Features and Shorts by Sherrill Wark
FULL FEATURES COMPLETED
(available for option or outright purchase)
(Contact Sherrill: sherrill@crowecreations.ca)
COLONY MARS: THE DAHLGRIN DILEMMA; THE SOUL EATERS; SKIN EATER; THE BUS TO LO SIENTO; MAUREEN TRIES ONLINE DATING; MAUREEN JOINS ‘HOOD WATCH; OFF THE ‘SKIDS
(see pitch-concepts and/or contest critiques and/or placements below)
FULL FEATURES BEING WRITTEN
COLONY MARS: THE BEGINNING; COLONY MARS: TOURIST SEASON; COLONY MARS: HUNTING SEASON; MAUREEN GOES TROLLING: THE CHIPLESS; and more
ADAPTED/BEING ADAPTED from SHERRILL WARK’S NOVELS (for TV series or feature)
GRAVEN IMAGES; VIVIE GOES TO HELL IN A HATCHBACK; REFUGE IN L’ACADIE: A KESK8A STORY (see “Sherrill” page for books’ details and links)
ORIGINAL SHORTS FROM CHRISTINA CROWE’S BOOK, THE UNKINDEST CUT
ORIGINAL SHORTS FROM CHRISTINA CROWE’S BOOK, THE UNKINDEST CUT
(these were written to practice screenwriting so some might only work using animation, or extremely expensive SFX)
- Theresa Meets God and Neither of Them Is Impressed
- Mom Was Right about Your Gym Clothes
- The Shrink: Two 15-year-old girls will do anything to get into the “Forbidden” concert in style.
- Those Cohen Kids Again: 10-year-old Ben Cohen’s experiment with his sea monkeys works way too well.
- The Broken X Farm: A hobby farm’s bullying husband learns too late that even the pigs disapprove of the way he treats his wife. (A Horror2Comic (2024) Semifinalist Placement)
- Cameron Screws Up: A stalker meets his perfect match. (Got a wee Coverfly “boost” for this one as it was “that close”.)
- Lenny’s Pawn Shop: A couple of muggers fence their ill-gotten gains at the wrong place.
- Phil Lamerde Discovers Karma: Much to his surprise—and ultimate regret—a compulsive liar’s bullshit comes true.
- That’s Just Peachie: To a husband’s dismay and his wife’s delight, her horse comes back from the dead. (A Horror2Comic (2024) Quarterfinalist)
AND MORE TO COME! SHERRILL’S MUSE WON’T SHUT UP. EVER.
***
YA SciFi
The Colony Mars Series
COLONY MARS: THE DAHLGRIN DILEMMA: Earthling families have been terraforming Mars for centuries but when a boy discovers the Martians’ underground world, he must keep it secret or be declared Mars Mad by the Overlord and sentenced to The Edge.
2025: Quarter Finalist in the Los Angeles International Screenplay Awards Summer 2025 Competition!
2018: The 2018 PAGE Awards Feedback
Judge A: “COLONY MARS is a high-concept futuristic sci-fi action / adventure with a fun YA angle to it a la THE HUNGER GAMES and a smart, striking conceit for the genre mildly reminiscent of MOON. In a future where Mars is colonized, it follows a young boy who’s declared Mars Mad by his colony’s leader, and he uncovers a race of people living secretly under-ground, exposing a conspiracy that goes all the way to the top. As far as sci-fi goes, this could be a big studio, big budget movie but could also be pared down fairly easily to a more modest production. Raj is a terrific hero and the YA feel of the project works and could make this a big tentpole, popcorn summer blockbuster. Raj’s interactions with his parents and friends give his thread the endearing heart we want in a pro-tagonist. The redemptive B-story for him and his dad and the Mars Mad outcasts and Martians brings their victory home triumphantly.”
Judge B: “… You’ve done a fine job setting up Raj as an outsider. He’s laughed at and not necessarily trusted by others, who think he’s a thief. He’s also ‘tainted’ via his relationship to his father, who was labeled as a ‘Mars mad’ enemy of the state. The depiction of Dahlgrin’s authoritarian rule is certainly original. He’s almost a comic figure yet he rules by fear and intimidation. By the end of your story, it’s clear he has genocidal tendencies.”
