SLUGGING PERCENTAGE

Soft-spoken Louisianan JOHN KELLEY's dream was to run track in college and started playing baseball late in life, almost by mistake. With no other work available after graduation, he accepted an offer to play single-A ball and discovered a way to combine his natural speed with surprising power. John and his wife ALLISON fantasize about what life would be like with money and fame at the same time John hides his crippling anxiety attacks and newfound obsession with perfecting every inch of his body. With MEDIA attention intensifying and SCOUTS from "the show" analyzing his every move, will John overcome his fears or will he implode?

"He had all the tools... except one."

THE REMAINS OF RENÉ

It's time to have some fun with Merchant/Ivory films... and zombies.

1924. French millionaire playboy RENÉ RINCON is enthralled by the occult and often hires CONJURERS and WARLOCKS to shock the snooty UPPER-CRUST GUESTS at his summer home on Lake Como. At the most fabulous party of the season, René hires Englishman ALEISTER CROWLEY to conjure "a man who knows the truth about darkness" and with a flash H.P. LOVECRAFT and his wife SONIA GREENE appear, magically snatched from their honeymoon in America. When Sonia falls in love with René, jealous Lovecraft impulsively kills him... but Crowley's black magic animates René's dead body, allowing the forbidden love affair to flower as bodies continue to fall.. and rise again.

"Love is the blackest magic of all."

EIGHT COMMENTS

Based on some scribbles he finds in the margin of a book in the library, amateur conspiracy theory blogger and college student AMIN BIKH makes a post about a series of local unsolved murders from the late 1990s and sees a sudden spike in attention in the comments section of his blog before he shuts down for the night. Amin wakes up in POLICE custody along with three members of the university community- a PROFESSOR, the WIFE of a local politician and a GRAD STUDENT. Amin quickly pieces together that the other three captives made seven of the eight comments on his blog last night, but is slower to realize that all of them are in the holding cell of a police station that was actually closed down ten years ago...

"A murderer is now following your updates."

I.O.U.

EVAN DOLD III has fallen on hard times and is selling everything he owns, including the family heirlooms. When a cracked picture frame reveals an I.O.U. for $1 million made out to his grandfather and namesake from real estate baron WILLIAM BILLINGHAM. When Evan approaches the Billingham FAMILY to collect, he's drawn into a centuries-old scheme that could turn his fortunes around quickly... if he's willing to write a terrifying I.O.U. of his own.

"Are you willing to collect?"

THE WIGGLE ROOM

JADEN JAMES is the most flamboyant and campy clubowner in L.A., friend to the debauched deejay and the disco dancer. Everyone, including Jaden, assumed that he was gay, but when mysterious dancer EVE causes a commotion at his club The Wiggle Room, Jaden must re-examine not only his sexual identity but also his willingness to mix danger and pleasure.

"Always allow for a little wiggle room."

ANGEL'S SHARE

BILL and HENRIETTA have very few "couple friends" that don't have kids, so when former workmate GWEN sets up a "can't miss" wine tasting weekend with her new banker boyfriend DEVIN they can't wait for it. Devin exeeds their expectations fun-wise, but when he sneaks them into the cellar of the famed Stottlemeyer Winery they realize that they're pawns in Devin's scheme to steal the famed Stottlemeyer family jewels, which are rumored to be hidden at the bottom of one of a dozen enormous casks of wine.

"A toast, to some heavy bread."

THE END OF THE BEGINNING

Microbiologist ABRAHAM JENKINS has accidentally opened an evolutionary Pandora's Box. With a few eletrochemical adjustments, subjects (human or otherwise) can be catapulted ahead genetically, so a week's time affects you like ten millenia. When he and several other TEST SUBJECTS begin exhibiting radical psychic and physical advances, Abraham is faced with the choice between shutting them all down... with a vengeance, or unleashing some seriously dangerous individuals on humanity.

"They deserve us."

THE ANCHOR

Sister and brother LINDA and FINCH CINK are the newest and youngest members of the Mendocino Scuba Club. Every Wednesday before school they make a dive along the coast, and today they found a solid steel anchor that looks like it could be 100 years old. When they bring some CLUB MEMBERS back down to show them it's disappeared, and when they show up to school their lockers have been broken into. Linda and Finch search for a connection between the anchor and the disappearance of THE MAYOR 20 years ago, a connection that could complicate their budding relationships to two of the Mayor's teenaged GRANDCHILDREN.

