Spec Screenplays
Projects
Elizabeth Cady Stanton - The First Suffragist
AN ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY BY ARLAINE ROCKEY
The radical tactics of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the intellectual leader of the original women's rights movement, anger young suffragists and frustrate her life partner, Susan B. Anthony.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton was the intellectual and radical force behind the original women's rights movement for over fifty years, but when she published a feminist critique of the Bible in 1895, she was publicly censured for allegedly damaging the cause of suffrage. Based on true events and research drawn from multiple sources, all in the public domain, Elizabeth Cady Stanton - The First Suffragist is a moving, humorous and inspirational biopic about an American hero who improved the lives of millions of women.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton - The First Suffragist is an historical biopic. It made the top 20% in the 2018 Nicholl Fellowship Screenplay Competition and the top 15% in the drama genre in the 2018 and 2016 Austin Film Festival Screenwriting Competitions.
More PRAISE for Elizabeth Cady Stanton - The First Suffragist
Elizabeth Cady Stanton “feels like a character that a leading actress would want to play….”
“Stanton is a great subject for this sort of prestige political biopic; it's the kind of subject matter that gets awards attention, and fortunately there are several great roles for women in the script."
“Even in a radical movement, she was too radical.”
“Susan B. Anthony‘s friendship with Elizabeth leads to some of the best scenes, and the inclusion of Susan B. Anthony's trial for voting illegally is a highlight.”
“Elizabeth Cady Stanton is long overdue for a contemporary and worthy biopic, and this script does her and her noble cause justice, with passion and humanity.”
My Dead BFF
AN ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY BY ARLAINE ROCKEY
Joslyn's dead BFF becomes her worst frenemy when she learns that Joslyn broke the ex-boyfriend rule.
High school outsider, Joslyn, is thrilled when her charismatic BFF's ghost returns with her bedazzled cell app needing help to get into heaven, but Emily, her dead BFF, becomes her worst frenemy when Emily learns that Joslyn has a crush on Emily's grieving boyfriend. This film takes place in the eclectic mountain town of Asheville, North Carolina.
My Dead BFF is a teenage romantic comedy with a twist. It made the second round top 15% in the comedy genre in the 2019 and 2015 Austin Film Festival Screenwriting Competitions.
PRAISE for My Dead BFF
"The comedic writing is superb. The dialogue is brilliant and the attitude wonderfully sardonic. ... [Arlaine Rockey] exhibits an innate sense for mental editing and how cinematic comedy is constructed and works. ... [The character] development is superb. The teenagers read as real people, which is more difficult than it sounds. Emily is a hugely alluring cinematic creation: brash, iconoclastic, sassy, and her transformation is severe. ... My Dead BFF is highly entertaining. ... This is a smart concept with impeccable execution. It is funny throughout and continually entertaining. The characters are alluring, the setting intriguing, and as a writer, [Arlaine Rockey has] a strong voice and fun point of view."
PURRFECT
AN ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY BY ARLAINE ROCKEY
A tiny Maltese and her White Shepherd husband's adoption of two Ragdoll kittens is thwarted by the Panther social worker who thinks it is unnatural and dangerous.
An animated anthropomorphic family dramedy, Purrfect is a fable for the culture wars. Purrfect made the top 15% for comedy in the Austin Film Festival Screenwriting Competition.
PRAISE for Purrfect:
“It’s easy to cheer for the idea that a family can be comprised of anyone and that love for another being doesn’t matter on size, race, or in this case species.”
Madness & Lies
AN ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY BY ARLAINE ROCKEY
A child advocacy lawyer is framed by her wife and daughter for murdering her own son.
Elena, a Southern attorney who works to stop child abuse, is put on trial for her young son's murder after her psycho wife kills him and convinces their teenage daughter to lie to help frame Elena, putting her career, family, and freedom at risk. It is also a coming of age story about this teenage girl, whose biological mother cannot give her what she needs, but who learns to accept the love of Elena, the mother she hates and betrays.
Madness & Lies is a psychological legal thriller. Earlier drafts of this script twice placed in the top 15% in the Nicholl Fellowship Competition.
PRAISE for Madness & Lies
"This is a well-written script that deals with complex ideas and emotions. There's a good sense of place, with evocative descriptions of the rural south locale. It's also nice, in terms of representation in film, to see a film about a lesbian couple in which their sexual preference is an incidental aspect of the plot. All of the discussion about Elena's legal case was surprisingly engaging considering how dry legalese usually is in film. It's an effectively told story that's compelling and emotionally engaging, and it deals with a variety of important topics that would be conducive to creating a discussion around the film."
"[A] cunning, mentally unstable woman trying to frame her partner for a murder she herself committed is a powerful act of betrayal and shocking selfishness. The fact that the two principals are gay feels fresh, as does the contrast of the not-very-gay-friendly small-town North Carolina setting."
"This is a script that isn't scared to confront some tough domestic issues."
STENT
AN ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY BY ARLAINE ROCKEY
Inspired by true events, Stent is an epic thriller in which a daughter fights the world's largest medical conglomerate to prove that her late father was the first inventor of the balloon-expandable heart stent. With a half a billion dollars in royalties at stake, she fights to save her family from financial ruin, grappling with blackmail and corruption, and risking her safety and her family's lives all the way to the Supreme Court.
Stent was inspired by actual events in the screenwriter’s life. Her father, Dr. Arthur G. Rockey, was the pioneer inventor of the balloon-expandable stent.
Ocean Court
A SCREENPLAY adaptation of the novel BY ARLAINE ROCKEY
A Miami law student intern seduces his supervising lawyer, pursuing her while she searches for a murderer, but she doesn't know the killer is in her bed.
Ocean Court is a legal thriller and romance. Read more about the novel Ocean Court here.
"From seductive South Beach in Miami to indulgent Key West, Ocean Court is rich with conflict, danger and courtroom drama."
Ocean Pearl
AN ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY BY ARLAINE ROCKEY
After killing his brother, a young Miami lawyer struggles to forgive his dying father and his prosecutor girlfriend, after her girlish indiscretion with another woman — the star witness in a law professor's trial for killing his wife.
Ocean Pearl is a a legal thriller and romance sequel to Ocean Court.