Being Written
COLONY MARS: THE BEGINNING: The Martians weren’t all that keen on having rovers wandering around up there on the surface in the first place, so having actual ships—with Earthlings on them!—crashing down onto their roof does not amuse them at all.
COLONY MARS: TOURIST SEASON: The inhabitants of Mars, descendants of Earthlings from centuries ago, are surprised to learn that Earthlings on several space ships are begging for permission to land.
COLONY MARS: HUNTING SEASON: Oh, they’re from THAT solar system and they’ve been holidaying on WHICH Jupiter moon? And they’re going hunting WHERE?
Drama
(violence, language, sexuality)
THE BUS TO LO SIENTO: (siento, sorry; also, I feel) A man attempts to deal with the atrocities committed by him and to him as a child soldier in the 1980s Guatemalan Civil War all the while being pursued by a powerful figure who wants him dead.
2013: Top 10% (of 600) 2013 Oaxaca FilmFest.
2024: Semifinalist: Los Angeles International Screenplay Awards (Fall 2024); Quarterfinalist: Los Angeles International Screenplay Awards – Diversity Initiative (VIII)
Pitch-Concept: THE BUS TO LO SIENTO was inspired by the experiences of a Guatemalan man, a former friend. He read the script and told me he really liked it, that I didn’t need to change anything. I also met a Maya man in Ottawa, who had gone through those times and spoke of seeing a “pile of Maya skulls.”
From To The Roots, Jose Marti: “There is no more painful chapter in the history of modern Guatemala than the events of 1980–1983. At the human level, it is a tale of wholesale slaughter and genocide by the new death squads, the coun-terinsurgent security forces, this time carrying out illegal violence themselves, without the facade of legal constraints. That this holocaust was almost unknown and unimagined in most Western countries, certainly in the United States, is a testament to the ‘great silence’ about Guatemala—an indif-ferent, at times complicitous [sic] silence, perhaps because the victims were overwhelmingly Indians.”
My friend was born in 1964 and General Lucas began inducting boys as “Military Police” in 1980. He never revealed much—I did a lot of research on my own about this “war”—but he did tell me about their being forced at gunpoint to learn “skydiving,” equals jump out of a plane then pull that rope; and about the time they were taken to the jungle and forced, at gunpoint, to go bring back anything that moved. All these animals and bugs were put into a barrel of boiling water without having been gutted or skinned and they were forced to eat it. They were told, “If it moves, you can eat it.” I asked if he’d ever been forced to eat humans and he turned his face away.
Supernatural Thriller with Martial Arts
THE SOUL EATERS: (A sequel to Sherrill Wark’s novel, Graven Images) An eclectic group of souls trapped in Outer Darkness try to escape their crumbling world while being hunted by the inhabitants of Hell. “Don’t miss the curfew!”
2024: Quarterfinalist: Los Angeles International Screenplay Awards (Fall 2024)
2017: Quarterfinalist: The 2017 PAGE Awards
2016: WeScreenplay Feature Lab (2016) …
Judge A. “… You did a wonderful job reimagining the afterlife from the perspective of the dead, dividing Outer Darkness into different levels of good and evil. It seems every soul had a chance to redeem itself, which is a wonderful message. Your main protagonists, Gary and Netta, were great lead charac-ters and fun to follow through the netherworld. I liked that Gary was a cop and that Netta was a woman who was murdered by her jealous husband. It made Gary naturally want to protect her, and her to be drawn to him, and it was great to find out there’s still sex in Heaven.”
Judge B. “… You’re going for riveting supernatural thriller about a world within the circles of hell, a world in which trapped souls must navigate different rules and alliances. This is a story which aims for mainstream audience appeal, in the vein of FLATLINERS, and you aim for a story that embraces the supernatural while exploring characters and world-building. The premise is strong, and you have a concept that is not only rich with visual potential, but also one that has strong commercial appeal and a hook that can easily draw audiences.”
Pitch-Concept: What’s it really like “over there” in the Afterlife? Back in my New Age Hippy days, I heard that we need to be good and kind and loving so we can “fill our gas tanks” with positive energy that will get us up Jacob’s Ladder to Source after we die. If we are mean, or expend our energy hating others, we will quickly run out of “gas.” What happens then? Well. We dissipate into nothingness; the Old Testament mentions “the Second Death.”
