on a romantic relationship, like Forgetting Sarah Marshall, which I guess is technically a rom-com, and is a really really excellent film, but for some reason it just doesn't feel like a straight forward rom-com to me. I mean The 40 Year Old Virgin, Knocked Up, Trainwreck, those are similar in tone to FSM, and I guess they are technically in the rom-com zone, but maybe because they're so comedy forward, they feel less like what I imagine a romantic comedy should be, and are more just a comedy with some romance. I don't think the distinction is important really, I guess it boils down to how the movie makes me feel about romance in general if that makes any sense? I think also with any good romantic comedy the movie should try to answer a question. Like in When Harry met Sally, can men and women be platonic friends? And if I had to boil my script's question down it would be "Should love be convenient?"

Florida Woman is a comedy I began writing in October 2018. It was originally about two women who desperately wanted to go to a professional cosmetology school, but didn't have the money so they decide to rob a rich cousin of the protagonist. Well the idea morphed as I wrote, and actually I wrote something like five different versions of the script. This is a revision of the fifth version, and is probably my favorite. To me, it's like a southern version of Curb Your Enthusiasm set in a small Florida town. The dialogue should be read with as fast a pace and in as southern a drawl as you can muster. I originally imagined the protagonist, Krysten, would played by Tina Fey, who I'm a huge fan of. But I can also see a number of comedic actresses playing the part exceptionally well. There are a number of other roles that I really love, but they don't appear until later in the first act. Oh, I also included seven pages, because it felt strange to cut the dialogue off on page five. I guess call that lagniappe, or if you don't know how to pronounce that, just say "extra but for free". Alright, enjoy!

Aristotle Also is about an extremely egotistical man in ancient Greece whose only goal is to be the first self actualized man in existence. But he's arrogant, ignorant, and afraid of birds. In the first act his entire reputation and social identity dissolves after he wins a ridiculous wager that results in the untimely death of a colleague. I imagined Aristotle Also played by Kelsey Grammer, and his protege/mentor, who shows up in the second act by Peter Dinklage. The rest of the cast would be a mix of comedic and dramatic actors, and Aristotle's arc would be that he gets what he desires most, full self realization/actualization, but of course, in the worst way possible. Alright, hope you enjoy the first five!

To the Pale is a post-apocalyptic western inspired by my love of westerns and my attempt to add something different to the genre. I really love all of Sergio Leone's catalogue, especially the Dollar Trilogy, but I also loved Shane, Tombstone, Ron Howard's The Missing, the Coen Brother's True Grit, and the unforgettable No Country for Old Men, which I was lucky enough to attend it's premiere at the Canne's film festival in 2007. I picture To The Pale being somewhere between Once Upon a Time in the West and Unforgiven, both aesthetically and tonally. The casting I imagined while writing was Jessica Chastain as Christine Hunt, Josh Brolin as Ray Hunt, and Clint Eastwood as their father, Clayton, but I have a few other variations, depending on scope and size of the film. There are also a few different iterations of this script, different beginnings and endings, but this one is probably my favorite because it starts right away. We don't yet see the full picture of the world that we're in, but as we move through the story, we begin to understand that society has long collapsed, and those who are left have to fight to survive.

Marshall & Me was a feature script born in the midst of a literal fever. Either I had the flu or some strange reaction to a late night curry, either way this idea popped into my head in between laying on the cold tile, and heaving into the john. During this long, agony filled, evening, I played the idea over in my head "What if your imaginary best friend was the infamous rapper, Eminem, but also, and stranger, what if you weren't a child at all, rather, a delusion grown man?" I sat on the idea for a while, I mean how can you take that seriously? But it kept nagging at me, so I gave it a shot. The script that came out was funny, touching, surprising, and maybe one of my favorite scripts to date. I feel like I say that a lot, but like they say about children, you really can't choose or maybe you can, was that the point of Sophie's Choice? I can't remember. Alright, give the first five a whirl, and enjoy!

Man, Obsolete is one of my favorite comedic scripts I've written. It's undergone some changes over the years but the main tenet is the same. Hyper-realistic sex robots are unleashed upon the world, and it's up to a rebuffed factory worker, and two scheming morons to destroy them. There's a Steven Soderbergh inspired Ocean's 11-esque heist, a hopeful celebrity cameo, and a bit of hijinks. The first five pages set the stage for what is to come, which I hope you'll see, has a lot of potential for comedy.

The American Kingdom is a pilot I wrote three or four years ago. It was partially inspired by Phillip K. Dick's, Man in the High Castle. It's historical science fiction in which an actual revolutionary army revolt, which in our history failed, in this story succeeds, thereby creating an alternate America, one with a controlling and dictatorial monarchy. 

In the pilot we witness the revolt's success, the downfall of George Washington, then our title sequence highlights how this reality is starkly different. We meet the royal family, some of the power players, those looking to usurp royal power, and a group of anti-monarchists who are planning an attack.

I imagine the show tonally being somewhere between House of Cards and Man in the High Castle with maybe a dash of The Crown. Each episode would open with a changed historical event, then we'd witness how those events have shaped this alternate reality. 

I mainly write absurd comedy, some spacey sci-fi, but I really enjoyed writing this and was surprised at just how much research it took to write just the opening sequences.

I always thought it would be a fun comedy to see an Influencer’s world turned upside down. Where, after a series of events they start to get the attention they crave, but it’s not at all what they imagined. That's why I wrote this screenplay titled The Influencer.

Jessie is our protagonist and his story is a sort of spiral through paranoia, self-doubt, and the agonizing desire to be seen. He ends up seeing the social media community for what it is, but also what it can be. The movie will feature tons of social media stars old and new, references to as many memes as I could fit in, and there just might be a huge musical number with a tik-tok dance in the middle. Enjoy.

Below the Line is a television pilot about an unruly group of television workers all trying to live the dream. And maybe also get their screenplay optioned. It was fun to write, and I imagine Liz, the new to the biz production assistant moving up the ranks each season. Enjoy!

My Other Me’s is a tv pilot about a slacker named Mark Watt who is suddenly forced to get his life together when another version of him, from a different dimension, suddenly barges into his life and demands he change.  I really love this idea, it always makes me laugh. Each episode would feature a different comedian or actor portraying the alternate version of Mark, and I find that really exciting, think of all the fun you could have with that constant infusion of fresh ideas and energy. I see the arc for his character spanning 4-5 seasons, and each episode delving deeper into why we all resist changing for the better. Hope you enjoy!

Dark Larry & The Mea Culpa - I'm a huge fan of Curb so I wrote this Spec for a writer's workshop. I really enjoyed trying to get into the voice of the show, and of course had a blast writing it. I imagine this would be either episode 1 or 2 of a prospective season as it does lay the ground work for certain things to come.