Richard Michaels Stefanik
RMS Productions Company
Richard works with new writers to develop their original stories into high concept screenplays. He was a Screenwriting Fellow at the American Film Institute, where he wrote, directed and produced a dramatic movie, Michael & Christina. He is also Producer-Director of the comedy movie, Henry Dodd, broadcast on Cable-TV and released on DVD in 2004. His second romantic comedy as Producer-Director, Once in a Blue Moon, is now in pre-production and will be released in 2007. Richard worked at several
Richard is the author of Structures of Fantasy, a screenwriting book
that analyzed the dramatic and comic elements found in popular movies. This
book has been chosen by the Writers Guild of America (WGA) Mentors Program
for inclusion in its list of recommended screenwriting books and is described
as "one of the best books on story structure." A revised and expanded
edition of this book has been published as The Megahit Movies. The
French translation of this book was published in
Richard has taught Story Design and Screenwriting Seminars in
cities throughout the world, including
Richard lectured about story structure at Sherwood Oaks Meeting with Major Film Executives Workshop in Hollywood and at Sony Studios January 12-16, 2004. He conducted a Story Design class in New York City at the Scr(i)pt Magazine PitchXchange at NYU on June 5, 2004. He also spoke at the Sherwood Oaks Meeting with Producers and Development Executives at Universal Studios on June 28, 2004 and at Paramount Studios on November 9, 2004.
The Megahit Movies Hollywood Story Design Workshop™ was held in San Francisco on September 18, 2004 and in Orlando, Florida on February 19, 2005 and in Hollywood on September 10-12, 2005. Richard's last seminar was on May 9-10, 2006 in Oxford, England at the Oxford International Festival of Films. In May 2006 Richard was elected the Executive Chairperson (2006-2007) of the International Monetatry Fund Family Association (IMFFA) in Washington, DC. He last spoke at The Great American PitchFest in Hollywood on June 22, 2008.
RMS
Productions Company Movies in Development
Morpheus Phoenix: Master of the Universes"Wall Street meets The Twilight Zone"
Morpheus Phoenix narrates a series of stories about characters on Wall Street during the Global Financial Panic of 2008.
Screenplay by Richard Michaels Stefanik.
Morpheus Phoenix: The Child Harmony
"Q of the Continuumn does Quantum Leaps in Oxford"
A magical fantasy about Morpheus Phoenix, the ownerof a used bookstore in
DonQuixoteHolyGrail!
"Don Quixote meets Monty Python's Holy Grail"
A zany comedy about the last two years of the life of Cervantes
as he writes the second part of his novel, Don Quixote,
after learning that another author had published an unauthorized sequel using his Don Quixote character.
Screenplay by Richard Michaels Stefanik.
Elixir
"The Princess Bride meets Return of the King"
A sword and sorcerer fantasy set in the time of Elizabethan England, where a group of witches, alchemists and magicians pursue the "elixir of life", that potion which can transform a person into whatever they dream to become.
Novel and Screenplay by Richard Michaels Stefanik.
Entanglements
"The Fugitive meets Minority Report"
A SciFi Thriller set in 2024 about a man who creates a Quantum Computer that
can break any security code in the world, but then is framed for murder by the
greedy CEO of his corporation. He tries to prove his innocence and get back to
the woman he loves, but is relentlessly pursued by Federal Agents and a Crime
Syndicate that wants the security code-breaking computer.
Novel and Screenplay by Richard Michaels Stefanik & Glen Underwood.
Double or Nothing:
"Get Shorty in Las Vegas"
A comedy about a loser who tries to run away from his life by buying a new
identity, only to find that the Mob, the FBI, and a widow are now after him
because he bought the identity of a mafia hit man that became an FBI informant.
Screenplay by Richard Michaels Stefanik & Michael Herst.
