"Caesar"

“30 words or less” – A delusional and sadistic megalomaniac with a penchant for sex, cross-dressing and gladiator fighting plots the assassination of his tyrannical uncle so he can become emperor in first century Rome

Full Summary:

It’s the first century in Ancient Rome and the septuagenarian emperor, Cornelius, is ruling his empire with an iron fist.  Cornelius is a tyrant that leads his people by fear who has stayed in power for over twenty years due to the support of the dreaded Praetorian Guard.

Outraged by his despotic rule and pushed by their desire to return Rome back to the people, several influential members of the senate request the emperor’s presence in the chamber to discuss funding for a public works project. It’s during this session of the senate where Cornelius is assassinated in broad daylight in front of a large audience.

The emperor’s son, Justus, a righteous imperial figure, provides the plotting senators with the necessary backing needed to successfully assassinate the sitting emperor and keep the Praetorian Guard at bay.  A big proponent of ending his own family’s dynasty rule and handing Rome back to the people in the form of a democracy, Justus takes a celebratory trip to his cousin’s, Magnus, palace to thank him for his help in the plot.

It is at this meeting where Magnus turns on Justus and assassinates him as well as the three scheming senators.  The assassination plot crafted by Justus and the senators to return Rome to the people was actually spurred on by Magnus who saw an opportunity to ultimately plot his ascension to the seat of emperor.  His deceitful plot unfolds perfectly.

To celebrate the start of his reign, Magnus embarks on a weekend long orgy at his palace and orders two weeks of gladiator fights all while being unfazed and annoyed by the needs of the Roman citizens, many of whom are suffering and struggling just to stay alive.

This series tells the story of this delusional and sadistic megalomaniac with a penchant for sex, cross-dressing and gladiator fighting as he rules Rome with an iron fist just like his uncle.

The idiosyncrasies that make Magnus a terribly fascinating individual are also explored.  His nearly sexual relationship with his horse, his desire to fight in the gladiator ring against the best competition in Rome, his use of Jupiter as a spiritual counsel, his secret residences at a city brothel as a transvestite prostitute and his unflinching brutality frame the world Magnus lives in as he tries to navigate his way through his rule while avoiding the fate that has befallen most of his relatives that have come before him as emperor, assassination. 

Caesar Screenplay

"Reversal of Fortune"

Tagline – “A Story of Gluttony, A Story of The American Dream”

"25 words or less” – Against all odds, a down-on-his-luck, recently unemployed man joins Major League Eating in hopes of winning the Nathan’s 4th of July hot dog eating contest

Full Summary:
Billy Henderson is a ne’er do well that never did.  A portly, frustrated, incompetent but kind-hearted native Brooklynite living in Bay Ridge, Billy was recently laid off from his job as a video store clerk.  After going on interview after interview, he soon realizes that he possesses no discernible skills needed in today’s work environment that make him attractive to a prospective employer.

After multiple job rejections, his childhood friends from the neighborhood – Dennis, Gary and Lori - take him out to the local Buffalo Wild Wings in an effort to cheer him up.  While there they stumble upon a wing eating contest that’s looking for competitors from the crowd to participate so the friends encourage Billy to enter.  After initially rebuffing them, he begrudgingly accepts.  Billy ends up winning so impressively that Donald Gorge, an over-the-top, loud, abrasive representative from Major League Eating who was present to watch the competition, approaches to talk to him about joining the circuit.

With so little confidence, he initially declines his offer saying that it wasn’t for him but does agree to take the gentleman’s business card.  After Donald leaves, his female friend, Lori, begs him to reconsider.  Lori, who’s currently dating a guy that everyone except for her knows is a douchebag, is oblivious to Billy’s secret crush on her and thus unaware of the power that her words hold over him.  Billy promises her, and the rest of his friends, that he will take the night to think the offer over.

The next morning, he calls Donald and accepts his offer to join Major League Eating.  He’s immediately thrust into a surprisingly intense training camp that concentrates on both the physical and mental aspects, the stomach and the mind, of competitive eating.  Not only does he learn how to eat, swallow properly and work out his jaw muscles but he also runs sprints and long distances and does push-ups and sit-ups along with other calisthenics to raise his stamina and get into some sort of physical shape.

Deemed ready by MLE, Billy is quickly thrust into competition – an all-you-can-eat shrimp battle at Red Lobster, a never ending bowl of pasta race at Olive Gardens, a Bloomin’ Onion free-for-all at Outback Steakhouse, a dumpling feast at a small place in Chinatown, a pizza challenge under the Brooklyn Bridge, and even an all-you-can-eat tongue contest on a farm in Kansas.  However, he soon learns that competing in a local neighborhood wing eating competition is much more challenging than going up again the world’s best when he loses his first several competitions. 

