Facing death due to different illnesses, three patients find themselves playing a made up game called The Mortality Game to experience life one last time risking it all.
CAST LIST:
Narrator: Geoff Mays
Dragenfeld: Val Cole
Halada: Hannah Ehman
Get to know the writer:
1. What is your screenplay about?
It's about 116 pages! Sorry, I just had to get one "Dad Joke" in, even though I'm NOT a Dad (that I know of). "The Mortality Game' is in essence a story of life as seen through the lens of impending death. It's about how we as humans face the "final act" of the stage play of our lives. In the case of my three headed lead: Schubert, Halada and Tugger face it in their own differing, yet quirky ways. Ultimately deciding to take a final road trip across the country while playing a game where they do dangerous things to challenge and defy death, since they have nothing to lose.
2. What genres does your screenplay fall under?
Character Driven Dramedy for the most part, as it has elements of Comedy and Drama, with a bit of Coming of Age mixed in for good measure.
3. Why should this screenplay be made into a movie?
Because the characters are as diverse in age and attitude as they are strong in development and memorability. Because the story, about how we face death is an important one to tell, since that is a situation that none of us can avoid. Because it explores letting go as well as fighting back, finding the joy in the dreaded, and allowing yourself to feel what you feel facing the end, whether it's understandable or not, expected or not, appropriate or not.
4. How would you describe this script in two words?
Fun Profundity.
5. What movie have you seen the most times in your life?
As an old Trekkie from way back, amazingly enough: "Galaxy Quest" the idea of this team of sci-fi actors thrust into a "real life" intergalactic war is just too deliciously fun to not always stop to watch it on TV no matter what part the film is at when you click to it. And because I've done that often with this film, that's why I think it's the film I've watched the most.
6. How long have you been working on this screenplay?
I finished the first draft of this screenplay (only the second screenplay I had written to that point) in November of 2011. Since then it has gone through many revisions and rewrites, to where it has evolved into the screenplay it is now.
7. How many stories have you written?
That would be hard to estimate, as you said stories, so, including stage plays (I started off my writing life as a playwright back in 1997), screenplays (both full length and short), TV Pilots (30 and 60 minute types), short stories, and most recently a novel... I'd say I'm up near the 100 range.
8. What motivated you to write this screenplay?
I thought of something we all must face, and how the real variation of our souls is in how we face it. I thought: what is more universal than the concept of death, and how I, as a writer, can turn that concept on its ear and make it less scary, depressing and sad and more of a triumph of the spirit.
9. What obstacles did you face to finish this screenplay?
The idea of letting a main character actually face death while having the others face survival. In every character driven dramedy you have to balance a satisfying ending for the audience with the right arc and culmination of each character. And here, since I had fallen deeply in love with each member of my protagonist triumvirate, it was hard to decide exactly how to end it.
10. Apart from writing, what else are you passionate about?
Acting, filmmaking, and discovering little known gems in the Indie films out there that make you feel, but mostly make you think.
11. What influenced you to enter the festival? What were your feelings on the initial feedback you received?
I have entered "The Mortality Game" in a great many film contests and festivals over the years, and it has won upwards of 50 Awards over that time. Yours was one I had won at before (with a TV Pilot: "Psi-Com 5" years ago), but hadn't entered lately, so I figured I'd take a chance to see how one of my favorite full length screenplays would do up against what I'm sure was a very strong field of excellent writers and concepts. As for the initial feedback, I found a couple of the ideas most useful, and stimulating insofar as possible tweaks to the script goes. Although one, turning my 12 year old character of Tugger into an older teen (like 15-ish), I've heard before and have rejected before due to the idea that I wanted to present three characters at different intervals in the their lives, and the idea of Tugger, a kid not yet having had a real chance at life, was very necessary to me. Also with Halada being a 19 year old, having Tugger as anything but a child seemed redundant to me.
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