Colleen Shannon

2023 Film Award Winner

Michelangelo and Me

Background

Published romance novelist Colleen Shannon began writing fiction when she was eight years old. At the age of 26, she sold her first novel herself to Putnam Berkley. It was a Waldenbooks general fiction list bestseller and garnered her a Romantic Times nomination for Best New Historical Romance Author. She’s since published another 17 novels and won numerous awards. She has well over a million books in print. She’s been reviewed by Publisher’s Weekly and The New York Daily News. She studied at UCLA’s Advanced Professional Screenwriting program and was a semi-finalist in the Carl Sautter Fellowship screenwriting contest. She’s authored 10 scripts to date. Her recent romantic suspense series on modern Texas Rangers requested by Kensington Books began as her original script Foster Justice written while at UCLA.

Script List:

MICHELANGELO AND ME — BASED ON MY NOVEL HEAVEN’S ROGUE Fantasy Xmas Action Romance. Passionate NYC art historian Honor has been in love with the David since childhood. But when she wishes him into being, her ideal man is really Dom, a failed Italian mercenary tasked to become in the modern world the leader he failed to be in the Renaissance. He has one week to free the city’s statues to help him save Michelangelo’s art from forgers, or God, come to life in the Sistine Chapel, will turn him back to stone forever.

FOSTER JUSTICE – ORIGINAL SCRIPT, NOW SERIES BY KENSINGTON Action romance. A tough Texas Ranger arrives in sin city (L.A.) to track down the red-haired floozy he blames for his brother’s death. But he didn’t count on falling in love with her.

FULL CIRCLE- ORIGINAL SCRIPT Comic thriller. Cryptologist Alfred Hitchcock lookalike is stuck in one of his own diabolically clever plots. Only his dilettante Cary Grant-like nephew can rescue him from foes out to steal the world’s first totally unbreakable computer cryptology key.

TIME WILL TELL— BASED ON MY OWN COMPLETE NOVEL Time travel action. A pacifist physicist must travel to 1878 to stop a skinhead from assassinating Martin Luther King Jr.’s Buffalo Soldier ancestor.

MAJORITY RULE- ORIGINAL SCRIPT Action thriller. An estranged father-daughter team of Secret Service agents are the only ones who can stop a U.S. government takeover so well planned that assassination isn't necessary. But first they have to put aside their bitterness and work together–or die alone.

WGA Registered

Plug Nickel Blues:

Please note: this entire treatment is deliberately written in over the top Texas parlance. Rita is the town sheriff of San Saba county facing yet another election. But this time, her competition is stiff– :the long lost son of one of the town’s most wealthy, respected citizens comes back home with his lovely British cowgirl girlfriend on his arm. Rita’s gettin’ old and while the whole county is grateful to her for keepin’ the peace all these years it’s about time she was put out to pasture. Between the election and old man Carruthers, the biggest rancher in the county and the sole heir, rumored anyway, of a cache of gold coins buried by his grandpappy somewhere on his ranch, there’s plenty going on to keep lips flappin’ and bulldozers diggin’ all over the Carruthers ranch. Only problem is, the IRS has heard the rumors too. And then, miracle of miracles, another beloved son comes home: Sam, the best quarterback ever for San Saba high school, is back in town. He just retired and as a Dallas CPA he wants to help his daddy’s old friend Carruthers out of trouble. Only problem is, he and Rita were sweethearts in high school and when he left her for the prom queen she went on the rebound and got knocked up by the first guy who bought her a malt and a cheeseburger and then ran off to a big city, leaving her as a single mother whose only job was dispatch at the Sheriff’s office. After many years of working her way up, in the biggest election battle of her life, she doesn’t exactly cotton to Sam coming back from the big city trying to weasel in on the gold with his old friend Carruthers. Thing is, there’s plans going on, several of ’em, all mixed up with the election, the gold and a forgotten spark between two old foxes with snow on the rooftop but plenty of fire left in the gullet.

Click Here to learn more about this extremely rare nickel.

Since the first question a writer is asked is where I get my ideas I decided to include my own little salute to some of the films that turned me into a screenwriter. I wrote my first short story at eight and began a novel at 13 riding on the bus. At fifteen I was reading books like Atlas Shrugged and To Kill a Mockingbird. So stories have been a big part of my life as long as I can remember. I always loved film, too. I was raised by my grandmother and she was the first person to introduce me to many of the films on the first list. I truly believe these films will long outlive me and anyone reading this list because they speak to the human experience in unforgettable ways. The second list I’d call Modern Classics, to me at least as I can watch them over and over.

Not in any particular order

Original Classics:

1. CASABLANCA 1942
2. IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT 1936
3. NORTH BY NORTHWEST 1959
4. REAR WINDOW 1954
5. NOTORIOUS 1946
6. PILLOW TALK 1959
7. GIANT 1956
8. CHARADE 1963
9. GUESS WHO’S COMING TO DINNER 1967
10. MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON 1939

It’s no accident all these films have strong romances and flawed but likeable characters in challenging situations. But hey, I’m a romance novelist.

Modern Classics:

1. THE SHAPE OF WATER 2017
2. THE GREEN BOOK 2018
3. THE IMITATION GAME
4. PRETTY WOMAN 1990
5. QUIGLEY DOWN UNDER 1990
6. JURASSIC PARK 1993
7. THE GHOST AND THE DARKNESS 1996
8. GLADIATOR 2000
9. LA CONFIDENTIAL 1997
10. GIFTED 2017

There are many others but for anyone who loves stories as I do if you haven’t seen some of the lesser known films on this list I recommend them. They all did for me what I attempt at least, to do for my readers: make ’em laugh, make ’em cry and make ’em think.