LOS ANGELES - BostonChron -- Fiction author JAMES HOUSTON TURNER is best known for his Aleksandr Talanov series of novels about a former KGB colonel who became a spy for America. But that may soon be changing with three "Best Screenplay" nominations for scripts he wrote and submitted to the Content Film Festival and Media Summit, which will hold its prestigious 2023 awards ceremony at Capernaum Studios, in Texas.

Turner's screenwriting career took off after his novel, Greco's Game, captured the attention of Wonderfilm Media Corporation. "We absolutely loved the story," says Wonderfilm producer, Bret Saxon. "Set against a backdrop of human trafficking, Greco's Game is timely and ticks a lot of boxes for an action thriller. I then began reading his screenplays, and they too grabbed my attention."

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One of Turner's scripts, Square Pegs, centers around a courtroom battle between a rudderless pastor and his feisty bartender daughter, with the other, Finding Star, focusing on a sassy food blogger who seems to lose everything when she returns home to care for her dying aunt. The third, Hell Creek, is a government cover-up suspense thriller. Filmed near Savannah, Georgia, last year, Square Pegs is now in post-production and due soon for release. "To say I'm honored and humbled by these "Best Screenplay" nominations is an understatement," he says.

Although a departure from his usual fare, Turner says his scripts have the same backbone as his novels - a love story, be it romantic or the bond between friends and family - and the forces that threaten that bond.

When it comes to his novels, the Aleksandr Talanov thriller series has earned him several gold medals, including "Best Thriller." Greco's Game, with his latest Talanov installment, Into The Eye (due for release in 2024), form part of what Turner and Wonderfilm hope will become a franchise of films. Bret Saxon and Jeff Bowler will produce Greco's Game for Wonderfilm, with David Marconi directing, and Turner serving as one of the executive producers.

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Holding degrees from Baker University and the University of Houston Clear Lake, James Houston Turner has worked as a smuggler behind the old Iron Curtain, where he interviewed survivors of death camps, gulags, Siberian exile, persecution, and torture. James is a cancer survivor of more than thirty years when he was not expected to live eighteen months. He says these experiences inspire him to write overcomer stories that leave people with the same hope and faith that strengthened him.

You may visit James at https://www.jameshoustonturner.world, or on IMDb at https://www.imdb.me/jameshoustonturner.