Heartline

Logline:
In a future where empathy is harvested as humanity’s last valuable resource, a former engineer returns to the company that corrupted his design to protect his blind daughter, only to discover that her unclassifiable gift is exactly what the system must erase.

Synopsis:
In a future where AI has made people so obsolete that empathy becomes the last valuable form of labor, Heartline harvests emotional pain from the elite, while the lower class is left with broken buildings and feelings they can’t afford to unload. Elias is one of those lower-class citizens: a former engineer whose original design was weaponized into Heartline's empire, now joining the company as a low-level trainee to secure a better life for his blind daughter, Aria, who is classified as inept by Heartline's system. But when Elias gets paired with the most celebrated empath, Aria starts to feel the pain leaking from the woman’s polished exterior, revealing that the very perception that makes Aria invisible is what makes her capable of exposing the entire machine.

Blending emotional intimacy with the social critique of Severance, Heartline explores a world where the last uniquely human trait isn’t intelligence, but the ability to truly understand our pain, and the cost of outsourcing that pain for profit.

  • Michael H. Moore
    Writer
  • Project Type:
    Television Script
  • Genres:
    Sci-Fi, Drama, Psychological Sci-Fi
  • Number of Pages:
    53
  • Language:
    English
  • First-time Screenwriter:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Digital Cinema Package:
    Unavailable
Writer Biography - Michael H. Moore

Michael Moore is a screenwriter exploring memory, emotion, and control through science fiction. He began writing in May 2025, having now completed 7 original short scripts in four months. His debut shorts have placed in 28/50 submissions across 16/25 festivals: 15 Finalist placements, 7 Semi-Finalists, and 1 Win, with 8 festivals recognizing multiple scripts in the same competition. Notable recognitions include Semi-Finalist and Quarter-Finalist at FilmQuest, 2x Semi-Finalist at Flickers' Rhode Island (RIIFF), 2x Finalist and 1 Semi-Finalist at DIFF-Storyline (DaVinci Writers' Corner), Semi-Finalist at HorrorFest International, 2x Finalist at Glendale International Film Festival, Semi-Finalist and Quarter-Finalist at Vancouver Horror Show, and a Quarterly Win for Best Short Screenplay at Zepstone International.

Collective Unknown is his anthology featuring emotionally resonant short scripts that explore buried memory, recursion, and the hidden artifacts that echo across time. It blends sci-fi with dark comedy and psychological tension, with philosophical undercurrents — at times reimagining mythologized events in uncanny new lights.

Affect Protocol is the second anthology series in development, forcing us to confront whether emotion and empathy are more beneficial or threatening in a world built on systematic and technological control. Identity, class systems, and weaponization or erasure of feeling all get examined through vastly different landscapes.

Wrench Kings is his original long form grounded sci-fi series in development. It's set in a post-automation future ruled by labor/working class guilds rather than wealth, exploring a world rebuilt by the very people society once discarded — scavengers, machinists, growers, healers, and builders — after artificial intelligence failed the former ruling class.

As a newer voice in this space, his goal is to share work that engages both thoughtful genre audiences and industry professionals looking for fresh, emotionally intelligent storytelling.

Drawing from lived experience and thematic curiosity, Michael’s work interrogates what it means to stay human, and what or who decides. His stories are cinematic, layered, and emotionally restrained — designed to linger long after the final frame.

Add Writer Biography