“This is an intense crime thriller that at its core is a story about love, tenacity, and different levels of friendship. What carries this film isn’t just the rivalry between Billy and Marsden, but the strength of the three main characters. This is definitely a viable script with noteworthy characters.”
“The Diamondback brings an epic action crime drama with a western tone and vibe. Michael does a stellar job of crafting compelling characters and immersing readers into a fully fleshed out story world and time period of the early 1960s as you’re hooked right from the get-go.”
“The Diamondback has breathtaking images, great action and a second to none premise. There’s a painful beauty that resides on the page - I could feel the heartbreak while being awestruck by the script’s charm. The script is tightly written...I don’t know if I’ve ever gotten so wrapped up and cheered for a bad guy so hard before. The command of the material really showed a lot of talent.”
The Diamondback
Logline: Based on true events, a young Marine veteran with nothing to lose decides to rob a trio of banks with his two best friends, but a tenacious cop makes catching him his personal mission, setting up a collision-course cat-and-mouse game that careens in and out of jail.
Synopsis: January 1963, Phoenix, Arizona. After losing his job, Billy Lee Deckard, an ex-marine skilled in desert survival, decides to rob a few banks in order to buy the California ranch that he and his late wife had always dreamed about. He asks his best friends and fellow ex-marines, Frank and Jeremiah, to help him pull off the jobs. Frank, a plumber with a Napoleon complex, and Jeremiah, a lawn mower who struggles with the racist hardships that Phoenix imposes on him, ultimately accept Billy’s offer.
Following a streak of successful robberies, the gang gets pursued by the police in a high-speed car chase after a robbery goes wrong. While Frank and Jeremiah get away, Arizona Highway Patrolman Pete Marsden chases Billy into the Sonoran Desert. Although Billy outmaneuvers Marsden, he is forced to hide out in the desert, evading hundreds of possemen, search parties, bloodhounds and helicopters. After an impressive twelve-day stint in the desert, Billy turns himself in after a Diamondback Rattlesnake delivers him a deadly bite.
Having become a local anti-hero and earning himself the nickname “The Diamondback,” Billy gets sentenced to twenty-five years in Arizona State Penitentiary - Florence. With an unwavering ambition to escape, Billy schemes an escape plan with Frank, Jeremiah, and dense fellow convict Seamus.
A story of bank robberies, multiple escapes from prison and several famous stints in the desert, The Diamondback is a film about escape - and more importantly, a story that tackles what it means to feel alive.
Accolades:
Semi-Finalist, The Academy Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting 2021 (Top 150 out of 8,191)
Finalist, Screencraft Action & Adventure Screenplay Competition 2021 (Top 50 of 1,300)
Finalist, Miami Screenplay Awards Winter 2021 (Top 10 out of 700)
Coverfly Top 1% (out of 60,000 Screenplays)
Semi-Finalist, Los Angeles International Screenplay Awards Fall 2020 (Top 200 out of 2,000)
Semi-Finalist, Screencraft Fellowship 2021 (Top 400/4,300)
Semi-Finalist, Cinequest Screenwriting Competition 2021 (Top 50)
Semi-Finalist, Scriptation Showcase Script Competition 2021
Semi-Finalist, Atlanta Film Festival 2021 (Top 100 out of 1,000)
Semi-Finalist, SWN Screenwriting Competition 2021
Top 100, Table Read My Screenplay - Genre Script Competition 2021
The Life of riley
Logline: The Life of Riley is a coming-of-age story about a broke Ivy League student whose life is turned upside down after a girl from his hometown informs him that she is pregnant with his child. An aspiring musician in love with another woman, he must decide whether or not he will pursue his dreams or reroute his life for fatherhood.
Synopsis: Pasadena, CA, 1978. Right before dead-broke, Cornell University senior Riley Elliott heads back to school to finish up his final semester, he meets up with Becca, a fling from high school who is pregnant with his child. With his family hanging on by a thread after the death of Riley’s father, Riley promises Becca that he will be there for his child after graduation.
When Riley arrives back to school, he and his fellow bandmates Mikey, Darren and Colin begin performing regularly at Vinny’s, a local collegetown bar. At their first concert, Riley meets Kate, a Cornell senior and bartender at Vinny’s, and the two develop an undeniable spark. During Riley and Mikey’s first day of classes, they meet William, a songwriting professor who happened to have seen their performance. William takes a liking to the two, informing them that he may have a connection in the music industry who can take them to the next level.
As Riley and Kate’s friendship slowly transforms into a fervent relationship, Riley remains in constant communication with Becca and his mother, Susan. Becca, having grown up in foster homes, and Susan, having just lost her husband, form a bond over loss and hardship, in addition to a mutual need for Riley to return to his hometown and provide financial support. At the same time, Riley discovers that Kate will be accepting a job in New York after graduation and that his band might have a legitimate chance at making it in New York where William’s connection lives.
While the end of Riley’s college career creeps up, Riley is dealt an impossible hand - does he tell Kate about Becca? Does he follow the love of his life and his musical aspirations to New York? Does he return home to a job that he loathes and settle with a woman with whom he’s not in love?
Based on the life of Southworth’s father, David, this is a true story about the un-hittable curveballs that life throws us. A story of love, duty, and fatherhood, The Life of Riley is a coming-of-age tale about one of cinema’s least-explored topics - real life.