Let’s say something happens that jiggles the levels of Outer Darkness, making Transition Level 1 crash down to sideswipe the Violent Death Section of Hell where the folks are des-perate for “energy,” even feeding off each other. The folks in Transition Level 1 can’t move up to Level 2 yet. They’re stuck there fighting off the bad guys and trying to rescue any new arrivals so the Soul Eaters don’t get to be too strong. And when a Soul Eater touches you? It hurts like… well… It hurts like Hell as you dissolve into a screaming “puddle of oozing, open, smoldering holes.”
I’ve had a couple of near-death experiences—we needn’t get into that—but I can say, it isn’t anything like we’ve been told it is.
Horror/Thriller
MAUREEN TRIES ONLINE DATING: (adapted from the novel of the same name; “a seniors’ SciFi/Adventure/horror novel”) Retired ER nurse Maureen makes one stupid little decision about her latest online-dating-site prospect, and she ends up in a kettle of fish.
2025: Quarterfinalist: 4th Annual Stage 32 Female Driven Screenwriting Contest
2022: Honorable Mention: Diverse Writers Outreach Competition Fall 2022
Pitch-Concept: She knew there were tunnels under the city of Ottawa, but nobody knew there was an actual underground sea as well, way below the Ottawa River. A sea with a very different pop-ulation of not only human settlers (recovered homeless addicts), but critters that had evolved entirely differently from Surface critters over billions of years.
Potty-mouthed Maureen eventually makes friends with the humans down at the Seaside and Topside levels—especially with Xavier, a Vodou Master, a very handsome Vodou Master—all seniors, but she also makes friends with an hilarious and extremely intelligent octopus named Don (PoseiDON), who signs and translates for pretty much everybody. He’s got connections.
Together, they manage to prevent Surface humans from destroying their world, and keep the very dangerous Termants, who run things down there, in an all-important good mood.
MAUREEN JOINS ‘HOOD WATCH: (a sequel to MAUREEN TRIES ONLINE DATING) It’s all fun and games until retired ED nurse Maureen finds out, while volunteering undercover, that there’s a lot more going on at that strange new women’s shelter than just organ transplants and transgender surgeries for illegals. Lots more.
2026: Finalist in the Los Angeles International Screenplay Awards Diversity XIV Competition!
OFF THE ‘SKIDS: Wanting to help his grandmother increase production of her famous zucchini-raspberry muffins, science prodigy Dr. Razzy Luong takes his gene-altering genius one step further by attempting to add the extremely fast-growing duckweed to the combo. But he accidentally swats at a mosquito while rolling pollen into the Petri dish. Oops.
Thriller
SKIN EATER: A teenage wannabe comedian stumbles upon the lair of a racist serial killer who has unleashed a genetically modified substance that attacks the melanin in skin.
Pitch-Concept: Let’s say we have this small-town, white supremacist gym teacher hottie who develops a mite that’s attracted to the melanin in skin; and he’s also screwing one of the other teachers, the wife of Detective Dupuis. Let’s say he goes out this Halloween night and infects some little non-white kids with these mites. High-school student, Swartzie, a wannabe comedian, who thinks painting racist slurs on Janey’s house every Halloween is funny, recognizes Mr. Mooney. Not so funny when your wacko gym teacher finds out you know the truth about him, is it, Swartzie? Not so funny when you overhear that Mr. Mooney plans to infect someone you like and he finds out you know and how you know. While chasing Swartzie to kill him, Mr. Mooney “accidentally” gets locked into a faulty tanning salon with a broken vial of those little buddies…
I came up with this idea years ago. I used to be a typesetter and for eight of those twenty years, I typeset scientific journals, one of which was about mites, creepy little things that live on our bodies. I managed to contact a scientist who was one of five world experts on mites. He told me that the nastiest mite lives on wheat. He said we’re lucky it lives on wheat because if enough of those little guys got onto a human body, it would mean a quick and painful death. I squealed with delight. “And by the way,” he added, “it will be mites that destroy the human race, not a virus.”