Click the boxes around "The Beecroft Series"
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Teaser Trailer introduces the magical, mysterious
world of Beecroft Manor in "The Beecroft Series"
(For a backgrounder, click here)


The Beecroft Series


Young Sam can't imagine how much life is about to change after he meets Befany, whose unusual great grandma lives across the street in a senior’s residence called Beecroft Manor.  Sam learns that the monsters of his imagination, that he'd known about previously only from books and films, are very real, and that for an ordinary boy like him to have found out about them may be very dangerous indeed!

(The above is the SERIES premise; for individual PROJECT loglines, view each of the five stories available from the links below)

Young-Adult Dark Fantasy (Rated PG-13; see below)
Five 100 page feature scripts (also formatted as ten 60-minute episodes + full Bible)
Five 3-4 page detailed synopses
$3-8 million budgets, approx. (see Budget Notes, below)
© 2010-2016 written/published (the last few registrations with the copyright office were done in 2022)

These screenplays represent a series of (so far) five campfire-creepy coming-of-age stories in which my pre-adolescent heroes deal with baddies both of the human kind (bullies, dealers and bigots) and paranormal kind (magic, myth and monsters): As if poverty in a tough neighborhood isn’t bad enough!

Set somewhere between “Harry Potter” (kids 'n magic) and “Halloween” (but without the gore), this modestly-budgeted series is suitable for the tweens and up crowd and could generate gigabytes of social media. And, like many stories that feature youngsters as the pivotal characters, you can cast some serious, familiar performers in the adult roles to enhance the appeal to mature audiences.

Dream cast suggestions:  I have already reached out to some of these (and others not listed) or their reps

Leading characters in all parts - Sam, Befany and Davey (all 10 years old for Parts 1-3; 12 years old for Parts 4-5): TBD

 Part 1.  The Hag of Beecroft  (96pp):  Lily ( Glenn Close Willow Hale  or  Vivien Bridson )
 Part 2.  The Vampyre of Beecroft  (104pp):  Mrs. Madison ( Rose Byrne Amy Adams , or  Winona Ryder )
 Part 3.  The Rougarou of Beecroft  (102pp):  Alfred ( Bill Nighy Ian McKellen , or  Morgan Freeman )
 Part 4.  The Boogieman of Beecroft  (98pp):  The Headmaster ( Ron Perlman  or  Tom Noonan )
 Part 5.  The Fortune Teller of Beecroft  (104pp):  Abigale ( Angela Bassett  or  Whoopi Goldberg )

Note: The first 10 pages of each screenplay can be viewed by clicking the large image on the top left of each individual project page

Locations: For parts 1-4, a primary/elementary school, retirement/nursing home, apartment building - all set in a poorer area of town.  In Part 5, Sam and Befany move from adjacent units 205 and 207, in their old apartment building, to separate houses in nicer parts of town.  But they still go to the same school, and they still visit Beecroft Manor as often as they dare!  (Another “location” consideration is that the stories are set in a temperate climate of warm summers and cold snowy winters.)

Production Note: Explanation of the wisdom and virtual necessity of filming Parts 1-3 simultaneously

Budget Notes: Parts 1-3 have been fully costed-out at $16.9 million USD, total, if filmed consecutively (individual budget top sheets available on each project page).  A consolidated budget was prepared, if all three parts were filmed simultaneously, at $15.4 million (top sheet is here; full budget available upon request).  The net total budget necessary for all three parts would be about $10 million after the application of tax incentives of 30-40%.

Screenplay Analysis:  Notable YouTube personality Novum, creator of highly-regarded, indepth analyses of mature-content motion pictures such as The Witch (on IMDB), Midsommar (on IMDB) and Hereditary (on IMDB) has contributed a detailed evaluation of the five scripts for The Beecroft Series.

Ratings Review: PG/PG-13 with a comprehensive report from KIDS FIRST! (which matched in key metrics a summary by the MPAA)
Note:  While it is felt strongly that Beecroft is a fun “kids series with big scares in it”, as opposed to a “scary grown-up series with kids in it”, the stories are inappropriate for very young children. For example, when the little old witch does her witchy thing on the bad guys, it could make some kids wary of their grandmother! As well, some serious issues are exposed obliquely or head-on throughout the stories: Racism, drugs, death, elder/child abuse, etc.

Buy the eBook version of the full 5-part series at  Amazon  or  Kobo


Accolades:

The entire series achieved “Nominee” status (equivalent to “Finalist”) in the Swedish International Film Festival
(submitted April-July), and The Vampyre of Beecroft was declared the overall Winner for July!

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Updated:  Mon, Feb 10, 2025    © 2006-2025