With over 15 years’ combined experience working in the UK and US film industries and teaching screenwriting at the BA and MA level, we have read literally thousands of screenplays and have been involved in every facet and area of screenplay development, from the birth of the idea all the way to the final shooting script. Our expertise comes from working with writers of all backgrounds, levels of experience, tastes and personal philosophies.

We believe that there is more than one method for writing a great screenplay, which is why our straightforward techniques come from our vast experience of the development process. We understand how to work with writers because we know what studios and production companies are looking for and we know how to develop a movie idea that will work in today’s marketplace.

Lisa Neeley
Company Director

Lisa has over 12 years’ experience developing screenplays and working with writers of all skill levels, from first-timers to Emmy and BAFTA winning veterans of the business. She is a graduate of UCLA’s School of Theater, Film & Television, where she received an MFA from the Independent Producers Program and produced Student Academy Award ® winning short film, Stolen Bases.

She has worked in development on both sides of the Atlantic, starting her career in Los Angeles at Warner Bros. and HBO Films, where she was an executive on Peabody Award winning SHOT THROUGH THE HEART and Emmy nominated RKO 281.

Since moving to the UK Lisa served as head of development for Random Harvest Pictures before moving into teaching and has taught screenwriting, development and short film for the past six years at several institutions, including UCLA, Goldsmiths, Leeds Metropolitan University, London Met and Royal Holloway.
Earlier this year she joined the Met Film School, based at Ealing Studios, as Head of Screenwriting. She continues to provide development consulting to London and Los Angeles based production companies, producers and writers. She is a member of BAFTA and lives in Surrey with her husband.

Richard Tindall
Company Director

A Northern Film School graduate and award winning writer, Richard was selected in 2002 by the UK Film Council to join their elite training scheme for new development executives, having already worked as an industry reader and script editor while still a student.

He has since worked alongside top international writers and directors in development at Kuhn & Co (WONDROUS OBLIVION, THE ORDER) and Qwerty Films (I HEART HUCKABEES, ALIEN AUTOPSY, SEVERENCE). He also headed the development department at Arcane Pictures (MILK, DOT THE I) and analysed countless scripts, treatments and novels as an independent consultant.

For the last five years Richard has also taught screenwriting, script assessment and script development on industry training courses, foundation degree courses and at the Skillset accredited MA Screenwriting Program at Leeds Metropolitan University.

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Meet The Rest Of The Team

As part of The Script Connection team we work with a talented group of expert analysts who all have a wealth of industry experience as writers, directors, producers, teachers, trainers and script developers.

Tom Williams

Tom Williams has worked in screenplay development in both Los Angeles and London for over ten years. He was a development executive at Fine Line Features, before moving on to take on freelance reading / script development work for Working Title, Aramid Capital Partners and Screen East. He shot his third short film as writer-director in the autumn of 2008 as part of the UK Film Council's Digital Shorts scheme, and he has two feature screenplays currently under option and in active development. He has developed web-based programming for Pure Grass Films and was recently engaged as a series writer on Channel Five’s logging documentary “Axe Men”. He writes regular articles for the online industry digest www.twelvepoint.com, is an award-winning writer of corporate communications and public sector film scripts, and was one of the winners of the inaugural “Pitch Factor” competition at the International Screenwriters’ Festival in 2006. He has a wife, a daughter and a dog and he lives in Wiltshire.

Pete Daly

Pete Daly has been in the film industry for nearly 15, working as a film publicist both on location and in distribution before becoming a script developer. He reads and develops scripts for a wide range of producers, distirbutors and funding bodies, has written two books and is Editorial Consultant for the yearly "Screenwriter's Hanbook" (published by MacMillan). In addition Pete works as a film consultant for The Times and Sky.

Eddie de Oliveira

Eddie has written two novels published in the US by Scholastic, written and directed four plays at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and has recently completed two short films. Eddie has worked as a freelance journalist for, among others, the Daily Telegraph and Swedish World Service radio. He began as a script reader in the development department of Random Harvest Pictures in 2001. Since then, he has read for the International Screenwriters' Festival and Aria Films, before joining The Script Connection in 2007. In addition to his work as a script analyst, Eddie is an in-house writer at publishing house Egmont and is writing two feature-length screenplays.

Joe Hepworth

Joe Hepworth received a distinction for his screenwriting MA at the Northern Film School and has since received two commissions from Screen Yorkshire as well as completing work for the Eon Screenwriters Workshop. He’s currently finishing work on Let’s Launch Leonard, his second short film as a director. The first, Night Fishing was funded through the UK Film Council and is currently screening at film festivals around the world.

As well as script reading for the Script Connection and Screen Yorkshire, he also produces short films and delivers filmmaking projects for the Leeds Young People’s Film Festival. He also teaches courses in Screenwriting at the Northern Film School and the National Media Museum.

Joe has recently been selected for the Film Council’s prestigious Guiding Lights mentoring scheme which has paired him with screenwriter Frank Cottrell Boyce as a mentor.

Ren Gates

Since graduating from the MA in Screenwriting at Leeds Met in 2007, Ren has dedicated his time to writing feature film scripts, producing short films and teaching English in various countries around the world. He has also worked as a script reader for the Eon Screenwriter’s Workshop and during his studies wrote two short films for The Northern Film School that premiered at the Leeds International Film Festival.

He is very interested in international cinema and universal forms of storytelling, having a passion for psychological thrillers and international horror films and an in depth knowledge of both genres. Ren is also an avid traveller spending much of his time jet-setting to new destinations and frequently visits Italy and Iceland, researching two of his current screenwriting projects that take place there.