Feature Film | In Development

LOGLINE

A desperate novelist agrees to live as a human garden gnome in a powerful publisher’s backyard for a book deal, only to discover the arrangement is impossible to escape.

SYNOPSIS

Aspiring novelist Amanda boldly hands her manuscript to renowned publisher Steven, hoping for the break that will launch her career. Instead, he offers her something far stranger: a residency at his secluded estate where artists live as human “garden gnomes,” silently inhabiting the landscape while revising their work under his guidance.

Under the constant watch of Steven and his family, the residency reveals its oppressive nature. His feedback is cryptic, revisions become endless, and breaking even the smallest rule brings humiliating consequences. When Amanda discovers the bizarre, eerily hollow novel written by the gnome who lived there before her, she begins to suspect the residency is designed to keep artists trapped. Digging into the garden’s past, she uncovers a disturbing pattern: the artists who came before her did not simply lose their voice. They disappeared.

Pitch deck and screenplay available upon request.

Contact: barbera.shane@gmail.com