Bike Lane Ends is an original feature film, currently in development. The screenplay has received early praise and recognition:
- Winner, Best Feature Screenplay, Sidewalk Film Festival
- Finalist, Stowe Story Labs Sidewalk Fellowship
- Finalist, ScreenCraft Family Screenplay Competition
- Semifinalist, Atlanta Film Festival Screenplay Competition
- Quarterfinalist, Nashville Film Festival Screenplay Competition
- Top 2% on Coverfly
- Top 5 on the Red List
Logline
Bike Lane Ends is a magical realism family adventure feature about 8-year-old Iris, who is grieving her mother’s death through rule-following and playing it safe. When her adventurous best friend, Tilly, disappears into an alternate dimension, Iris must overcome her fear and embark on a quest to save Tilly, which leads her to discover surprising truths about her mother.
Summary
Everyone loves a good urban legend. The best are simple and impossible to either prove or disprove. The film takes its name from a local urban legend that kids have passed down for generations. If you find the right bike lane and ride it all the way to the end, you’ll disappear in a puff of smoke and find yourself in a magical world with no rules and no parents. But only the bravest can enter.
The last person who would ever want to try is 8 year old Iris Howland, who still rides with training wheels, and thinks this whole thing sounds dangerous and irresponsible. She’s still reeling from the death of her mother several years ago. She wants nothing more than to talk to her mom again, but all she has is an old camcorder with a home movie she’s relived a thousand times. So she deals with her grief through following every rule, and trying her best to keep her loved ones safe. Iris’s biggest challenge is her best friend, Tilly, a wild and reckless free spirit, who’s never met a rule she couldn’t break.
When Iris begins hearing a mysterious voice calling her name, she believes that she’s capable of telepathy. She sees this potential magic gift as nothing more than a great safety tool. So she ropes Tilly into telepathy practice sessions, hoping that it might come in handy the next time Tilly is in a sticky situation.
Soon, Tilly runs off on a dare with the school bully, in search of Bike Lane Ends. They find it, but the bully abandons Tilly, leaving her stuck in an alternate dimension with no way out. She manages to send Iris a telepathic call for help, so now it is up to Iris to overcome her fears, and unravel a mystery to save her best friend.
Along the way, Iris forges some unexpected alliances with the school bully’s accomplice, her angsty older brother, the goofball school librarian, and a mysterious teen who claims to be an expert on Bike Lane Ends. Eventually, a surprise revelation propels Iris to finally do the thing she fears most. The training wheels come off and she pedals head first into Bike Lane Ends.
What she experiences there helps Iris finally process her grief, and see herself for who she truly is – a brave, risk-taking hero who is ready to rescue her best friend, and get back to the real world.
Quirky, heartfelt, and rooted in character, the film hearkens back to classic kids movies like E.T. or Matilda, as well as modern family classics like A Wrinkle in Time or The Mitchells vs. the Machines.
The project is currently in development.
