Genre: Horror Thriller Budget: 300K – 4M Status: Rough Draft Synopsis: JIM WHITMAN is a deeply shy, socially awkward, slightly overweight and plain-faced 30 year old, the kind of guy you’d never look at twice on the street. He lives a simple, quiet life, earning a decent living as an on-site computer tech and spending most of his free time playing the online fantasy/adventure games. His only real friend in the world is JAKE, an improbably handsome and outgoing but mercurial guy who seems always to be at Jim’s side. When Jim gets a call from a regular client, the owner of Cyber Java, a neighborhood internet café, Jake tags along as usual (though he always keeps a discrete distance when Jim interacts with other people). At Cyber Java, Jim meets WENDY, the new barista, and is immediately smitten. With Jake’s help, Jim goes out on a date with Wendy and it goes smashingly well all the way until the very end when the young lovers start to get physical and Jim has an embarrassing sexual episode. Things end awkwardly and Jim goes home, humiliated and defeated. When Jim calls Wendy the next day to apologize and ask her out for another date, Wendy gently turns him down. The sting of Wendy’s rejection quickly becomes the catalyst for a precipitous descent down a spiral of shame and self loathing, prodded along by the voice of Jake which remains in Jim’s head. Jim tries to break ties with Jake, ordering him to stay out of his life. Jake agrees to keep away but he continues to speak to Jim through the earwig device, mercilessly abusing, punishing and humiliating Jim to the point of madness, and driving Jim to more and more shocking lengths to get Jake’s voice out of his head. An intense and raw psychological horror thriller, “Snap” takes us on a dark and terrifying journey into the depths of a killer’s mind at the moment when thought spins out of control and explodes into horrific violence.
Darkness Comes
Genre: Horror Thriller
Budget: 2M – 9M Status: Rough Draft Synopsis: Samantha “Sam” Middleton is a homicide detective haunted by unanswered questions surrounding the death of her husband, undercover detective Dennis Middleton. Her exhaustive investigation into the circumstances surrounding his death had lead her no closer to the truth until, on the one year anniversary of her husband’s death, a veteran cop belonging to the same precinct is gunned down in a freak incident. Sam discovers that the veteran police office drew his pistol and shot into a crowd at a local diner. He then aimed at his partner, who returned fire and shot him dead. Sam’s investigation tracks the slain officer’s final days and state of mind leading to new discoveries about her husband’s murder. Old wounds open as Sam becomes obsessed once again with Dennis’ case, leading to tensions between her and her partner, Josh, with whom she’s started a relationship. As Sam once again finds herself running into one dead end after another, pushing her to a breaking point, Dennis suddenly arrives in her life again. Dennis has no idea how or why he has seemingly returned from the dead, but he offers to help Sam solve the mystery of his demise. Sam welcomes her lost love back into her life, throwing questions aside of her own sanity, as she is the only one able to see or touch him. As more detectives die under bizarre horrific circumstances, Sam moves deeper and deeper into a dark world she was unaware Dennis trafficked in. Her reality starts to unravel leading her to the shocking truth behind her beloved husband’s former life and his return from death.
I, Gauguin
Genre: Comedy Documentary Budget: N/A Status:Rough Cut/Finishing Funds Synopsis: I, Gauguin follows the wild and audacious Don Taicher, a 72 year old filmmaker, actor, writer, producer, painter on his quest to make the most ambitious feature film of his illustrious 3 picture career. The result is a raucous romp in remote parts of Maui Hawaii with a wild boar, horses, sword fights and naked virile Tahitian woman.
Filly Brown
Genre: Urban Drama Budget: 250K-2M Status: Script
Synopsis: Maria Jose “Majo” Tonorio is a tough as nails street poet who spits from the heart. She is a good daughter who helps her struggling father get back on his feet after a long stint in prison and pushes her younger, more reckless sister toward a college education. Majo routinely visits her mother, who is serving a drug related charge, in the state pen but most nights she’s at the Temple Of Hip Hop, a local slam poetry lounge, spitting poems on a weather beaten stage. An impromptu slam session leads Majo to the opportunity of a lifetime. A small time manager cuts a demo to promote her to the major labels as a rising rap artist. Assured that a record deal will be the first step on the fast track to success and feeling like she is on the verge of having the life he has always wanted, Majo is suddenly faced with some stark choices. Does she accept the deal and turn her back on the friends who got her to the precipice of success or take the money and help with her mother’s “needs” in prison? Majo must decide what she is willing to sacrifice and how far she is willing to go in the pursuit of his dreams.
