The Screenplay: "Backgammon"

A screenplay draft of my short story "Backgammon" – with an open thread of development notes from Remy Bazerque, the project's director-collaborator, and our readers.

The Backgammon screenplay here.

The first of my 100 STORIES series was published in February, 2024. “Backgammon” tells the story of a high school senior who breaks into homes for both illicit thrill and the connection he finds in the private spaces of other people. He ends up in a complex relationship with a fellow classmate that explores intimacy, boundaries, and criminality.

Remy Bazerque, an award-winning filmmaker and fellow substacker approached me about working together to develop the screenplay for a short film of Backgammon.

This project has been particularly interesting to me because of my own background in screenwriting and film.

I was a graduate student in film at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Academy Awards, Golden Globes and over a billion dollars of box-office receipts came emerged from that class of twenty-five. I don’t expect I will be making a dent in the staggering success of my friends and classmates, but even years later, I’m interested in seeing something I’ve written on the sc…