BIO
Joel Franke is a screenwriter based in the Greater Philadelphia area interested in telling (and retelling) stories from the past with resonance and relevance to the present. He is also a children’s book author and board game designer.
PROJECTS
ESCAPAR (2022)
Short, Drama, 7 Pages
LOGLINE: The lead suspect in a tragic hit-and-run tries to run out the clock as the lead investigator of the crime closes in on the uncomfortable truth.
Full script
RUFFIANS AND ROGUES (2021)
TV Pilot, Western, 61 pages
SERIES DESCRIPTION: Ruffians and Rogues is an hour-long western serial that follows the initiation and evolution of a drifter into the rank-and-file of the Pinkerton National Detective Agency. Each episode centers around a case or job for which the Pinkerton’s services have been contracted and explores the central character’s journey to not only resolve the central questions of the cases but reconcile his traumatic past and worldview with the things he feels compelled to do in the service of the job.
Pilot Series Vision TeaserTHE FINAL FEAST (2020)
Feature, Historical, 104 Pages
LOGLINE: A reporter on long-term assignment in Peking (Beijing) fights for life and love amid a violent, impassioned peasant uprising that escalates into a full-blown war of nations and leaves a wake of death and consequence for the Chinese people and the seconded western diplomats and missionaries who have come to call Peking home.
Full script
HOLLAND’S HOLD (2020)
Short, Historical, 12 Pages
LOGLINE: In the wake of the failed Market Garden operation, a wounded American GI forms an inextricable bond with the German medic who saved his life.
Full scriptContact
Available for writing projects, conducting live/remote writing group workshops (Character Voice, Adapting True Stories, etc.), or script notes.