His arch nemesis is the seven-time Nathan’s Famous 4th of July hot dog eating defending champion, Haruto “The Typhoon” Matsusaka, a man that never misses an opportunity to belittle and besmirch the new guy at every stop on the circuit.  The outrageous cast of MLE superstars is rounded out colorful characters including Tommy “The Hungry, Hungry Hippo” Potamus, Nancy “The Real Slim Lady” Bitterman, “The Spearmint Rhinoceros” Joey Spearmint, “The Glutton From Sutton” Charles Chesterfield and “The Praying Mantis;” all with much more experience than the newbie, Billy Henderson.

Filled with self-doubt, Billy begins to question what he’s doing as a competitor in the MLE.  A job offer to become a lumberjack in Maine soon arises so he needs to decide whether to escape the clutches of his iron-clad contract with the MLE and take another dead-end job for low pay or press forward, against all odds, with his newfound dream and a shot at immortality by entering the final qualifying event, the “Fenway Frank Battle” held outside Fenway Park, in order to join the field for the Nathan’s Famous 4th of July Hot Dog Eating Contest.

Will Billy win the qualifying event to move onto the famed Nathan’s hot dog eating contest?  Does he have a shot of overthrowing the near invincible seven-time defending Nathan’s hot dog eating champion, Haruto “The Typhoon” Matasusaka?  What will become of him and his close friend, Lori?  It’s a real David and Goliath story if ever there was one.

Reversal of Fortune Screenplay

"Renegades"

“40 words or less” – An ambitious hotel pool boy in the late 1970’s becomes manager of Miami’s most infamous nightclub and devises a plan to assassinate Fidel Castro with the help of the club’s notorious patrons in order to open a franchise in Havana

Full Summary:

It’s 1978 and The Renegade Hotel on South Bayshore Drive in Coconut Grove is at the epicenter of the drug fueled, high-society Miami party scene.  Carlos Estrada, a handsome Cuban in his late-twenties, is a pool boy at the hotel who spends most of his time on his hands and knees scrubbing tiles while the drug kingpin guests around him constantly flaunt their money, get high and drunk and cavort with young models less than half their age.

One especially wealthy drug dealer, Ariel Mendez, soon befriends the disgruntled young man and asks him to do a series of menial tasks.  Having proven his worth, Ariel quickly takes Carlos under his wing, even inviting him as his guest to the ultra-exclusive private nightspot attached to the hotel, The Renegade Club.

According to Carlos, The Renegade Club was “the epicenter of the cocaine jazz age and 1970’s Miami decadence.  The club was so exclusive even I couldn’t walk in here as a hotel employee.  Rumor has it a yearly membership cost $20,000.  Sure, the place was ultra-exclusive but everyone who’s anyone came here on any given night.  There were flashy drug dealers, their wannabe hangers-on, gun runners, politicians and legitimate South American businessmen desperately trying to become fixtures on the burgeoning Miami nightlife scene.  The Kennedys’ were regulars and so was Governor Reagan.  There were athletes, singers, celebrities, Hollywood starlets, bankers, Cuban refugees both old and new, every hot girl within a 50 miles radius whether they were paid or not, and even the occasional exiled dictator from some small third-world Caribbean country that no one’s ever heard of.  But definitely no pool boys were here.  If you were famous or infamous, no trip to Miami would be complete without a stop at The Renegade Club.  Hell, rumor had it, local law enforcement, and even the fucking CIA, was known to visit the place, and why not?  If you wanted to know what illegal activities were going on in Miami…or Latin America or South America for that matter, and who the players are, you’d come here.  You really had to see it to believe it.”

The only thing that rivaled the excesses seen and done in The Renegade Club were the actions and activities taking place in the hotel suites above.  Depravity and debauchery were the rule virtually every night in the hotel suites which offered privacy from the outside world and a place to continue the party after the club closed, or start the party before it opened.

Carlos further ingratiates himself to his new benefactor by serving as a lookout for a drug shipment coming in by sea but when Mr. Mendez offers him a more permanent position in his organization, he surprisingly declines.  When pressed on why he declines, Carlos shares his lifelong dream with Ariel.  All he wants to do is run a nightclub with the stature of The Renegade, he wants to be the center of Miami nightlife, he wants to know everyone worth knowing and, more importantly, he wants them to know him.  After hearing this, Ariel uses his contacts, and unconventional tactics, to get Carlos a job at the club but he has to start off on the bottom rung of the ladder, a busboy.

In his new position, Carlos immediately butts heads with the current manager of the club, Paco, and quickly finds himself in a predicament that could mean his life.  To save his own life, while also positioning himself to become the new manager of The Renegade, Carlos pitches a rather insane plan to Ariel.  In order to build a coalition against the current manager, Carlos presents his idea of franchising the club into other markets, the first being Havana, and giving Ariel a piece of the business.  How was he going to open up an American franchise in communist Cuba?  By assassinating Fidel Castro of course.

