Best Historical Screenplays
Script Name | |
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1 |
ALTA CALIFORNIAIn 1780 California, a mixed-blood scout, violently torn from his tribe, struggles to return to his people. Script Excerpt |
2 |
Maeta's StoryIn the Occupied Netherlands, a widow and her 7 year old son go into hiding with the help of her brother, a WW1 veteran who struggles with PTSD. * "Recommend" by Dave Trottier Script Excerpt |
3 |
BRAVE HEARTSIn 1840, an unconventional widow risks her life when she joins forces with a charismatic journalist, brutalized tenant farmers and a traumatized exile she rescues in Montreal, to stop the most powerful men in Scotland from violently evicting Gaelic Highlanders, unaware of her own family's complicity in the ethnic cleansing. |
4 |
THE BANNERThough haunted by the childhood memory of the lynching of his father for leading a slave rebellion, an American slave risks his life to join Mexico's struggle for independence after witnessing the execution of the author of the first law against slavery on the North American continent. |
5 |
KibouA tenacious young Japanese-American's loyalties, duties, and illicit interracial relationship are tested to the limits when his family is separated by the US government and imprisoned during a time of fear and paranoia surrounding WWII. |
6 |
RestorationAs an introverted art restorer succumbs to the evil temptations of an ancient painting, otherworldly forces attempt to stop her from unleashing the painting's unholy power. Script Excerpt |
7 |
The Wayward SonOrphaned after his father and other Chinese are murdered in the Rock Springs Massacre of 1885, Bo helps his adopted family of sheep ranchers fight for their land in bloody range wars while struggling with his identity and reigniting a dangerous love affair. |
8 |
Between the Salt and the SkyIt’s 1942, and a small Portuguese fishing village is on the edge of a war that seems far away. An out-of-work fisherman with nothing to live for meets an unlikely ally with a dangerous secret and nothing to lose. Two Jewish girls arrive, and it changes everything. Script Excerpt |
9 |
LudlowA beleaguered Greek miner draws a reluctant strike instigator into the throes of a Colorado mining revolt, sparking a labor dispute with horrifying consequences. Based on a true story. |
10 |
THE GREAT QUESTBased on the true story of the Buddha: The battles of a Prince who rejects riches and power, risking insanity and death, in a quest to find ultimate freedom. Script Excerpt |
11 |
Colter's RunBased on a true story, John Colter becomes a legend during the early days of the American frontier due to his adventures in the Yellowstone region and encounters with dangers that lead to an arduous eleven-day, two-hundred mile flight across the wilderness in which he has only his wits to survive. Script Excerpt |
12 |
By The Time I Got To Woodstock1969: a young generation is letting their hair down, except for a high school sophomore who’s wound tighter than her ballerina bun. When she accidentally ends up on a magic bus to Woodstock, she goes on a long strange trip to find her true self. Script Excerpt |
13 |
Eighty-Eight FrequenciesGorgeous MGM star Hedy Lamarr and her unlikely confederate enter a world of flying notes and moving slots. They make a scientific discovery that could change history while she masters the Hollywood machine. Based on a true story. Script Excerpt |
14 |
LABYRINTH OF DESTINYDuring the Mexican-American War, Lieutenant Ulysses Grant falls in love with a young Mexican woman who helps American slaves escape bondage. The war separates them, but years later they meet again when the woman is dispatched to the United States to seek an alliance to prevent France from conquering Mexico and becoming an ally of the Confederacy. |
15 |
GreenmanA rising rock star strikes out for Iceland in search of inspiration, only to discover a centuries-old horror that threatens to use her gifts to take over the world. |
16 |
The ExperimentAmbition, class prejudice and racism forever alter the lives of a poor white boy bound for delinquency and a young Afro-American athlete headed for stardom. |
17 |
Tabula RasaLucy is an Artist. No one understands her. Lucy sees life through the viewfinder of her closest companion, a 16mm Bolex camera. You see, Lucy doesn’t make “movies” — she is a Filmmaker. Lucy’s getting ready to share her Art with the World. But she’s afraid the World isn’t ready for her. Lucy is twelve years old. No one understands her. The World isn’t going to know what hit it. Script Excerpt |
18 |
E PLURIBUS UNUMVirginia 1860 – when a profitable, free plantation founded by disguised aliens and supported by famous Abolitionists is attacked by pro-slavers, two former slaves - a fighter and a pacifist, leave to seek help from newly-elected President Lincoln. Script Excerpt |
19 |
KASHINOA Japanese American sergeant, fighting to prove his Americanism, is awarded a Silver Star, two Bronze Stars, six Purple Hearts... and a court martial. |
20 |
ODE TO FREEDOMAlexander Pushkin, Russia's most famous poet in the nineteenth century, overcomes internal insecurity to inspire the fight against serfdom and the Tsar. Script Excerpt |
