Writer
Writing Resume
Since 2005, Matt has been developing numerous screenplays. His first short film, “Tag”, which he wrote and directed, won Best Picture at the 2006 Westwood International Film Festival. “Written By”, a short film horror-thriller that Matt co-wrote, has been hitting it hard on the festival circuit. You can check out “Written By” here: www.writtenbymovie.com.
Matt is also the creator/writer/director of “ManVs.”, a serial online comedy about a prankster who fakes deaths that annoy his roommate (www.manvsfilms.com). To date, the ManVs. series has been viewed more than 2 million times, has been featured on YouTube, Crackle.com and Veoh.com and has won numerous awards, honors and prizes, including a distribution contract with Atom Films. The episode “Man Vs.Dragon” appeared on the Comedy Central Network’s “Atom TV” program in the spring of 2008.
Matt is a graduate of the prestigious Meisner Two-Year Acting Program at the Meisner Center in North Hollywood, CA. There he wrote, directed and acted for the stage, eventually running their Writers’ Circle. Matt’s first play ‘false positive’ played to critical acclaim: “Duggan delivers a harrowing denouement that is fittingly arbitrary, much like the disease his play treats.”- Los Angeles Times. Matt’s one-act play ‘Irish Spirits’ was selected for Edward Albee’s Last Frontier Theater Conference in 2003. Matt is also a graduate of Boston College with a double major in English and Communications.
Screenplays
The Devil of Appalachia
A taut horror-thriller about a woman who’s forced to find her killer instinct when she’s hunted down like game in the remote wilderness.
CHARLEE MERCER is a young business professional from Manhattan who spends her vacations hiking the Appalachian Trail with her boyfriend BEN and their best friends SIMON and KAREN. They’re all experienced hikers who are determined to eventually hike the entire 2,175 mile trail. They arrive in Tennessee ready to trek the southern section; they strap on their packs and hike into the woods.
As they enter deeper into the remote wilderness, they sense that they’re being followed. When they refer to their map, they can’t locate where they are, even though they’ve been following the trail markers. Suddenly, a HUNTER appears and fires a rifle at them, sending them fleeing into the woods. Simon and Karen disappear behind Charlee and Ben as they race to escape. Charlee and Ben quickly become the Hunter’s next prey, and they discover that the Hunter practices human taxidermy on his victims, turning them into human sculptures that he displays in a gallery deep inside an abandoned mine shaft. Now Charlee and Ben must navigate an unfamiliar wilderness of traps, decoys and deadly pitfalls. But when Charlee and Ben are chased into a trap, Charlee is the only one who escapes, which makes her the Hunter’s last and most prized animal. In order for her to save Ben and the others, and to escape the deep wilderness alive, Charlee must now face the Hunter and beat him at his own cat-and-mouse game.
Deadline
A down-on-his luck screenwriter has ten days to crank out an Oscar-winning script or the mob will kill him.
HENRY GRIFFITH cannot get a break in Hollywood. On the verge of jumping out his window in desperation, his phone rings. The caller offers Henry a lucrative screenwriting opportunity, but when Henry shows up to learn more, a gun is put to his head. The gunman tells Henry that he has ten days to write the next great American screenplay. The mob will produce it and they’ll make Henry famous. But if the script sucks they blow his brains out.
Racing against the clock, fending off lewd advances from his unstable ex-girlfriend, and falling in love with a beautiful artist who lives downstairs, Henry fights to keep his world from unraveling. As the sun rises on Henry’s deadline, he learns who he is, who the gunman isn’t, and what in life is worth living for.
Writing Work
March 5, 2004 – April 11, 2004
Thursdays – Saturdays, 8pm
Sundays, 2pm (tickets $15)
The Elephant Theater Lab
1078 Lillian Way
Hollywood, CA