Charles Deemer
Screenplays
hyperdrama /plays /fiction /essays /poems /audio /video /home /bio
(All scripts are copyrighted and have been registered with the Writers Guild of America. Note to screenwriting students. )
Essays on screenwriting .
Real Audio Screenwriting Tips
This was one of the more popular features on my original screenwriting website in the mid-1990s. Some tips are dated now. Requires Real Audio player.
Screenplays
Features
Christmas at the Juniper Tavern , public television, ACE award (adapted from stage play )
The Half-Life Conspiracy , cable television (adapted from stage play )
Waitresses , cable television (adapted from the stage play . Later became Ruby's Tune .)
A Woman Scorned
He was everyone's favorite drama teacher -- but finally he seduced the wrong student.
Tough Love: the Story of Ruth Barnett (based on a true story)
In the 1950s, she was abortionist to the Stars.
The Hiroshima Pearl with Michael T. Girardo. On the anniversary of Hiroshima, a Japanese industrialist wants revenge.
The Pardon (based on the stage play )
He ran to Canada to escape Vietnam. Now he tries to make peace with his war-hero father.
American Gadfly: the Story of Wayne Morse (teleplay) (Also a stage version ).
He got elected as a Republican, an Independent, and a Democrat.
The Victory Sisters
They were a WWII singing sensation. Now
they are three old ladies rushing to do one last concert before one of them dies of cancer.
Recovery
When Molly hides from an abusive husband in a treatment center, she has no idea that she's preparing for one last confrontation.
Manhood
Everybody wants Greg's program for animated holograms -- the government, big business, a foreign country. All Greg wants is a girlfriend.
Refugee from Roswell
He wants to make Earth a destination resort for the cosmic space ship set -- quaint primitive life on display.
The Senator's Wife . At his high school reunion, Duane learns that he's a father -- a piece of information that threatens his life.
Sad Laughter (based on the stage play )
The great French playwright Moliere is haunted by the possibility that he married his own daughter.
Casanova Does California
The historic Casanova tries to stop the making of a porno movie about him in contemporary California.
"Don't shoot! I'm white!"
Ray plans to blow the whistle on the dangerous side-effects of a suntan pill based on new genetic manipulation technology -- until he is slipped an overdose and wakes up as a black man.
Earthly Desires
A surprise 50th birthday present makes him feel 20 again.
Currently optioned by Never A Dull Moment Productions.
Cravings
When he finally tracks down his birth parents, he discovers they are vampires in recovery -- and he has the same genetic cravings.
Love in the Ruins
Romeo & Juliet meets 9/11 in this tragic love story between two NYU students. Became the short novel Love At Ground Zero.
Love in the Time of Terror , same with a "happy" ending.
The Wrong Life
A homeless man finds a corpse and steals his identity -- only to learn he now is a special protected witness against the mob.
A Writerly Revenge
A writer decides his new agent is pulling a scam -- and sets out to make her pay for it.
Canine
A bored small town sheriff discovers a terrorist cell in the outback -- and learns to appreciate what he has.
Hooker & Bear
Two old men travel across the country to see the Kerouac Scroll, each revealing a dark secret along the way.
Reconcilable Differences
A lawyer defends the woman for whom his ex-wife left him in a support suit against the ex.
The Brazen Wing (formerly "Billy & Gramps")
Thelma & Louise for seniors: A dying old man engages the help of his grandson to kidnap his first love from a rest home and go on a fishing adventure.
...now in paperback (click image for details).
Mrs. Cratchit's Christmas Carol
Mrs. Cratchit enlists her TV producer, computer-savvy brother to infect Scrooge's laptop with images, audio and video, which he then can manipulate from afar. Scrooge is taken on a multimedia adventure that terrifies him -- and ultimately teaches him the true meaning of Christmas.
Her Secret
Celine, a dynamite 30s head of a Woman's Crisis Center, hides a deep personal secret. She's forced to face it and resolve it when two shocking surprises interrupt her routine: the appearance of a teenage boy looking for his birth mother; and the local arrest of the man who raped her when she was in college, now looking for his son.
Sacred Remains
Crossings
My Passion for Heather
Honey Badger (with Lynn Jeffress)
The Judge
The Reluctant Romantic
The Love and the Fury
Shorts
Humidity ...They met as often as possible in hotel rooms. This time it was different.
Blind Date ...She found him fascinating -- to her peril.
Ninth Step ...Not all drunks are stupid.
Love (abridged edition) ...Day dreams are sweet, and reality...
The Last Dance ... When his dying grandfather makes a last wish, a young man discovers a new meaning to his life.
Video
Love (Abridged Edition)
Blind Date
The Library of Our Lives , soap opera series "spoof," University of Oregon TV.
The Ward Brothers , multi-media documentary for Salisbury State College.
Brats on the Mountain , children's video for Tom Shaw Productions.
Books
What Happens Next? An Introduction to Screenwriting
Trade paperback, ISBN 1-58898-907-0
More info
Screenwright: the craft of screenwriting Trade paperback, ISBN 0-7388-0336-7
Electronic (hypertext) and paperback versions. More information .
Five Screenplays
Trade paperback, ISBN 1-58898-724-8
More info
Practical Screenwriting
Focus Publishing, 2005.
ISBN 1-58510-128-1
More info .
Movies for the Mind: Volume 1
The Sextant Press, 2006.
ISBN 0-9786357-1-X.
The Brazen Wing, Casanova Does California, Love In The Ruins
More info .
Volume 2 ISBN 0-9788610-2-7 Hooker & Bear, Reconcilable Differences
More info
Movies They Should Have Made
The Sextant Press, 2009.
ISBN 978-0-9788610-7-0.
More info