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DIANE LAKE
Screenwriter and Author
 
 
 
 
 

 Works in Development 

RESERVATIONS [2024]

Of the over 600 Native American tribes that existed before the Europeans arrived, only one seems to have disappeared without a single trace—the Anasazi. What happened to them ...?

Reservations imagines an answer to that question as it follows a young PhD archeology student, NICOLE, who is of partial Native American origin, on a dig at Chaco Canyon in 1968. Dealing with the prejudices of her time against women in her field, Nicole wishes it could be different… and then, it IS, when she stumbles through a time portal that takes her back to Chaco Canyon in 1068… and she sees the Anasazi.

She’s hit with two big surprises as she encounters this amazing civilization—1st, they think she’s a god, and 2nd, women rule the tribe! And though the Anasazi are peaceful, there are tribes that are not—so she encounters everything from violence to cannibalism as she explores this lost world.

But the biggest problem? She’s torn between two men—JONATHAN, her boyfriend in 1968 and NIYOL, her obsession in 1068… and when she finds she’s pregnant, and unsure of which man is the father, she has to decide where to raise her child, and where her heart is—today or yesterday? And with violence brewing from a neighboring tribe, will she live long enough to make the choice?

THE GUGGENHEIM TOUCH [2019]

This script, which is currently being packaged, tells the story of PEGGY GUGGENHEIM, 40s, as she flees Paris just before German tanks thunder down the Champs Elysées. Peggy has an eye—for art and for the men who make art, sleeping with over 1,000 men in her lifetime. The Guggenheim Touch follows Peggy as she extricates future husband Max Ernst, and other Jews, from a war-torn Europe on one of the last Pan Am clippers out of Lisbon. Her search for love —and art —then takes her from New York to Venice... is that where she'll find her true passion? Is it possible that passion isn't a man???

PROVIDENCE [2016]

This romantic dramedy is the story of LAURA, 31, who carries a lot of emotional baggage from a car accident 10 years ago that crippled her slightly. She lives in Providence, Rhode Island with her GRAN, 80, who is savvy and no-nonsense. When STEVE, 35, a recently fired shock jock DJ, and his lively son DOUG, 9, come into the house as renters, Laura retreats even more deeply into herself. But it's their presence - and the continued interference of her grandmother - that brings Laura back to life... as the artist, and woman, she was meant to be. And Laura does the same for Steve - helps him to see he's not the crass guy he pretends to be on the radio, but is much deeper. It's funny, sweet and life-affirming when two people - each crippled in different ways - are forced to co-exist. Perhaps it was providence that they met....

ANATOMY FOR IDIOTS [TV PILOT - 2013]

Unlike other medical shows that deal with interns - who are in their 5th year of med school - AFI deals with med students from year one on. It's a rude awakening - because when these 21-year-olds deal with their personal cadaver on day one, it makes it hard to hide from the reality of their own mortality... so they become very serious by day, and very daredevil by night. And for the audience, the secrets of med school are uncovered in ways that will astound them.

Using CSI-like computer generation, AFI goes inside the human body to help tell its stories; and because of its diverse cast of characters, audiences are going to feel the relationship sizzle of a Sex and the City and the dramatic pathos of Mad Men.

GAY FOR A DAY [2012]

An outrageous womanizer laments the fact that women are so all over him he can't even go out to brunch with one and just talk. When a new girl in town mistakenly thinks he's gay, he decides to go with it - she's nice, smart, not his type sexually, so the perfect brunch date. But when he realizes he's falling for her, he can't tell her - because after a bad break up she's paranoid about falling for another guy who lies to her. Caught.

STAND & FIGHT [2012]

Set in the Civil War, this tells the story of two teenage sisters who were spies for the confederacy and a slave from their father's plantation. Based on true events, the story follows the characters through the five years of the Civil War and shows a different war than we've seen before--one seen through the eyes of the young.

TIME WARP [in progress]

Set in the volatile world of physics and string theory, this story focuses on a love triangle and a struggle for supremacy over the rights to an invention that, for one of our three characters, is worth killing for.

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