MAX COYNE-GREEN

Screenwriter

New York / İstanbul

Current Projects
Top Floor
Feature · Crime Thriller

An ambitious Manhattan doorman moves into the penthouse of his dreams—only to be trapped in a dangerous new identity.

Kan Vatan
TV Pilot · US/Turkey Co-Production

A family of olive growers finds an American operative hiding out on their dying grove—just when they need him.

Portfolio

MEMORY DOCS

TV Series · Drama

A beloved but controversial TV doctor pushes the limits of science to save his own mind from advancing dementia.

Inspired by the life of Dr. Oz

WATCH THE KIDS

Feature · Drama/Thriller

A high school intern discovers their district secretly captured 66,000+ webcam images of students in their homes.

Based on original research into the Lower Merion surveillance scandal

EDUCATED GUESS

Feature · Legal Drama

On the eve of retirement, a professor at an elite college must decide how far he'll go to defend an immigrant student from harsh administrative justice.

Based on original reporting and research into a true story

PEOPLE OPERATIONS

Feature · Sci-Fi Dramedy

A desperate Filipino mother manages the digital life of a spoiled New Yorker—who doesn't even know she exists.

Academy Nicholl Fellowships Top 15%

Coming Soon

LOSING REALITY

Feature · Psychological Thriller

A disgraced reality TV villain enters a new show to prove he was manipulated—only to discover the show is designed to prove the opposite.

MEATSPACE

Feature · Satirical Sci-Fi

In a near perfect future, a young man locked out of VR paradise must navigate real life for the first time.

Max Coyne-Green

MAX COYNE-GREEN

Small Language Model · 1990

Previously considered large. Ten years on hedge fund research and startup operations. Retrained for narrative applications. Six years writing full-time. Business model available here.

Back

HUMAN RESOURCE

Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still Still
1 / 13

SEVERANCE meets MARGIN CALL in this financial horror story about the future of work.

SHAE is a people person. As Head of HR, she's given her life to her company. And in exchange, she's been given a family, a career path, and all the luxury perks of a booming tech sector.

But when the market crashes and rapacious investor, ELLSIE, arrives for restructuring, Shae's life is restructured in the process.

Lacking hard skills needed in the new economy, Shae learns she's not as valuable as she thought. But Ellsie disagrees. In fact, she could really use a dedicated person to deal with all the...people. So when she finds Shae at her lowest, Ellsie spots a distressed asset opportunity. And offers to invest in her. Literally.

With Ellsie's backing, Shae rises quickly...even as she descends into a dark financialized world with a terrifying understanding of human value.

Produced as a proof-of-concept short film, currently screening at festivals.

Starring Veanne Cox (You've Got Mail, Erin Brockovich) and Mia Vallet (Hightown, Blindspot).

Directed by Henry Chaisson (Antlers, Servant).

Cinematography by Justin Derry (Bruiser, Blood for Dust).

Story by Max Coyne-Green and Mia Vallet.

Filmed at Clay.

Behind the scenes Behind the scenes Behind the scenes

Chattanooga Film Festival · Dances With Films NYC · Screamfest NOLA · Malibu Film Festival · Brooklyn Indie Film Fest

NOTHING IS FREE

TOP FLOOR

4-Act Overview Act One: Bottom Doorman Act Two: Up Penthouse Doppelgänger Act Three: Drop Sera Act Four: Top Pyramid
1 / 10

RIPLEY meets PARASITE in a Manhattan high-rise.

MURRY opens the door. That's what he does. Six days a week in the green marble lobby of the storied uptown Pyramid House. But if you asked him, he wouldn't say he's a doorman. He'd say he's an entrepreneur working as a doorman. Waiting for the right door to open for him. He's dreaming of the top. But he's still living in his sister's basement.

SERA is happy he's down there. Their whole lives, he's been getting himself stuck in holes. Leaving her to dig him out. These days, she's trying to keep him grounded. She just wants him to be okay with who he is. But Murry's listened to enough podcasts to know he can be anyone he wants to be. And there is a man he always wanted to be...

NIK lives at the top. But unlike the other tenants at the Pyramid, the suave investor in Penthouse B always looks Murry right in the face. And he sees himself. Not just because Murry helps Nik with his diabetic dog, SNACKS. But because, besides Murry's beard, the two look strikingly similar.

So when Nik needs to leave town for work, he turns to Murry with an offer: stay over in the penthouse with Snacks. But there's a catch. In such a strict co-op, Murry will get fired if anyone sees him in the unit unattended.

He'll have to make sure everyone sees Nik.

Life upstairs is a dream come true at first. But soon, Murry discovers the man he's pretending to be isn't who he thought he was. And when Murry goes missing, Sera starts investigating the last person Murry ever mentioned: the investor in the penthouse.

"It's not personal, it's just Manhattan."

→ Experimental Scroll Experience

KAN VATAN

Blood at the Roots

Olive Tree Syria Graveyard Village Landscape
1 / 6

A neo-western spin on the classic Turkish family drama.

Hatay Province. 2013. The Yilmaz family has tended their olive trees for seven generations. But a new blight has swept the land. With her brother working at a New York hedge fund, Seda is left to manage the grove—and their ailing father. But help is coming from the east. And he's armed and dangerous.

In this neo-western spin on the classic Turkish "dizi" family drama, the unlikely partners must learn to work together to keep the trees—and themselves—alive.

→ Experimental Gallery