Pitch us a movie and win an invite to our writing room


No game: Benedict Cumberbatch stars as Alan Turing (Image: Rex Features)


Send us an elevator pitch and you could find yourself developing your best screenplay idea in the company of a hand-picked crew of writing professionals


SCIENCE has been swallowing the film world of late. No sooner did Alfonso CuarĂ³n's 2013 thriller Gravity strip space flight back to its heroic basics, than the British Film Institute launched a major national celebration of science fiction, Sci-Fi: Days of Fear and Wonder , reminding us of the genre's manifold possibilities and styles. And 2014 ends with the release of two films, that each take a wildly different approach to scientific storytelling. Interstellar's myth of the near futureMovie Camera puts our current climate challenges into cosmic context, while The Imitation Game is an intimate and gripping portrait, based in truth, of a remarkable mathematical mind.


Now it's your turn. Whether you want to explore the world through fantastical thought experiments or delve into the day-to-day business of real science, we're offering you the chance to develop your best screenplay idea in the company of a hand-picked crew of writing professionals.



Send us an "elevator pitch" – describing your film idea in no more than 250 words. Multi-award-winning science fiction writer Kim Stanley Robinson will pick the six best entries we receive by Wednesday 14 January 2015.


Five runners-up will win Flicker: Your brain on movies , an insightful new book in which psychologist Jeffrey Zacks describes what happens in your brain when the lights go out in the cinema and the movie begins.


Our first prize is an invitation (by Skype or in person) into New Scientist's first ever "writing room", to discuss, develop and hone your winning idea into a film pitch.


Visit http://newscientist.submittable.com/submit for further details, instructions on how to submit your competition entry, and our full terms and conditions.


We will announce our competition winners on 31 January 2015.


This article appeared in print under the headline "Pitch us a movie"


Issue 3000 of New Scientist magazine


  • Subscribe to New Scientist and you'll get:

  • New Scientist magazine delivered every week

  • Unlimited access to all New Scientist online content -

    a benefit only available to subscribers

  • Great savings from the normal price

  • Subscribe now!




If you would like to reuse any content from New Scientist, either in print or online, please contact the syndication department first for permission. New Scientist does not own rights to photos, but there are a variety of licensing options available for use of articles and graphics we own the copyright to.