Script File

Focus Group

A Cambodian metalhead, an Onlyfans influencer, a Benedictine monk, a transgender poet, and a tech bro are selected to test a mysterious new product. But the billionaire behind it has more than consumer demographics in mind — he’s recreating his deceased mentor by capturing a unique personality trait from each tester.

  • Project Type:
    Television Script
  • Genres:
    Comedy, Sci-Fi, Drama
  • Number of Pages:
    33
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • First-time Screenwriter:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Writer Biography

Luke Muyskens is a writer from St. Paul, Minnesota who came to screenwriting from literary fiction. He earned an MFA from Queen's University of Charlotte in 2016 and was named a Tin House Scholar in 2018. He has published work in West Branch, the Hopkins Review, SAND Berlin, New American Writing, Arts & Letters, a Pact Press anthology on the opioid epidemic, and more. He has participated in residencies including the New Orleans Writers Residency, the Lighthouse Writers Workshop, and the Hambidge Center.

In 2019, Luke was urged by Tommy Pico (Reservation Dogs, Resident Alien) to try screenwriting. Since, he has completed scripts for ten pilots, a short film that is currently in post-production, and a feature film. He is currently cowriting a pilot with Jack Savige on the life of singer Tassia Zappia, cowriting a feature with Najma Sharif on the federal entrapment of young Somali men, and outlining a horror feature that will be cowritten with Pico.

Luke’s screenwriting has earned him slots as a finalist for the 2023 ISA TV Pilot Pitch Challenge, a semifinalist for the 2022 Almanack Screenwriters October Colony and the 2022 ATX Television Festival Pitch Competition, and a second-rounder for the 2023 Sundance Development Track. He was a winner of the 2022 Yes, And… Laughter Lab.

Luke is currently seeking literary representation. Outside screenwriting, he’s trying to sell a 1995 Cadillac Eldorado, making shirts out of old tablecloths, and collecting uranium glass.

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Writer Statement

Artificial intelligence has been everywhere this year. First DALL-E, then ChatGPT, now hundreds of op-eds on the dangers or merits of AI. What used to feel like a distant ethical dilemma for scientists and philosophers is now one we all face, and as AI touches increasingly unexpected corners of our lives, it will only become less escapable.

I started thinking seriously about AI in July of 2021, when a friend sent me an AI art generator. I did what anyone would do — plugged in ‘EVIL GARFIELD’ and hit generate. The engine spit out a flickering video of tangled purple bones, a bloody smile, and a barely recognizable cartoon face. It was like watching someone unwittingly open a canister of Uranium shimmering with dangerous energy. I did not like it.

I’ve written extensively on surveillance by the government and corporations to monitor and manipulate populations, from young Muslim men pushed into terror to new homeowners pushed into buying bidets. Until recently, the bulk of our data has gone unexamined thanks to a lack of capacity. But with engines that comb data at the speed of light with powers of interpretation close to a human’s, AI is revolutionizing the surveillance sector.

I’m not the first to write about the risks of AI — even Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein broached the subject — but I haven’t seen stories exploring AI in relation to surveillance and the human personality. My only hope is that I’ll get this story into the world before AI writes it.