Visalia resident Alan Sproles and his Oregon-based writing partner Lizanne Southgate are one of the 12 finalists for the fifth annual Kairos Prizes for Spiritually Uplifting Screenplays.
The award honors first-time and beginning screenwriters. The top three scripts win $25,000, $15,000 and $10,000 and will be sent to executives at The Walt Disney Co., Sony, Warner Bros., and 20th Century Fox.
Sproles and Southgate are now waiting to see if their work, "The Translator," will be one of the top three scripts honored Tuesday at the Movieguide Faith & Values Awards Gala.
Sproles started writing the script 11 years ago after visiting the Huntington Library in Pasadena.
"They had an exhibition about William Tyndale that intrigued me," Sproles says. "It'll be a magnificent story if it gets to the screen."
Tyndale was burned at the stake in 1536 after he translated the Bible into early modern English. Eventually his work became part of the King James version of the Bible. Sproles sat on the story idea for a few years while looking for someone to help him write the period film.
A dentist, Sproles moved from Los Angeles to Visalia in 1978 to do root canals and implants. He says a lot of dentists have hobbies that are creative outlets.
He connected with Southgate through a Web page for writers. They have since written a dozen scripts, including a musical.
The Kairos Prize is designed to promote moral and spiritual values in film and television by inspiring novice screenwriters to produce scripts that are compelling, entertaining and spiritually uplifting.
Sproles compares winning the writing competition to hitting the lottery.
"You instantly are a big thing in Hollywood," Sproles says.
The other finalists for the Kairos Prize are:
"Amaya," Iñigo Puente Bustindui.
"Amazing Grace," Jason Ryan Saylor.
"Esther: A Night of Destiny," Douglas King.
"Habit Forming," Heather Hughes and Kate Wharton.
"Lion of the North," Johnny Davis.
"Pretty Like a Book," Donna Murray.
"Reading, PA," Sarah Brockman.
"The Good Doctor," Dwight Carlson.
"The Meaning of Micah," Amy Luciano.
"The Measure of a Man," Robert A. Johnson.
"The Shoe Box," Sherry Cook.
TV and movie critic Rick Bentley can be reached at rbentley@fresnobee.com or (559) 441-6355. Read his blog at fresnobeehive.com.
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