The second edition of Autumn Stories is set to kick off October 1 at the Abbaye de Royaumont, north of Paris.

The scheme, created by the Franco-American Cultural Funds and the Ile de France Film Commission, invites four American screenwriters to finalise their feature projects over a six-week period.

From October 1 to November 12, the four WGA members meet with industry professionals and visit local sites which may be directly related to the scripts they are developing (the Louvre, Versailles, etc).

The writers will also spend a weekend in late-October at the annual ARP conference which is organised by the French writers-directors-producers association and which will take place for the second year in Dijon.

The four screenwriters selected are:

  • James Greer and his project The Bright Side - Greer recently finished a rock music script about the life of Cleopatra for Steven Soderbergh
  • Howard Himelstein and his script Svengali - Himelstein is also the author of the 2006 film A Good Woman and the upcoming My Sexiest Year starring Harvey Keitel and Frankie Muniz
  • Mystic Pizza writer Randy Howze for his project Just Heloise
  • Mark Wheaton for The Hidjab . Wheaton previously wrote the Sam Raimi-produced The Messengers

Each of the projects has a French element in its story. Both the Ile de France Commission and the Franco-American Cultural Funds will work to see that the films are shot in the Ile de France region upon realisation.

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