Although thinking Carlos is crazy for such an overture, Ariel can’t help but also think about the lure of making money off the club so he decides to back Carlo’s ascension to manager, again through the use of unconventional tactics.  Once he takes charge, Carlos devises his assassination plot with the help of the club’s notorious patrons, all of whom have their own personal and professional hatred of Castro.  He enlists old Cuban refugees involved in the Bay of Pigs, drug dealers, legitimate South American businessmen, gun runners, financiers, speedboat world champions, even a couple rogue CIA agents and a well-known Latin American singer.

Their plan is simple enough, probably too simple, and involves sending a small invasion force on a fleet of drug smuggling fishing vessels and speedboats from the Keys to infiltrate the seaside palace of Castro’s during his birthday celebration and capture him while he and his security force are distracted by the singer’s performance.  Naturally the invasion fails spectacularly, and while many of the key players go back to life in Miami like nothing happened, several others die or are captured in Cuba.  The incidence does help instigate the Mariel boatlift later on. 

Renegades Screenplay

"Hank! And Henry"

Tagline – “Who Will Win?”

“25 words or less” – An eternally single man in his mid-30s can’t decide whether he wants to finally settle down or continue his life as a rambunctious playboy

Full Summary:

Henry “Hank” Bennett is conflicted.  A tall, handsome, man in his mid-thirties living a comfortable life in New York City, Henry constantly struggles between the idea of settling down or continuing his life as a playboy.

This conflict practically creates a split personality within Henry.  He’s Henry when pitching a million dollar deal at work or on a nice date at one of the city’s many upscale restaurants, but he easily switches to his “Hank” persona when out on the prowl with friends at a neighborhood dive bar looking for his next one-night stand.

Towards the beginning of the pilot episode, Henry delivers an internal monologue the morning after another one of his many one-night stands which frames the basic dilemma he has in life.

“…I’m a 37 year old sales director at Parker & Putnam, the world’s largest publishing company.  For better or worse, my job defines who I am; but it’s not just a job it’s my career.  If I didn’t do this, I don’t know what I’d be doing, it’s not like I have any other talents.  But I can sell, oh boy can I sell.  Obviously it’s a great skill to have for my professional life but it’s just as important in my personal life as well.  I’ve been known to charm the pants off some nice young ladies, literally; take the girl from this morning for instance.  Apparently I can be so good at my game that I bring girls home without even realizing it.  That was no joke earlier, I didn’t remember meeting her, let alone taking her home.  I must admit, I do have a few vices – women, the thrill of the sale, and drink, lots and lots of drinks. 

I have a nice, modest apartment in downtown New York City, I pay for location rather than space.  I’m well dressed, well spoken, well-heeled, well-endowed and, well, let me put it this way, I’m a guy’s guy who loves spending twelve hours straight in a bar watching Sunday football with his buddies but is also definitely a “take home to mom” kind of guy.  I’m a parent’s wet dream…and that’s not cockiness, that’s a fact.  Lest you think I’m all style and no substance, I’m involved in fundraising for the local chapter of the MS society which my grandmother suffered with for most of her adult life and I am a big brother to my little buddy Tyrese from the Bronx.  I see him once or twice a week, depending on my travel schedule; I take him to ball games, go out for ice cream and to the zoo, things like that.  Good kid I just hope he stays out of trouble, it’s not easy where he’s from. 

I love the ladies but I feel like it’s always an eternal struggle with me.  What type of guy do I want to be?  Some days I see my friends out with their significant others and they seem happy, I notice how they don’t have to go through the bullshit and drama that comes with dating and I think about how it might be finally time to settle down.  Then I go on a date or I’m in a bar surrounded by young women with loose morals and realize how much fun it is to be single with no emotional ties to anyone.  It’s almost like I have a split personality when it comes to girls.  Take Molly for instance, or Sally, whatever her name was.  Did you notice she called me Hank?  Not that many people call me Hank, barely anyone does, professionally I go by Henry because, well, because who’s going to take someone seriously named Hank?  But that’s exactly the point.  Look, when I go out to a bar or a club with the boys and we’re out cruising for ass and an easy hook-up, I take on my fun-loving, “I don’t give a fuck, let’s party” persona of Hank.  But when I meet a nice, lovely young woman out at an upscale lounge and ask to take her to a Danny Meyer restaurant, I’m Henry Bennett. 

What’s the difference between the two?  Well in all honesty, one’s more of a douchebag and one’s an alright, stand up gentleman.  And this is the thing, although I have fun being single, I’m envious of my friends in a strong relationship; but as much as I romanticize the idea of settling down, I’m not quite sure it’s for me. And that’s my struggle.”

So the main question that will be answered as his life plays out through the series is “who will ultimately win out?”  Hank or Henry?  
Hank! and Henry Screenplay