Irish screenwriter Shane McCabe has won the Best Crime/Mystery screenplay at the Gotham Screen International Film Festival.
The writer won top prize for his screenplay ‘KopKiller’ as part of the Screenplay Competition 2012 held at the festival, which took place in New York last weekend.
‘KopKiller’ tells the story of a female narcotics detective in New York, who realises the cop in charge of her promotion, murdered her in a past life.
McCabe said he was “thrilled” his script had been recognised at the festival, but admitted his dreams of bringing ‘KopKiller’ from paper to screen rely on a well-known director taking a chance on the script: “As a director, for me script is king and it’s nice to be able to write your own material. It would naturally be my dream to direct ‘KopKiller’ but the cold realities on a budget this size, is that it needs a named director attached to move it forward.”
McCabe however did add: “I have already had a number of requests to read the script.”
Last May McCabe picked up the Best Short Screenplay at the United Film Festival in LA for another script called ‘Close Call’.
He has recently finished a stint on the set of upcoming History Channel series ‘Vikings’, starring Gabriel Byrne and Travis Fimmel. McCabe won an opportunity to shadow director Ciaran Donnelly through the Screen Directors Guild mentorship programme. McCabe was present for a battle scene which was shot on Moghermore Beach in Wicklow.