21 |
The Odyssey of John BuchananWhen a Scottish soldier loses his father in the Battle of Culloden, he rushes home only to see his wife and mother slain by British soldiers. John Buchanan is captured and must not only escape his captors but fight against his eventual banishment to the British Colonies and escape his life as an indentured servant on a tobacco plantation in Maryland. |
22 |
Jane, The Legend of Mountain CharleyA woman in the 1850's gives up her children to The Sisters of Mercy, changes into men's clothing and spends the next twelve years looking for her husband's killer. She was fifteen years old and this is a true story. Jane is an award-winning script. |
23 |
The Dumb Ox BellowsA 13th-century friar struggles to revitalize Christian theology using logic and reason, but intellectual opposition from peers, malicious slander by envious brethren, and “slavery of the pen” under two Popes drive him to mental collapse and loss of faith in his life’s work -- until God intervenes miraculously to affirm its merit. The extraordinary, true story of Saint Thomas Aquinas.- Script Excerpt |
24 |
AND WE WERE LEFT DARKLINGIn the aftermath of WW2, in an undefined place, two men, Eichmann and Wallenberg, play chess, using humans as pawns. Each represents the extreme of man’s humanity and inhumanity to man. https://andwewereleft.com/ |
25 |
Behind The VeilFilm Noir. Los Angeles, 1947. A private investigator's search for a gay man among those marginalized by society results in a battle against the powerful elite who exploit them. (FINALIST: BEST FEATURE SCRIPT - 2023 LONELY WOLF INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL (LONDON) Script Excerpt |
26 |
DUEL AND DEATHFamous Russian poet, Alexander Pushkin, dies in a duel defending his and his wife's honor. Script Excerpt |
27 |
The MaccabeesA father and his self-righteous son attempt to live in peace until the Greek King forces them to renounce their traditions to follow their many Greek gods and customs. The revolt begins. |
28 |
Fallen SonLOGLINE: When the son of mafia boss leaves the family business and is wrongly charged for murder, he must choose whether to stay loyal to his mob family and serve a prison sentence, or defy them by proving his innocence and risk assassination. ____________________________________________________________________________ SYNOPSIS: Chosen as next head of his family’s crime business, the eldest son of a New Orleans Mafia boss facing deportation orders abandons his Sicilian heritage by marrying an American woman and going into legitimate business. After his father is deported and his younger brother inherits the family business, the elder son is indicted for murder when a restaurant owner he had previously refused orders to kill turns up dead. Then he learns who is real family is and risks certain assassination by teaming up with an investigation lawyer against his blood family in court to avoid a death row prison sentence. |
29 |
HeldIn Nazi occupied Holland, to save the life of a hidden Jewish student stricken with a life threatening illness, a reclusive professor deliberately contracts the deadly disease to get the cure. |
30 |
A Journey With DestinyIn 1906, a young man’s journey by automobile leaves him stranded in a remote mining town about to erupt into a battle royale between company goons and radical labor. Script Excerpt |
31 |
Marshal Mart DugganThe town selected a brawny, gun-fighting Irishman as Marshal to tame the fast-growing, notoriously wild, and depraved new boom town of Leadville, Colorado, in the 1870s. Script Excerpt |
32 |
Cotton-Pickin' HeroesAs the close of the Civil War nears, three disparate black Union soldiers become trapped behind Confederate lines and are forced to hide out on a cotton plantation, trying to blend in and not be noticed by the addled owner of the plantation and his harsh black overseer. But when the Colonel's eldest son declares he's taking the slaves to Brazil -- where slavery is still legal - our heroes decide they have to escape... and take all the plantation slaves with them. |
33 |
WHITE DEVIL OF SHANGHAIRomantic war adventure set against the backdrop of World War II China. Two mismatched fugitives of war, a jaded American newsman and a strong-willed Jewish refugee girl, escape Japanese-occupied Shanghai to reach Free China. They evolve into unlikely heroes among the Chinese, one as a mercenary destroying lives, the other as a Red Cross miracle worker saving lives. Their stormy relationship ultimately brings them together to save Shanghai's Jewish refugees from Nazi extermination. Script Excerpt |
34 |
A Risk of ExposureIn 1953, Russian ballet teacher plots to smuggle photos of Stalin's crimes while part of a cultural exchange to the U.S. With the KGB in close pursuit, she finds an unexpected ally. Script Excerpt |
35 |
RevelationA coming-of-age tale about a beautiful, but insolent, peasant who nurses back to health a spiteful teenage samurai after he survives an ambush while persecuting Christians. |
36 |
