Hard to believe but in another interview for Vulture, Morgan said “What you see on the screen is this thing I wrote very sketchily in the mountains of Austria.” One can easily catch the discrepancies as they scrutinize all the different claims Mr. Morgan has said in interviews, which are publicly available online.
After years of watching Peter Morgan’s discrepancies, giving the media confusing timelines about Hereafter’s script, a female screenwriter, Penny LauRae, who had her script for Previous Engagement registered with the Writers Guild of America in 2006 is coming forward to say she is the writer and express her anguish: ‘’Well, it’s been burning inside me since. It angers me, it’s not right. I poured my heart and soul into that story and I’ve decided to now do something about it.’’
Penny LauRae comes from an artistic family (she is first cousin of actress Hilary Swank).
LauRae wrote the script “A Simple Girl” stories my grandmother told me. Adaptation of the book written by Josh Flagg, host of Million Dollar Listings.
She started writing Previous Engagement on the 23rd of August, 2005, a month later her sister passed away.
Caption: Penny LauRae (center) at her baby shower with her late sister, Patty Sue (standing behind Penny, Patty inspired the story for Previous Engagement), Hilary Swank (right), Judy Swank (center right), Gina Lopez (left, who passed away from cancer)Friends and family members became witnesses of Penny’s emotional obsession with the script as she spent hours on end working on Previous Engagement as a therapeutic aid to deal with the loss of her beloved sister. She finished the script in 2007.
Kathryn Knowlton, known as associate producer for the film An Eye for an Eye, was hired by LauRae to do the script analysis in 2007 and later, Peter David Myers was hired on as her script analyst.
By the end of 2007, Penny had placed her synopsis of Previous Engagement on the “seeking director, producer section” of IMDB.
One scene in particular is so similar to Penny’s script that made her both upset and astounded, when one of the twins is hit by a car and lies on the floor dying, the brother leans over screaming ‘’Noooooo!!!’’ - ‘’This is one of the same exact scenes! It seems he forgot to edit it out a bit’’ she says as she nervously burst out in laughter.
What other pieces of evidence are out there besides similarities to Penny LauRae’s script?
Despite his own claims that it took him years to finish writing it, Morgan’s script is dated (starting date) May 1st 2008, yet it was sold on specs to Dreamworks in the very same year, 2008. Timeframe given by Mr. Morgan does not meet the average time frames for even simple screenwriting pieces.
Bellow are some of the similarities of both scripts:
Hereafter script is dated May 1st, 2008
Previous Engagement script is dated August 23rd, 2005
Previous Engagement Character
Nick –Novelist/English Teacher – Maddy’s love
Hereafter Character
Marie – Novelist /Journalist – Didier's love
Previous Engagement
Maddy – An inspiring Journalist. She is a psychic
Hereafter Character
George – He is a factory worker. He is a psychic
Previous Engagement
Bobby – Brother to Nick – tries to convince Nick to write again
Hereafter
Billy – Brother to George – tries to convince George to use his physic abilities again.
Previous Engagement
Danny – Brother to Nick – dies in car crash, brother at his side
Hereafter
Jason – Brother to twin Marcus– one twin dies, hit by a car, brother at his side
Previous Engagement
Carmen- Storyteller - She gives Maddy a box full of papers, evidence to her past life
Hereafter
Rousseau – Therapist - She gives Melanie evidence, a box full of papers of near death experiences
Previous Engagement
Maria – The Maid
Hereafter
Melanie – Gorges Potential Love
Previous Engagement
African American Woman – Waitress
Hereafter
African American Woman – Gorge does a reading for her
Previous Engagement
Rita – Mother to Maddy
Hereafter
Jackie – Mother to Jason and Marcus
Previous Engagement
Priest
Hereafter
Priest
Previous Engagement
Carmen and Billy, brother and sister in a past life
Hereafter
Didier – Marie’s love affair
Key Highlights
• Hereafter, Journalist loses her love, due to her near death experience.
• Previous Engagement, Maddy loses her love, due to her psychic abilities.
• Hereafter, Journalist writes a book on True Life Paranormal Events.
• Previous Engagement, Nick writes a book on True Life Paranormal Events.
• Here After, Twin brothers, one loses his brother hit by a car, brother at his side.
• Previous Engagement, Brother loses his brother, car crash, brother at his side.
• Hereafter, Brother tries to convince his brother to use his physic abilities again.
• Previous Engagement, Brother tries to convince his brother to be a novelist again.
• Hereafter, a therapist gives a journalist a box full of papers to research true paranormal events.
• Previous Engagement, storyteller, gives a journalist a box full of papers to research true events.
• Hereafter, journalist has a near death experience in a tsunami.
• Previous engagement, Journalist has a past life death experience and dies in a plane crash.
• Hereafter, a picture frame of the two Brothers his new potential love asks if that’s his brother?
• Previous Engagement, A picture frame of the two Brothers his new lover asks if that’s his brother?
• Hereafter, Physic takes pills due to his stress of his psychic abilities.
• Previous Engagement, Physic takes pills due to her stress of his psychic abilities.
• Hereafter, Physic feels like a freak, he suppresses his ability.
• Previous Engagement, Physic is told by her dad, she’s a freak, and she suppresses her ability.
• Hereafter, Twin Brother Does research on Computer about the paranormal, seeking answers.
• Previous Engagement, Brother does research on the computer about the paranormal to seek answers.
• Hereafter, Journalist goes through all of her papers, notes, pictures to research about the paranormal.
• Previous Engagement, Journalist goes through her notes, pictures to research the paranormal.
• Hereafter, Brother is falling apart to the loss of his brother; he does bad in school, depressed
• Previous Engagement, brother has already fallen apart since the loss of his brother; he finds it difficult to go on.
• Previous Engagement, there is a broadcast on television of a Fire that break out
• Hereafter, there is a broadcast on television of terrorist bombs.
• Hereafter, Physic meets a potential new love affair at a College.
• Previous Engagement, Physic meets potential love affair at College.
• Hereafter, the twin brother sees a psychic due to the loss of her brother, the psychic tells him that his brother says that he will no longer be there for him anymore, to watch over him.
• Previous Engagement, brother has a dream of his dead brother, brother tells him, to let him go
• Hereafter, there is a physic reading, of a man that died of brain tumor and a woman that died of cancer.
• Previous Engagement, Journalist loses her Mom to cancer, her dad died of a brain tumor.
• Hereafter, the Journalist is at a bookstore, Physic sees her, reads her book, quietly at home. Hemust now find her.
Previous Engagement, Psychic spots Novelist book in a winder, she reads his book quietly at home, and she must now find him.
• Hereafter, Physic Admires Charles Dickens, and tells his potential love about it
• Previous Engagement admires Lord Bryon and tells her love about it
• Hereafter, Journalist Novel based on true paranormal events becomes on the new sellers list, the book is named after the movie Hereafter.
• Previous Engagement, Novelist writes a book on true paranormal events becomes on the number one bestseller’s list, book is named after the movie Previous Engagement.
• Hereafter, Journalist and Physic end up together at the end of the movie.
• Previous Engagement, Journalist and Novelist in up together at the end of the movie.