Film has long been fertile ground for the speculative genre. From science-fiction blockbusters that gross millions to smaller independent and artistic productions, film is a medium in which we visually confer about the present, the future, about human nature, and even what it means to be watching a film, to be transported from one temporal reality into the exaggerated physics of another.
But, before any of such spectacles are projected in the theatre, there is another stage of speculation that happens—the pilot, the pitch, the unproduced screenplay, the “spec” script.
For our portfolio feature, we sample bits of these spec scripts as well as other hybrid forms of screenwriting speculation. We found spec scripts whose subjects are, in themselves, a part of the speculative genre. We searched widely for our contributors, looking at those established in the literary and film worlds as well as placing a call for submissions at LA non-profits, Craigslist, and university campuses. Here are the results of that search.
THE MAGICAL PROPERTIES OF EVERYDAY OBJECTS By Charles Yu
BUGS IN AMBER By Cassandra Miller
ORIGIN RAGE By Leland Jake
PORTFOLIO: New writing selected from our open submissions reading period.
