Screenplays
Writing screenplays and creating story concepts allow me to write for myself. Tangleheart is a draft I finished. It’s the first in a 3-part series.
The others are in development. Movie posters are courtesy of AI.
Screen-writing
Tangleheart
Screenplay by Alyssa Hagen
When two sisters are forced back home for the summer to rescue their beloved but failing family dairy, they find themselves confronting more than financial trouble. Their father refuses to face the abandonment by his wife, and a rogue farmhand’s substance abuse threatens what little stability remains. To save the farm, and themselves, they must decide what truly matters, both together and apart, as they rebuild the foundation for the rest of their lives.
This isn’t Grandpa’s farm anymore. With technology and globalization reshaping rural life, American farmers are constantly recalibrating to preserve their way of living without losing authenticity.
A love letter to Washington State, Tangleheart showcases the region’s natural beauty, from Eastern Washington’s wide plains, across the mountain passes, through the Snohomish Valley, and into Seattle, capturing the tension between tradition and transformation in a changing world.
Four Lives, One Moon
Screenplay by Alyssa Hagen
As four generations of women move through the thresholds of girlhood, adulthood, aging, and late‑life expansion, each finds herself confronting a bodily change she does not fully understand.
Lila hides her first period out of general annoyance and resistance, Maya battles the chaos of perimenopause, Rose searches for identity in the stillness of post‑menopause, and Ada embraces aging as a widening horizon.
Their lives begin to shift as an inexplicable pull draws them toward Ada’s desert home, where she is preparing to marry again. Years of cultural discomfort and generational secrecy have left each woman feeling alone in her experience, yet the journey brings them face to face with one another’s fears, frustrations, and hopes. What begins as an awkward reunion becomes a rediscovery of lineage as they realize that the changes they carry in their bodies are not isolating events but shared passages.
Four Moons is a story about connection, inheritance, and the power of naming what was once kept in the dark.
Working Retirement
Screenplay by Alyssa Hagen
Three forty‑something women, Stacy, Carly, and Alex, are jolted out of their carefully curated lives when a major Seattle earthquake shakes loose much more than drywall.
In three sharply drawn opening vignettes, we meet them exactly as they are: Stacy, the wellness‑obsessed empath who forgets to put clothes on; Carly, the hyper‑ competent former college athlete managing a smart home and a small child; and Alex, the anxious tech worker buried under quilts, chickens, and Pinterest affirmations.
They are wildly different, yet bound by decades of friendship and the shared exhaustion of being Gen X women who have weathered 9/11, the 2008 crash, COVID, and now a massive quake within the Cascadia Subduction Zone, on the enormous fault line stretching from Canada to California that scientists warned would seriously rock the entire West Coast.
Months after the natural disaster, over wine and self‑deprecating commentary about Gen Z’s effortless cool, the women take stock of the disasters that shaped their generation.
What begins as a joke about starting the commune they dreamed about in their twenties becomes real when Stacy pulls up a listing for the perfect plot of land. A half‑serious idea becomes a full leap into their own utopia.
As they buy, build, and attempt to inhabit their dream community, the people in their orbit complicate and enrich every step.
Carly’s husband Jake quietly constructs half the commune without anyone noticing. Alex’s husband Brad is focused only on salvaging what’s left of his garage full of seemingly identical classic cars. Stacy floats through life with a drink in hand and a rotating cast of admirers.
Kids, parents, careers, farm animals, and wannabe-commune dwellers collide in a chaotic, comedic ecosystem where everyone is trying, sometimes badly, to grow.
Working Retirement is a comedy about middle age, friendship, and the myth of the perfect life. The women catch fleeting glimpses of the paradise they imagined, only to realize that utopia is not a place you build. It’s in the rare, shimmering moments when we feel seen, supported, and understood. Like the commune, families, and themselves, everything is a work in progress.
Tangleheart Crush
Screenplay by Alyssa Hagen
Four years after sisters Marielle and Violet transformed half their struggling family dairy into a vineyard, harvest season has finally arrived. Their first crop of grapes promises just enough wine to age until next year, but a looming winter storm and pressure from a commercial real‑estate developer threaten everything they’ve built.
As they fight to protect their land, they face impossible choices: take the money and run, or find the resources to preserve their legacy. Their father’s new position on the city council complicates matters further; his decisions could either save the farm or destroy it.
Between friendship, love, loyalty, and conflicting visions for the future, the sisters must navigate a community divided between nostalgia for “the good old days” and younger families desperate for affordable housing. As Violet graduates from college, this harvest might be her chance to break free on her own terms, or stand together.
Generation Gamma, 2057
Screenplay by Alyssa Hagen
Staggering under the weight of centuries of environmental damage, a mother and daughter set out on a daring, multi‑generational mission to restore Earth to its natural balance. Their work begins with low‑tech tools and grassroots organizing, but the true turning point comes from a growing recognition that human consciousness holds capacities far deeper than society has ever acknowledged.
Their mission unfolds in the shadow of disinformation campaigns, political resistance, and powerful institutions determined to maintain the status quo. While identifying the planet’s most urgent threats, they discover a global network of unconventional ambassadors whose perceptiveness and inner resonance make them uniquely equipped to guide the movement.
Told across the present day and the year 2057, two generations into the future, Generation Gamma explores the intersection of science, intuition, and collective will. It is a story about legacy, the power of human connection, and the possibility that the key to saving the planet has been within us all along, waiting for someone brave enough to trust it.
Tangleheart: In the Mix
Screenplay by Alyssa Hagen
Marielle is deep into vet school, splitting her time between classes and working alongside the semi‑retired local veterinarian. As she steps further into adulthood, the past begins to surface in unexpected ways. Her father finally opens up about how he met her mother, his years in the military, the early days of their marriage. What they once thought was a happy lullaby now carries a different weight. With age and experience, perspective shifts.
When a widowed neighbor becomes a steady presence in the sisters’ lives. she reminds them that it’s okay to remember their mother as doting and loving.
With the vineyard and dairy now thriving under Violet’s management, Marielle pursue an opportunity to study traditional cattle work in South America, coincidentally, where she believes her mother may be.
Just Enough Esquire
Screenplay by Alyssa Hagen
Jamie has mastered the art of efficiency everywhere except at home. As a self‑employed attorney, they finish a full day’s workload in a few focused hours, then spend the remaining stretch before school pickup indulging in their favorite mystery novels on a velvet office couch. Coffee runs, stock‑market check‑ins, and plant‑store detours make the afternoons feel almost like a secret life. But the moment Jamie walks through the front door, that calm dissolves.
Home used to be a cozy rambler, but everything changed when Grandma swept in with her inheritance. From that moment on, the household became a stage for Grandma’s opinions, the spouse’s people‑pleasing, and the kids’ rising entitlement resulting in a forbidden gift, tipping the family dynamic off‑kilter.
All summer, Jamie channels their love of mysteries into a bold experiment with a sprawling game of clues, traps, coded messages, and staged encounters meant to jolt the household out of its entitlement spiral.
Just Enough Esquire becomes a story about boundaries, priorities, and how a little mystery can disrupt a family enough to shine a light on what truly matters.