The Writing of Dead Lines - The Screenplay

Book excerpt: Jack Rowan thought his life was a living Hell. Then he tried dying. Now he'll do anything to get back into the world. Anything. DEAD LINES: THE SCREENPLAY, the adaptation of the bestselling and harrowing book by John Skipp & Craig Spector, is now brought to chilling screen life by Craig Spector & Philip Nutman. With forewords by Spector and Nutman, an afterword by Skipp, and an essay by Spector on converting an idea from small screen to big and print to screen (through two collaborations!) DEAD LINES: THE SCREENPLAY is a must read for anyone who loves movies, books, and the magic of the written word. So turn the lights off and let the screen glow. This is digital reading for the movie in your mind. Meet young struggling writer, Jack Rowan. His career never took off. His life is in the toilet. His girlfriend dumped him. He's crashing on the couch of his successful photographer friend. Jack finishes his book — a collection of short stories titled NIGHTMARE NYC. Boxes it up and hides it in a crawlspace. Then climbs a ladder in the living room, puts the rope around his neck, takes one long last swig off a bottle of vodka. Looks at a photo in his hand: of himself, and his ex. Says: look what you made me do. Jack steps off the ladder. And into oblivion. Months later. Two girls -- Meryl, Boston Back Bay bred and trying to escape her overbearing father; and Katie, a waitress from Nowhere, Texas -- become unlikely roommates. Then start to become friends. One night Meryl finds the box containing Jack’s lost manuscript. She becomes intrigued with her ‘mystery writer' and his dark, brooding, moody vision of the city. As Meryl reads and slowly falls in love, stange things begin happening in the apartment, and her dreams. Jack's back, but he's dead. He needs a body. He decides, Meryl's will do. If she will let him in....