Once in a Blue Moon
"Ruthless People in a MidWinter Night's Dream"
During the Christmas Season, a feisty young woman fights the effects of a "love
potion" while trying to save her Toy Store from being taken over by a
sinister competitor. Novel and Screenplay by Maria Iacuele.
Monte Carlo
"Cinderella-Thriller in Monaco"
A young American woman discovers that she is the heir to a vast fortune in Monte Carlo,
but then must struggle against a wicked step-sister who wants to keep the estate for herself.
Novel and Screenplay by Linda C. Wright.
Borges: The Aleph & Labyrinths
"Big Fish meets A Beautiful Mind"
A dramatization of the life of the metaphysical magical realism writer Jorge Luis Borges.
Screenplay by Richard Michaels Stefanik.
Richard
Michaels Stefanik: Spec Screenplays
Mark Twain & The Mysterious Stranger: "Mark Twain meets
Satan"
Mark Twain, when faced with bankruptcy and the death of his wife and two
daughters in the declining last years of his life, turned to the problem of
eternal evil, and wrote The Mysterious Stranger, the story of Angel #
44, a being of supreme intelligence who has no compassion for mankind.
K : "Lost in Cyberspace"
K is a developer of virtual reality 3-dimensional interactive literary games that are played in cyberspace. His project is to digitize and create the interactive games for Kafka's The Castle and The Trial, Cervantes' Don Quixote, Voltaire's Candide and Dante's Divine Comedy. The characters in these stories are represented as computer programs, intelligent cyber agents, who can interact with a player and create new storylines based on the player's suggestions. One night during an electrical storm, while he is working at his computer and simultaneously practicing his yoga meditation exercises that enable him to focus his consciousness to different parts of his body, K gets struck by lightning. The shock transforms K into a digital cyberspace being who must now discover a way to get back to his natural body before it dies from the damage caused by the electrical shock. In cyberspace K meets 3-dimensional digital manifestations of the literary characters with whom he has been working, and becomes involved in their world-stories. K encounters Cervantes' Don Quixote with Sancho Panza, and Voltaire's Candide with Dr. Pangloss. Together they journey through the landscape of Dante's
Divine Comedy. Lost in this technological maze of moral confusions, K attempts to navigate his way through this matrix of networks, and find his way back home...
Master of Ballantrae: "The Mask of Zorro in Scotland"
This adaptation of the novel by Robert Louis Stevenson is about a family
divided by the Scottish War against England in 1745. The story centers on the
fatal rivalry between two brothers for a wealthy and beautiful woman, who loves
one brother but marries the other. An ideal project for Ridley Scott with great
roles for Russell Crowe and Sean Connery.
Dostoevsky's Notes from Underground: "Dostoevsky's Existential
Man"
A tragi-comic story of a spiteful man whose obsession with intelligence and
freedom destroys his last chance for love.
RMS
Productions Company: Spec Screenplays
Magee Rowland
The Wreck of the Lucky Bastard:"What Women Want meets Road to
Perdition"
A writer of romance novels must make his heroic fantasies come true when he
meets a beautiful woman who loves his novels, but hates the man who wrote them.
Magee Rowland
Running on Fumes:"Liar, Liar meets What Women Want"
A comedy about a sexually-repressed woman who has a magical spell placed on her that forces her to tell men exactly what they really want to hear. She then uses this ability in hilarious situations to save the man she loves from an unscrupulous tycoon.
Magee Rowland
Trash Knight: "Kingpin meets Conspiracy Theory"
Joe, a Forrest Gump type of guy on a really off-day and Tiny, the local
paranoid Federal Conspiracy Theorist, take on the County Garbage Mogul in order
to save the Fair Maiden (who has a really bad phony French accent) and to rule
the Kingdom of Landfills. Yet love, truth and justice does finally prevail.
Robin Tripp
The Man I Love: "Pygmalion meets The Frog Prince"
A Small Town Girl finds the winning ticket in her 500th twinkie and gets to kiss a Big Time
Hollywood Movie Star.
