Script File

Hal, The Spud King of Japan

Three misfits and a Harvard dropout save a failing farm against corporate greed, international intrigue, and a risky business gamble.

  • John Thibault
    Writer
  • Project Type:
    Screenplay
  • Number of Pages:
    100
  • Language:
    English
  • First-time Screenwriter:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Digital Cinema Package:
    Unavailable
  • Austin Revolution Film Festival
    Austin, TX
    August 23, 2016
    Semifinalist
  • Die Laughing Film Festival
    Hollywood, CA
    May 12, 2017
    Finalist
  • Hollywood Screenplay Contest
    Hollywood, CA
    October 23, 2017
    Official Finalist
  • 15th Annual Filmmakers International Screenwriting Awards
    Hollywood, CA
    April 11, 2017
    Semifinalist
  • Shore Scripts Festival
    Santa Monica, CA
    October 25, 2017
    Quarterfinalist
  • WeScreenplay
    Beverly Hills, CA
    January 24, 2019
    Quarterfinalist
  • Cinequest Screenwriting Competition
    San Jose, CA
    December 18, 2015
    Round Two Top 100 Features
  • Script Summit
    Royal Oak, MI
    February 6, 2020
    Official Selection
  • Toronto Comedy Film & Screenplay Festival
    Toronto
    March 17, 2020
    Semifinalist
  • Houston Comedy Film Festival
    Houston TX
    March 29, 2020
    Finalist, Best Feature Length Comedy Screenplay
Writer Biography - John Thibault

A.J. Thibault is an award-winning screenwriter and novelist with over 200 professional accolades. His comedy Hal, The Spud King of Japan has won at the Houston Comedy Film Festival, Austin Comedy Film Festival, Rome Film Awards, Oxford Script Awards, and earned an Official Selection at the Festival International de Cannes.

His drama Crash Site has reached the Top 20% of the Academy Nicholl Fellowship — twice. His novel Ghost Town won the 2021 American Fiction Awards, and Identity earned the Literary Titan Gold Book Award (2026).

A UCLA MFA graduate who trained under Richard Walter and Danny Simon, Thibault spent years as a story analyst at MCA/Universal before devoting himself full-time to writing. He brings 21 original screenplays and a novelist's instinct for character to every project. Based in Northern California.

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Writer Statement

I was inspired by the comedic work of Preston Sturges, then Frank Capra, Francois Truffaut, Hitchcock, and Steven Spielberg. I loved the idea of taking what might seem like a complex topic and arena and humanizing it.

So the idea of a crazy and cocky business guy taking on the Japanese with an outlandish idea seemed to fit right in. It was a fine line walking between realism and outright ridiculous stuff, but it was fun anyway.