"The truth sinks."

MUTUAL ADMIRATION SOCIETY

Freshman TIM WILLOUGHBY and NORTY BLONSKY both came to Taylor State (enrollment 28,000) from small towns, but neither of the self-professed outsiders was interested in the Greek system. After meeting in a Psych 101 class and instantly liking one another they jokingly decided to form their own fraternal organization- The Mutual Admiration Society. The rules are simple: if a new person liked you as much as you like them, they're in. Soon their joke is a surprising hit on campus, but as their ranks swell- and complicated hot girls like ALYSSIA NG become members- Tim and Norty's friendships, grades and moral codes are put to the test by internal squabbles and external competition with traditional Greek fraternities and sororities.

"How many friends is too many?"

SON OF A GUN

Chronically dissatisfied DUNCAN CARELLE was eight when his father VINCE was gunned down in Boston. Duncan grew up self-anesthetizing in California believing that his dad was a banker in the wrong place at the wrong time, but when his mother KATHLEEN is stricken with cancer she tells Duncan the truth: Vince had been a gangster, a hired gun the IRISH MOB used for tough jobs that had to be carried out at close range. Suddenly euphoric, Duncan quits his job... as a banker... and buys himself a gun. He heads back to Boston, not as much to avenge his father's murder as to give hired gun work a try... to see if his unhappiness stems from following in the wrong footsteps.

"Can you correct your destiny?"

COOL AS A CUCUMBER

It's time to have some fun with... the mockumentary. Aspiring filmmaker EZRA FINKE has been monumentally uncool his entire life, and over the years has become so obsessed with the notion of cool that he sets out to make a documentary about finding THE COOLEST PERSON ON EARTH and uncovering his secrets for uncool people everywhere. Naturally, EVERYONE he interviews thinks this is the uncoolest idea they've ever heard and Ezra is sent on an increasingly absurd wild goose chase halfway around the world seeking the mythical MASTER who, they say, lives on top of a Himalayan mountain in a house so cool it's, like, beyond description.

"Mock mockumentaries are cool."

THE SIREN

CALLIOPE JONES is a beautiful woman with a dangerously beautiful voice. As a child and even into her teenage years, whenever she sang she turned otherwise rational MEN into reckless fools prone to taking fatal risks to prove themselves. Since realizing that her gift was the cause of so much madness, she's kept as quiet as humanly possible... until she meets MICHAEL BENOIT. At first it feels to her that they are falling in love, that he longs to hear her sing for himself, but soon she suspects that he knew of her "ability" before he ever laid eyes on her and longs to use it for his own dark purpose.

"Her gift was also her curse."

STARING CONTEST

It's time to have some fun with... the coming-of-age story. It was a summer 13-year-old BILLY WIMBERLEY would never forget. His gentle Idaho eco-artist parents PRESTON and PATSY rent a summer house in... Red Hook, Brooklyn. Sensitive and shy Billy strikes up a friendship with the mysterious girl who lives across the street, aspiring graffiti tagger JUANITA VAN DER LEE. As Billy's home is torn apart by constant bickering about which parent is greener than the other, he dives deeper into Juanita's exciting, artistic, and dangerous world, trying to show her his way of life and experimenting with newfound impulses that could either illuminate his destiny or turn him into his parents worst fear... a regular kid.

"Whoever blinks first loses."

THE COMMUTE

Last night BENJAMIN HOLLAND had one of those "love at first sight" moments at the bar and it must have been mutual- he woke up to a text from beautiful HANNAH LEE inviting him to breakfast. Ben has an enormously important meeting first thing at work, which is already across town, but he can't resist trying to meet Hannah first... which leads him into the most difficult, unlucky and surprising morning commutes ever seen. Ben dodges the sabotage of Hannah's STALKER EX-BOYFRIEND, crams for his presentation, weaves through HEIGHTENED SECURITY from a PRESIDENTIAL motorcade, and attempts to keep his increasingly beat up car going for just a few more miles...

"This could only happen to me!"