East Meets WesternA runaway indentured Asian cook bakes his way into the good graces of a frontier town, where he struggles to win the skills and allies he needs to avoid recapture by the ruthless outlaw who 'owns' him. |
37 |
The First CasualtyWhen a reporter uncovers a secret that could doom the war-torn Spanish Republic, he must help the whistleblower escape before a Communist death squad silences them both. |
38 |
In the Broad Face of DayHistorical Drama (1843): When a lunatic guns down the secretary of the British Prime Minister in broad daylight in the streets of central London, the ensuing courtroom battle and outcome was to change forever the way insanity was viewed by courts around the world. |
39 |
When Doves CryIn 1991, fraternal twins navigate the treachery of young adulthood, dealing with bullies, racists, homophobes, and abusive authority figures while seeking the ultimate Minneapolis experience; seeing the legendary Prince perform live at First Avenue on Halloween night but a freak blizzard threatens their plans. Script Excerpt |
40 |
EquityAre you in or out? The year is 1919. Your name is Frank Bacon, and you’re the author and lead actor of the most successful play in Broadway history. Your fellow actors are about to go on strike in support of their union, the Actors Equity Association. You’ve spent your life fighting for the rights your friends are hitting the bricks to protect. If you go out on strike with them, you risk losing everything you’ve achieved. Your wife doesn’t want you to go out. The managers will fire you and take away the rights to your play if you don’t cross the line. What about it, Frank — which side are you on? Are you in or out? Script Excerpt |
41 |
The Redemption of John ParkerAn embittered former slave risks life and limb as an Underground Railroad “conductor” until, targeted for death by angry slave owners and a sociopathic slave hunter, he must confront and resolve his inner rage or bring tragedy on his family. Based on a true story. |
42 |
ErikssonThe Viking Leif Eriksson, who, to prove himself to his legendary father Erik the Red, embarks on a dangerous voyage to find new lands and inadvertently discovers America. Script Excerpt |
43 |
LAST FLAG ON OAK ISLANDWhen a museum curator and his female assistant translate clues in an American Revolution-era journal to a British payroll buried on Oak Island, they must go undercover to unearth the treasure before two rival treasure hunters discover it. Wealth of the century or the island's deft insult? (From the novel Last Assault on Oak Island by Jenn Rekka.) |
44 |
Acceptable LossesA post war look into the lives of War Veterans and how they deal with the emerging mental difficulties from wartime trauma and how we, as veterans, so often find ourselves coping with the resurfacing of these submerged emotions. |
45 |
The Seeker and The FollowerIn Ancient Greece, a vagabond searches for a mysterious treasure with the help of an old sun worshipper, unknowingly endangered by the trials he faces. |
46 |
RUNNING FROM DEATHTrials and tribulations of the notorious John Wesley Hardin. An 1800’s Texas gunfighter, who’s wit and gunfighting abilities are ferociously tested while John runs from death himself, who John believes is after him at every step throughout his life. Script Excerpt |
47 |
Ilium RidgeTo brothers Zeus, Poseidon and Hades, the First World War is but a game to stave off the boredom of immortality. To Captain Achilles, the Man Who Cannot Be Killed, it is a curse to be avoided at all costs, as the gods, battles and magic of Homer's Iliad are transplanted to the bloody trenches of the last century. |
48 |
“TWISTED FATE”“TWISTED FATE” (1) describes ironic similar personal life tragedies affecting Robert F Kennedy and Sirhan Bishara Sirhan leading to a face to face encounter. |
49 |
ParateichionA 15th-century monk-warrior goes through dramatic adventures - he crisscrosses Europe, takes part in the efforts to reunite Christianity, fights in the battle for Constantinople (1453), and describes the fall of the city in his famous book. |
50 |
PITTSBURGH PHILBiopic of Harry Strauss, a.k.a. Pittsburgh Phil, a notorious mafia hitman in the 1930’s, who rises from the streets of Brooklyn to become one of the most ruthless killers in Murder Incorporated. His lust for violence sets him on an inevitable collision course with justice. Script Excerpt |
51 |
SQUADRESicily, 1859, a giant mountain man (Carlo Sovrumano) leads 5000 fierce fighters alongside Giuseppe Garibaldi in the brutal fight for Italian freedom at Palermo. |
52 |
The VentureTHE VENTURE: -At the peak of hippie counterculture, a drug dealer and an ex-Army clerk embark on an adventure of free love, psychedelic drugs, and transient life with their like-minded friends, eventually leading to the birth of the first counterculture mall. |
53 |
Time Travel: Many Happy ReturnsTwo simple-minded brothers work part time at a science lab, and find machinery in an unauthorized area that unknowingly transports them to Spain--years before their time. Now they must figure out where they are, how they got there, and how to get back home. |
54 |
