February 8, 2009: Week 3
Congratulations to Lauren Hynek and Elizabeth Martin, our second writing team in a row to win Cowrite. They gave us 10 exciting pages that answered some questions, furthered the story and ended with a cool little reveal: the masked spy from the movie’s opening is Harry Walters’ ex-wife, Ava.

We now know that the obsidian bar was just a casing for a data storage device that holds the schematics for a Hi-Tech weapon, which begs the questions: Why did Cable and his men have it? How did they get it and what were they going to do with it? Sell it? To whom? Why did Ava steal it? Presumably she’s a good guy, and she stole it from Cable to prevent it from staying and ending up in the wrong hands. But maybe not. Maybe there’s more than meets the eye. Also, how is Harry going to react to inadvertently getting Jonas caught up in this? Will he come clean, continue to obfuscate or will he unexpectedly leave town to protect his young friend?

As you start thinking about your next ten pages you should consider how Act 1 will close? What is the major, unexpected story turn that sets Jonas on his journey and defines our plot? What are we going to be rooting for Jonas to achieve? And why do we care? There should be real consequences to Jonas not achieving whatever this goal is.

The next ten pages are extremely important in defining our story. Don’t forget to think about Jonas’ friend Freddie, the progression of Nora and Jonas, and any other story elements from the first 20 pages that you think are worth exploring and utilizing to take our script in unexpected directions. Be mindful of character development and really making the current (and any new) characters jump off the page. And remember, conflict is key.

As always feel free to consider these suggestions or ignore them completely. The best submission will win out regardless.

Good luck!

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