Empowered Films, as the name might suggest, is focused primarily on developing and producing original films in the spirit of timeless, quality storytelling films that entertain, enlighten and inspire their audiences. Their current feature film project is an excellent example, based on an original screenplay entitled One Lousy Angel.
One Lousy Angel is a feature film project based on an original screenplay with high entertainment and inspirational family values, with elements reminiscent of It’s A Wonderful Life, Black Beauty, and War Horse. The film will capitalize on both the mainstream audience for coming of age drama, as well as the core audience that supports films with American family values. The film has many elements which have proven to draw both of these core audiences.
The screenplay, which is optioned by Empowered Films, was written by Joel Kauffmann. Two of his prior scripts, Miracle in Lane 2 and Full-Court Miracle, were produced for the Disney Channel. Miracle in Lane 2 won the Humanitas Prize in 2000, and Full Court Miracle was nominated for the same prize. The Radicals, a prior film written by Joel, won the CINE Golden Eagle award, and the Silver Award at WorldFest Houston
One Lousy Angel Synopsis
At age 13, Fay Thomas has lost almost everything that matters to her. She knows she can’t get her mother back, who died when Fay was eight, or their family farm that was foreclosed on. But maybe life will be okay if she can find her beloved horse, Cinder. Fay’s father, Judd, had to sell the American Saddlebred along with the rest of their possessions at auction, when they moved to the City, where Judd took a job making much-needed repairs to the crumbling, inner-city cathedral shepherded by Reverend Robert Hollis, Fay’s Uncle Robert.
Fay recalls one poignant piece of advice that her mother gave her: “When you need help, look for an angel.” So, to get Cinder back, Fay thinks, all she needs to do is find an angel. She gets a helping hand with her search from Lee Roy, a loud-talking kid from the ‘hood’. But Leroy’s advice is confusing: “You gotta look with your heart, not with your eyes.”
So Fay is primed for other advice from Melody, her school’s music teacher: “Why find an angel, when you can be one?” Melody hears Fay sing and gives her the part of Lead Angel in the musical Christmas pageant.
But all Fay wants is to find her horse, and to find a real angel that can help her… just one lousy angel!