Fairfield writer and producer Lee Ross developing screenplay

FAIRFIELD – Writer and producer Lee Ross has written a screenplay he hopes to turn into a film.

Ross’s screenplay is called “Tower Moment,” and was developed from Mark Schimmel’s short film “UnTruth,” which Ross also wrote the script for. This week, Ross is having a group of actors perform a table reading of his screenplay. This table reading will be recorded so that Ross will have a proof of concept ready to show to potential investors.

“To get financing, you want to make it as easy as possible,” Ross said. “Sometimes, financiers don't even want to read the script. They just want to know you've made successful movies.”

Ross’s screenplay is set in a world that has just gone through a cosmic event, a supernova in another part of the galaxy that affects life on earth in the most unusual way. After the supernova, people can no longer tell lies, and if they do, they get sick and die. The screenplay explores what would happen on earth if people could no longer lie.

“You have to think before you speak,” Ross said. “People like Jeff Bezos are lying in order to save their company, and Tim Cook is dead because he had to preserve Apple.”

This is by no means Ross’s first foray into screenwriting. He has written and produced several short films, and his first feature film, “Downloading Nancy,” was shown at the Sundance Film Festival in 2008. His second feature was a dark comedy called “Benjamin Troubles.”

Ross has been in show business of one kind or another his whole life. A native of Manhattan, he graduated from the High School of the Performing Arts, the same high school that actor Timothée Chalamet attended. Ross began performing stand-up comedy at age 17, working the same clubs as future comedic stars Adam Sandler and Chris Rock. Since the age of 15, Ross performed as a mime outside the Metropolitan Museum on Fifth Avenue, and later became the lead clown in Cirque du Soleil’s show Saltimbanco.

Ross moved from Los Angeles to Fairfield in 2012. Within a few years of moving to town, Ross became part of the group that founded the Fairfield CoLab on the second floor of the Bonnell Building on the southwest corner of the square. The CoLab later moved into the former Iowa State Bank building on the northeast corner of the square.

Ross has many irons in the fire, and he’s thinking of adding more. In addition to developing “Tower Moment,” Ross is working on a start-up company called Aloud Studios that uses artificial intelligence to convert screenplays into a table readings with realistic-sounding AI voices.

One thing Ross wants to do for the town of Fairfield is to create a film festival. He wants the town to have an annual arts festival that brings everyone together, something the town has lacked since the end of FAIRfest.

“We have a great arts community,” Ross said. “We have some really influential people. We have acting classes and improv classes. It’s going to take someone to get the ball rolling, and a film festival takes a lot of work. You need that initial investor.”

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Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com