The March of the 18thIn 1864 the Veteran Reserve Corps was formed to allow disabled Union army men to continue to perform their duty for God and Country. This is the story of six invalid soldiers of the 18th Regiment and their 25 mile march into history, as they battled the elements, their disabilities and self-doubt, as well as a band of vicious, scavenging marauders. Script Excerpt |
55 |
Duty to WarnLegal thriller miniseries based on the true 1969 stalking murder of Berkeley student Tanya Tarasoff and the Supreme Court case that changed doctor-patient confidentiality laws in America. Pilot, synopsis and bible. Script Excerpt |
56 |
REVELATIONSA young nurse investigates her mother’s disturbing death and becomes entangled in a decades old political cover up involving her family and the illicit love affair of America’s most infamous lovers. |
57 |
Spawn of EvilSix boys, sons of Auschwitz Nazi guards, have psychological behavior patterns and are selected for a particular education class; this leads to their post-war behavior of becoming serial killers and rapists of Jewish people and therefore sought by the Jewish hit squad, Nakam. Script Excerpt |
58 |
Mother SeacoleBritish soldiers are transported from Jamaica to fight in the Crimean War. From her own resources, a Scottish-Jamaican lady provides home comforts and medical assistance to her boys in Crimea and becomes a British heroine. |
59 |
MARY BAKER EDDYWhen the leader of a new Christian religion is targeted by a vicious smear campaign by a leading newspaper, it launches a suit against the popular but controversial 85-year-old woman for control of her newly found church; but a famous literary figure (Mark Twain) surprisingly comes to her aid, and the church leader wins the suit and starts a newspaper that decades later wins awards named after the publisher (Pulitzer) that attacked her. |
60 |
Fair WarningThriller based on the true stalking murder of Berkeley student Tanya Tarasoff in 1969 by an obsessed graduate student, and the legal case that changed doctor-patient confidentiality laws across the country. Script Excerpt |
61 |
Race Across AmericaAfter an impulsive dare and a $50 bet, a determined doctor races to become the first American to drive an automobile across the country ... and return home to his pregnant wife. |
62 |
JessGhost of a young gambler hanged in 1884 takes up residence in an old gold mill near Lake Tahoe and raises hell in the life of the tour guide, a Stanford student. Script Excerpt |
63 |
Sawney BeanAdulterous young husband facing criminal punishment in medieval Scotland flees into the hideout of the notorious cannibal family. Script Excerpt |
64 |
THE OCTOPUS CHARMERA unique tale of nationalism, love, and magic set on the beautiful island of Guam during the WWII Japanese occupation. Good prevails! Script Excerpt |
65 |
A GRUNT'S TALEA filmmaker in California just contacted me with interest in making this one! Elvina rescues Kurt - "Wojo" from the hell of PTSD after his return from Vietnam. Script Excerpt |
66 |
ROME IN WHITEThe assassination of an American president begins in 300 AD in Rome and proceeds to 2011 Washington DC and then returns to Rome in 307 AD for the assassination, death of Severus II on a day it snowed on Italy and Rome is in white. |
67 |
Edward's ReturnAn unjust murder summons revenge, even if it takes 160 years. |
ScriptLinks
Post Your Script Here!and The Devil called!
The Devil is so confident of the acceptance by God`s chosen-one he appears as himself with gifts and, `you will be my bride`, when rejected, he sends in his tri-step-headed-charcoaled alien goons, to examine her brain.
AT THE MERCY OF FAITH
In the wake of a terrifying and traumatic encounter with RUTHLESS characters, a 14 year old minister - mourns his twin sister, and scorns the GOD he once fervently praised.
The March of the 18th
In 1864 the Veteran Reserve Corps was formed to allow disabled Union army men to continue to perform their duty for God and Country.
ELECTRIC
After being electrocuted on the job, a woman has the power to make everyone around her fall in love.
OVERPASS
When a cement truck driver avoids slamming into a Lexus, only to lose his own life, he haunts the Lexus driver and teaches him a powerful life lesson in the process.
I'll Sleep When I'm Dead
L.A. Detective Owen Murphy is on a mission to clear his name on a murder he didn't commit.
HARBINGER
Detective Sandy Marone feels the weight of the world come crashing down on her shoulders as she investigates the mysterious disappearance of another senior citizen, one of several over the past few months.
THE TEST
On an anniversary trip to San Fran Debbie sets up seemingly disinterested husband Jim to test his fidelity, but things spin wildly out of control when Jim instead falls into a trap set by a team of dangerous con-artists ready to take him for a ride and everything he's worth.
THE GLAMOROUS LIFE
A model whose career is fading gets a much-needed vacation and a new outlook on life when she hides out at a Florida beach house with an “odd couple” of twenty-something brothers who are 100% convinced she's a hooker.
DOWN WITH DAD
A 3-time Man of the Year dad Dave McNabb tries to teach his teen son Lincoln a life lesson -- “do good things, good things happen.