Fast Guns: The Curse of Jackson Dobbs
Genre: Action Western Budget: 3M – 9M Status: Script
Synopsis: Jackson Dobbs is a legendary bounty hunter widely regarded as the fastest draw in all of the Wild West. He is also a cursed man surrounded by death, a slow death that comes in the faces of the young and old challengers who appear and duel the fastest ever. With each man he is forced to kill, in the defense of his life and title, Jackson carves out a piece of his soul. Rio Sanchez is a rural farmer whose family and bride were gunned down by a Mexican outlaw. With vengeance on the mind, Rio tracks the outlaw to Institution, where he crosses paths with a drunk and ornery Jackson. An argument turns into a duel and the young Mexican farmer does the impossible. He out draws the fastest gun to ever live. Jackson realizes that his only hope in passing on the moniker of the fastest gun is to tout the boy’s prowess. Problem is, Rio has a run in with the corrupt town Sheriff and Mayor and is apprehended and sentenced to be hung for a crime he did not commit. Jackson’s only chance at salvation is to save the young farmer, in effect passing on the title of the fastest gun. He has one day to concoct a plan to save Rio from the town of Institution with only the help of the town prostitute and his six-shooter.
Wide Open
Genre: Action Racing Budget: 5M – 10M Status: Rough Draft
Synopsis: The Fast and The Furious of California Desert Racing. “Wide Open” is the story of two brothers haunted by their father’s untimely death. Chris McPherson (34), owner of McPherson Racing, owns and operates the most successful team in CDR history. Renny McPherson (19), has to leave his controlling brother’s umbrella and strike out on his own if he ever wants a shot to drive. With little money and less support he assembles a rag tag team of young mechanics to race against his brother’s prestigious team. Pitted against each other, Renny and Chris, are forced to put to bed the past that haunts them in order to quench a desperate desire to win.
Paradise of God
Genre: Action Racing Budget: 500K – 3M Status: Rough Draft
Synopsis: Reynaldo Garcia, a second-generation cop, is haunted by the memory of his notorious father, a well-known police hero turned mob henchman. Reynaldo is obsessed with taking down, Arias Barbosa, a powerful and ruthless mobster. His sleuthing leads him to…Honey Williams, a wild American flower child, and Leti Gutierrez, a Mexican national and recent divorcee, the two beautiful women are vacationing at a nearby five star hotel. Honey, an opportunist and pickpocket, accidentally steals information that connects; a corrupt faction in the police force and gang boss Arias Barbosa to a rash of recent bank robberies. Once in Reynaldo’s possession, the inflammatory information is discovered missing and quickly connected back to him. The corrupt powers in the police force target the three as suspects. The threesome has to sidestep Arias Barbosa’s mob henchmen, the entire police force, and somehow try to clear their names before being killed. The group must put to bed their differences and work together to exorcise the sins of their past in attempt to save themselves.