Mark Matusof & Al Carpenter
Green Onions: "Punchline meets The Usual Suspects"
A dark comedy about a mysterious murder in a Standup Comedy nightclub.
William Hyland Jr.
Deadline: "Gaslight meets Fall of the House of Usher"
To receive her inheritance, the daughter of a mysterious magician must overcome
her fear and spend three nights in her father's sinister mansion, where he has
vowed to return from the grave.
Glen Underwood
Alien Gauntlet: "Road Warrior on the Red Planet"
Two rogues trying to deliver a genetically designed killer beast to a Martian
outpost must fight their way through murderous outlaws.
Terri Templeman
Caspian Connection: "Three Days of the Condor meets The
Peacemaker"
A chance reunion with an old love who has designed a secret deadly virus forces
a young female professor into an intrigue where she is pursued by both
government agents and bio-terrorists.
Ken Rock
Where There's A Will: "Pink Panther meets What's New Pussycat"
An inept English Private Detective wreaks havoc on a lovers' rendezvous at a Wales countryside hotel.
Peter DeNucci
Into the Heavens: "Top Gun meets Islamic Jihad"
A U.S. Team attempts to create an airplane that does not run on gasoline in
order to help free the
U.S. dependence on Mideast Oil, and are attacked by terrorists who want the
project destroyed.
Maria Iacuele
Outta Wack: "Punchline meets 9-to-5"
A chiropractor in a mid-life crisis hangs out at a Comedy Club to escapefrom an
overbearing wife and an abusive
father-in-law finds true love with a cocktail waitress.
Dan O'Connell
Even Money: "The Hustler plays Blackjack in Las Vegas"
A stand-up comic wins love and $5 million in the town that never sleeps.
Sharon Baker
Islandia: "Jungle Book meets Ice Age" A lost boy journeys
with a band of friendly animals in search of a land without fear.
Gloria Barltrop
The Beastie Game: "Female Harry Potter meets Jumanji"
A young witch uses magic to create a computer game, but instead accidentally
releases monsters
from another dimension into her world.
Glen Underwood
Secrets of the Crystal Skull: "MI2 meets Armageddon"
A Hi-Tech Secret Agent uses psychics and ancient Mayan secrets to save the
world from destruction.
Linda Byrne
Perfect Child: "Sharon Stone wants to be Cloned"
The perfect woman plans to clone the perfect child without or with the perfect
man.
Great roles for Sharon Stone and George Clooney.
Maria Iacuele and Carol Zoernack
The Amulet: "Ghost meets Sixth Sense"
The spirit of a murdered detective uses the powers of an amulet to seek revenge
on those he believes destroyed his life.
Joe Blackerby and Grant Smith
Golem: "Terminator 2 meets Aliens"
Morphing AI cyborgs merge with an Alien lifeform and start to devour the human
race.
Kevin Knopf
The Last Warrior Khan: "Mulan meets Conan the Barbarian"
A young woman inherits the invincible sword of the warrior Khan and saves her
homeland from barbarian invaders.
Terri Templeman
Zorinski's Empire: "The Terminator meets The Empire Strikes
Back"
Two survivors of a massacre fight to destroy the forces of an evil empire.
Gloria Barltrop
The Dragon Legacy: "Female Harry Potter morphs into Buffy the
Vampire Slayer"
A young girl fights evil spirits for the deed to a house that will enable her
family to return home.
Gloria Barltrop
The Orb of Ohmahtahrah: "Female Harry Potter morphs into Buffy the
Vampire Slayer--Part 2"
In this sequel to The Dragon Legacy the heroine saves a young girl from being
sacrificed to a magical beast
Carol Zoernack
Deja Karma: "A Crouching Tiger meets an Evil General in Burma"
A young woman fights to save the lost baby of the King of Burma from the
clutches of a sadistic General
David Mason
Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend: "Bird Cage meets Dirty Rotten
Scoundrels"
An inept San Francisco jewel thief and con man gets conned..again...and again!
