screenplays
Bond Story
Feature - Drama - 117 pages
A resilient young salesman scales the cutthroat world of 1980s bond trading, only to face a tragic collapse.
In 1965 Houston, eleven-year-old HOWARD CROSS lives in poverty with his mentally ill mother, LOIS, and his grandmother. Howard displays an early obsession with financial independence, meticulously saving money earned from mowing lawns. His childhood is defined by his mother’s paranoid episodes and her eventual removal by the police for psychiatric care.
By 1980, Howard is a struggling real estate agent driving a beat-up Rambler. After meeting a former colleague who transitioned into the lucrative world of bond trading, Howard is lured by the prospect of "total control" and high commissions. He secures a trainee position at the prestigious firm Preston, O’Brien, and Woodard (POW). Howard balances a grueling schedule, eventually dropping out of law school to focus entirely on passing his securities licensing exam.
After an initial struggle on the trading floor, Howard is mentored by a top producer named RICH. He learns to "sell the story" and rapidly ascends the corporate ladder, adopting a lifestyle of excess that includes a Rolex, a luxury townhouse, and a growing cocaine addiction. As Howard’s professional success peaks, his personal life disintegrates. His grandmother passes away, and his mother is permanently committed to Ben Taub Hospital after a public breakdown and the discovery of a brain tumor.
Howard’s downward spiral accelerates as his drug use leads to paranoia and professional negligence. He is eventually fired from POW. Simultaneously, a fraudulent limited partnership he invested in for tax purposes collapses, leaving him with a $97,000 IRS debt. Isolated and broke, Howard loses his home and his girlfriend, JULIE. The story concludes with Howard, hit by rock bottom, finally seeking help through a twelve-step program, where he begins the slow process of rebuilding his life through honesty rather than financial "stories."
Winter Solstice
Feature - Drama - 115 pages
In 1960s Houston, an eleven-year-old boy being raised by his grandmother begins to understand that the ordinary rituals of their life together cannot last forever—and learns that growing up means carrying them forward.
Wayne is eleven years old and lives with his grandmother, whom he calls Mom, in a small bungalow in Houston. Their life is made up of ordinary things: school, chores, trips to the grocery store, Christmas decorations, working in the yard, and the rituals they have created together.
Over the course of a year, Wayne begins doing more for himself and seeing more of the world beyond their house. He also begins to understand things about Mom, his parents, and his own history that he wasn't old enough to understand before.
The story begins at Christmas in 1964 and ends at Christmas a year later. The world hasn't changed dramatically, but Wayne has. Winter Solstice is about a boy growing up, a woman growing older, and the ordinary things through which one generation prepares another to go on without it.