Treatment: TOM ANDERSON is an FBI man through and through. He is a career agent who, as an adolescent, carried a toy FBI badge in grade school. Anderson is thorough and disciplined and known to be adept at his job. The youngest member to become a senior agent, Anderson is being groomed for upper management in the Bureau. His single minded goal to one day become the director of the FBI, is his main driving force. He has few friends and is on the tail end of a failed marriage. He lives an isolated life with little contact with family and relatives and his awkwardness in people skills is offset by his accomplishments, as far as his superiors are concerned. Anderson discovers an open seat and maneuvers to be elected, Director of International Operations, the next obvious rung in his accession to the top. After the 911 attacks there has been a bureau wide movement to crack down on cyber terrorism with the number one illegal use of internet sales being the trafficking of Wildlife into the US, a 10 billion dollar a year industry. Anderson requests a foreign assignment in an attempt to bring down the most notorious trafficker of Illegal Wildlife, RAHMET SYED, known as, “The Lord of Lumpur”. A successful capture would secure his promotion. With his contacts in check, he boards a plane for… KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA a hot bed of illegal wildlife trafficking . The Malaysian government has been on the hunt to capturing “The Lord Of Lumpur” for years but interior corruption and his vast resources in the region has allowed him to slip away time and again. The brash east coast native is shell shocked once arriving in Kuala Lumpur. Its majestic buildings and advanced architectural development is equally contrasted against the lawlessness of the black market; where one truly can buy anything and everything. His Malaysian contact is a police detective by the name of ABDUL OSAM, an affable street smart veteran, who Anderson immediately takes to. Abdul is an old school Malay who avoids governmental bureaucracy at all cost. He informs Anderson the main problem in bringing poachers to justice is how little government officials understand the harmful effects of wildlife trafficking. “Most people don’t want to throw someone in jail for capturing a thousand lizards and making a living selling it to your people. But there is a balance to our nature and the simple villager’s crops get destroyed if there is no lizard to eat the grasshopper. And when that happens, people starve.” Abdul takes Anderson on a tour to the country-side to show him first hand. Anderson is deeply humbled how something innocuous as a monitor lizard can throw nature’s delicate balance into a tailspin. One of Abdul’s key informants, a mysterious woman named NOOR SIAD, tips in him on the whereabouts of Rahmet’s most recent shipment. The two attempt a raid and Abdul is shot down in cold blood. Anderson takes the death hard having grown close to the jovial fellow and finds it difficult to move within governmental circles soon after. The American is clearly a marked man and the locals don’t want to risk their lives in working with him. Anderson realizes the only option he has to locate the whereabouts of Rahmet, is Abduls informant Noor. An exhaustive search leads Anderson to the informant, Noor Siad, a fourteen-year-old runaway ex prostitute. Unwilling to work with a minor, let alone an ex-prostitute, as news of this will cloud his standing in the bureau; he sets out to find a different path. After an attempted murder of the young girl, Anderson realizes he’s the only chance she has for survival. He decides to take her to a safe house but she offers news of Rahmet’s movements obtained by her servicing the captains under his command. Unable to resists the lure of Noor’s information, regardless of his uncomfort with the way she gathered the intel he assembles a small force and leads a raid of Rahmet’s organization. During the raid, Anderson finds data, corroborated by Noor that the “The Lord”, knowing he’s an FBI target, plans to go into hiding after one of his most daring shipment of animals from a jungle harbor in Malaysia to Laos. The rare animals and plants are valued at millions for eventual sale to China and the US. With only a few days before he loses Rahmet’s trail, Anderson again engages Noor in gathering information for him. She however, will not help, until he promises to return the illegal shipment back the lands surrounding her dying village. Noor’s willingness to sacrifice herself to save her village moves him deeply. The two set out into the deep jungle to obtain the intel needed. A severe game of cat and mouse finds the two spending nights together. Soon an intimate bond forms and the two lose each other to a moment of passion. Anderson feels both shame and a deep bond with this young woman; a bond grown from the desperation of the daunting task ahead and the lives at stake. Closing in on the shipment Anderson’s small team is pinned down by massive crossfire and if not for Noor, who sacrifices herself in order to give the team an edge to advance and take control of the shipment, they would have been killed. Noor’s body falls lifeless after absorbing multiple gunshots. Anderson’s team drives a wedge through Rahmet’s remaining forces and he is presented a choice to either trap the notorious kingpin or rescue the shipment before it sails away. Anderson, honoring his word to Noor, saves the shipment and returns the animals to their habitat in order to save the small village’s crops. He loses “The Lord of Lumpur” into the forests of Malaysia. The Malay government is angered, behind closed doors, once they here that there most notorious trafficker was released in order to spare an insignificant village. News is leaked of Anderson’s love affair and death of Noor to the international media. Anderson returns home, his name sullied and without his prize capture. His superior informs him that the press has run the exotic story and the heat the bureau is taking will cause Anderson to be passed over for the promotion. Back in his office, which feels much smaller to him now, he looks over the sterile environment and finds it oddly unnerving. He opens the paper to see news of his actions; engaging a minor, a prostitute, and her subsequent death to aid an FBI investigation. The following day his superior arrives with news that he has been re-assigned out of Washington. His knowledge of the Malaysian region and experience make him the prime candidate for a deep undercover operation in remote South East Asia searching for Rahmet Syed’s newly formed cell. From one look on Anderson’s face we get a sense that there would be no other assignment he’d rather have than to be back out in the field hunting down the notorious criminal.