THE OTHER PLACE

EVERYBODY used to say that JENNY's boyfriend STAN was crazy. Everybody was right. In high school it was chalked up to a combination of daredevil and class clown, but when Stan started disappearing for long stretches in college and returning home disoriented and amnesic, Jenny took him in for observation where he was found by DR. GARBRICK to be suffering from the rare disorder known as "dissociative fugue." As Dr. Garbrick tries to cure him, Stan pleads with Jenny to join him in "the other place," where he is a different man named FELIX and she is his wife ALIX and life is so much better. Jenny dismisses his talk as the ramblings of a sick man... until he begins telling her things about Alix that awaken something inside her... something wonderful and terrifying... that she's always known to be true.

"I'm leaving you... for you."

SPROGS

Suburban Ohio newlyweds BRITTANY and JOHN are both 21, semi-employed and nervous as hell about life after their shotgun wedding. The last thing they expected was a visit from their distant Scottish relatives AOIFE and FLANN, who roll into town in a pimped out minivan with their six kids under the age of ten: ANSLEIGH, twins KAMRAN and KELCEY, CONNOR, LUNDY and adopted Indian son HIRESH. When Brittany and John wake up to find a wad of cash and a note from Flann saying "Gone to Las Vegas to sort things out, watch the sprogs (kids) for us 'til we get back," they must deal with massive culture shock and the sudden demented reality of parenting six wild kids.

"Hell is other people's kids."

NEED TO KNOW

NICK "ICE" WEISBERG is the cockiest FBI agent trainee at Quantico... and that's saying something. His uncanny ability to get information out of people... not to mention the always-growing network of personal INFORMANTS who always seem to owe Nick a favor... leads him to bet his beautiful rival ROBIN TISINGER that he can uncover the secret of Area 51 before they graduate. Nick finagles a trip to Nevada, ostensibly to do some "field research" on a cold case involving the disappearance of retired USAF pilot COL. ZISKIN in 1983, the year Nick was born. The more Nick uses the Ziskin case as a cover to try and sneak his way into Area 51, the more he begins to see that Ziskin may be the key to solving the only mystery he's never cracked- the mystery of his true parentage.

"Sorry son, that part of your life is classified."

OBJECTS IN MIRROR

Measuring her ethnic ancestry in 1/64ths, ROSA ROUGE is a 21st century psychic. Believing in her gifts but eager to shed the clichés of crystal ball and tarot cards, Rosa centers her readings around her full length "magic mirror"; she and her CLIENT will both stand in front of the mirror and Rosa will report back to them one object she sees that should be sought, and one object that should be avoided. Soon after Rosa gives a reading to reporter HUMPHREY SIMON and is startled when both his "seek" and "avoid" objects were pieces of her own jewelry, her regular CLIENTS are killed one by one by the very objects she told them to avoid.

"Love and Death are closer than they appear."

THE MINEFIELD

In the distant Nyx galaxy, the thousand year war that raged in the central solar system is finally over and the victorious MUTH TRIBE has set to work cleaning up debris, mines and other remnants of the conflict floating through space. Grizzled veteran pilot FAZ and his team of disappointed CADETS who just missed "the real action" are dispatched to the outermost reaches of the system in a Minesweeper to detonate a minefield laid down by the now-vanquished RONTES TRIBE to disrupt inter-system trade. The routine mission takes an unexpected turn when Faz picks up communications inside the minefield from PILOTS in his squadron that he knows were killed in action and discovers that the minefield is not a barrier to entry, but a sphere protecting a MALEVOLENT PORTAL in the center, a sphere that could reignite war if he's unable to defuse it.

"As usual, we have no room for error."

THE BREAKTHROUGH

Artwork contributed by Somsara at Art Design 3(6)5

You and I would look at JAY CANNON and say that has it all- beautiful wife OKELANI, money, beachfront home in Waikiki- but Jay looks in the mirror and feels nothing at all. For years, Jay's three sessions a week with Jungian psychotherapist SANDRA GUINARD have achieved only the smallest incremental progress, but one day when Sandra asks him about his belief in God Jay leaps up off the couch and joyously proclaims "It's been staring me in the face all this time- I am the second coming of Jesus Christ!" Suddenly Jay is filled with life and positively ebullient- surfing is "walking on water" and he's moved to do selfless good deeds for others, but Okelani, Sandra and his FRIENDS AND FAMILY become even more concerned about his state of mind when he begins obsessing about his destiny... to bring about the End of Days.

"Second coming to a theatre near you."