Great role for Steve Martin.
Norman Mark
The Great Panty Raid:"Porkies meets Bachelor Party"
A comedy set in the 1950s about lusty college men who launch the biggest panty raid in history.
Dan O'Connell
San Agustin's Relic: "Raiders of the Lost Ark in the Florida
Keys"
Criminals search for a powerful supernatural relic in a sunken treasure ship
off the Florida Keys.
RMS
Productions Company Movies now available on DVD
Henry Dodd Meets Real Men: A comedy about an inept nerd who rises to the top of the heap of the "real men" of TV commercials.The high concept for this movie is "Forrest Gump meets Death to Smoochy". Directed by Richard Michaels Stefanik. Produced by Richard Michaels Stefanik and Gloria Barltrop. Screenplay by Richard Michaels Stefanik, Robin Tripp, David Mason, and Magee Rowland. To be released on DVDs September, 2004.
RMS Story
Design and Screenwriting Workshops Schedule 2004-2006
The Writer's Channel Chat Room -- Story Structures in Lord
of the Rings: Return of the King
January 5, 2004 -- sponsored by The Writer's Channel at
www.WritersChannel.net
Sherwood Oaks -- Meeting with Major Film Executives Workshop
January 12-16, 2004 -- sponsored by Sherwood Oaks Experimental College, Hollywood
The Writer's Channel Chat Room -- OSCARS 2004: The Winners Are...!
March 1, 2004 -- sponsored by The Writer's Channel at
www.WritersChannel.net
The Writer's Channel Chat Room -- Story Structures in SHREK
May 3, 2004 -- sponsored by The Writer's Channel at
www.WritersChannel.net
NYC PitchXchange at NYU
June 4-5, 2004 -- sponsored by Scr(i)pt Magazine at NYU in
New York City
The Writer's Channel Chat Room --Story Structures in SHREK 2
June 7, 2004 -- sponsored by The Writer's Channel at
www.WritersChannel.net
Sherwood Oaks -- A Day at Universal Studios with Producers and Development Executives
June 28, 2004 -- sponsored by Sherwood Oaks Experimental College, Hollywood
The Writer's Channel Chat Room --Story Structures in HARRY POTTER: PRISONER OF AZKABAN
July 12, 2004 -- sponsored by The Writer's Channel at
www.WritersChannel.net
The Writer's Channel Chat Room --Story Structures in SPIDER-MAN 2
August 2, 2004 -- sponsored by The Writer's Channel at
www.WritersChannel.net
The Megahit Movies Hollywood Story Design Workshop™
September 18, 2004 -- sponsored by RMS Productions Company in San Francisco
LA Screenwriting Expo 3
November 5-7, 2004 - sponsored by Creative Screenwriting Magazine
in Los Angeles
Sherwood Oaks -- A Day at Paramount Studios with Producers and Development Executives
November 9, 2004 -- sponsored by Sherwood Oaks Experimental College, Hollywood
The Megahit Movies Hollywood Story Design Workshop™ &
Scr(i)pt Magazine PitchXchange™
February 19, 2005 -- sponsored by RMS Productions Company in Orlando, Florida
The Megahit Movies Hollywood Story Design Workshop™
September 10-12, 2005 -- sponsored by RMS Productions Company at Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel.
LA Screenwriting Expo 4
November 11-13, 2004 - sponsored by Creative Screenwriting Magazine
in Los Angeles
Oxford International Festival of Films
May 9-10, 2006 -- sponsored by RMS Productions Company in Oxford, England.
LA Screenwriting Expo 6
October 23-28, 2007 - sponsored by Creative Screenwriting Magazine
in Los Angeles
Sherwood Oaks Access to Hollywood Weekend
February 8-10, 2008 - sponsored by Sherwood Oaks Experimental College
in Los Angeles
The Great American PitchFest
June 20-22, 2008 in Hollywood
RMS Productions Company
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