THE VISTA

1 Writer

Additional Project Info

* Best Screenplay - Action/Adventure Silicon Beach Film Festival* *Official Selection Marina Del Ray Film Festival* PILOT EPISODE: The Last Rodeo PILOT LOGLINE: Donald Bunches, a police officer nearing retirement, is partnered with rookie Richard Diaz amidst a brewing storm as they confront the footprints of a sinister heroin ring, while simultaneously dealing with personal problems. - SERIES SYNOPSIS - This is a police drama that explores how two officers from opposing ends of the political spectrum react when confronted with a case that turns into an international conspiracy. Rookie Richard Diaz, a millennial hispanic Chula Vista police officer, is paired with Donald Bunches, a veteran white jaded officer, whose last partner got killed under mysterious circumstances along the perilous U.S. - Mexico border. Richard Diaz is a second generation Hispanic/LatinX American. He struggles with the morality of his official duties while having to deal with the demands of taking care of his grandmother. Donald Bunches relishes the MAGA wave that the Trump era has brought in and detests the culture of political correctness, sensitivity training and body cams. However, the closer Bunches gets to retirement the more the personal strain starts to weigh him down as his daughter becomes in internet porn star, his son comes out as transsexual, and his wife drifts into functional alcoholism. They are forced to rely on each other for personal support despite their different beliefs, backgrounds and values as a seemingly simple case takes an unexpected term. Prostitutes with their breasts removed start to pop-up over Chula Vista, CA. This is compounded by the neighboring city of Imperial Beach, CA going bankrupt and Chula Vista being tasked with absorbing the city’s municipal functions. Eventually, it is discovered that the prostitutes are being used as drug mules, with heroin being smuggled in their breast implants. The case leads to Mexican drug cartels, but in a sinister twist the Taliban is secretly supplying Mexican cartels with a specially formulated type of heroin as part of plan to destabilize American society and exact revenge for the invasion of Afghanistan. The story is a microcosm of a uniquely American problem. It is about how doing the right thing can also be wrong. It is about the grey area that colors our choices. - MAIN CHARACTERS- Richard Diaz - A millennial Hispanic/LatinX male who is a second generation American. He is a graduate of the Coast Guard Academy and a veteran Coast Guard officer. He lives with and supports his grandmother. His parents live and work in the cheaper southwest Texas area in order to remit more money to family members back in Mexico. He innately views life’s rules as black and white but that increasingly conflicts with his deep rooted sense of loyalty. Loyalty causes him to deviate from his personal philosophy. He seems to be hiding something, possibly being an undercover federal agent or a cartel member himself (The Coast Guard being the only armed service with limited civilian police powers). Donald Bunches - A Caucasian police officer for the Chula Vista police department. He is a former Marine who served in the Afghanistan War. Bunches was a part of a Marine unit called “Task Force Violence,” that killed an entire Afghanistan village as retribution after finding two of their platoon-mates with needles in their arms, dead from an overdose. He is assigned to be Diaz's partner nearing the end of his police career. He is devoutly Catholic and trends towards anti-immigrant sentiments, which conflicts with his growing sense of loyalty to Diaz. J.A. Samson - A former member of the French Foreign Legion. He starts off as an eager ally but it becomes increasingly obvious that he is more than what he seems and he appears to be trying to cover-up the government’s involvement in the conspiracy rather than bringing those involved to justice. Whenever we hear someone introduce him he always insists they call him "just Jay." We never hear anyone say his actual name and don't know what the “A” stands for or what his full name is. Chulo - A leader in the Chula Vista street gang "S.P.V (South Park Vatos)." based in the South Park Valley section of the city. Controls the local heroin market via his allegiance with a drug cartel from San Juan Del Rio, in the Mexican state of Durango. Unlike most gangs and cartels, S.PV. solely trades in heroin. Chulo became a street legend after killing both of his parents and then being released from the California Youth Authority early for being a model prisoner, while earning both his G.E.D. and bachelor's degree behind bars. After being released early he hitchhiked to the ancestral home of Mexican folk-hero Pancho Villa and forged the transnational heroin smuggling alliance. He imagines turning his gang into the ”Sons of Pancho Villa” and moving it toward a Chicano revolutionary movement. James Carson - A surfer and former ex-con who is the elusive “Junkie King.” He is playing both sides, helping Chula Vista police while also selling heroin. Unbeknownst to anyone but them and their inner circle, James Carson was Chulo’s cellmate as a juvenile at a California Youth Authority facility. Blind Afghan Man - Before the Taliban’s rise to power he was an economics professor. He was forced into narcotics trafficking by the Taliban, in exchange for them allowing him to keep a small school open in his village.  His village was the site of a massacre by Donald Bunches and his former Marine unit, turning him into a true terrorist. He was held at the “Salt Pit,” a C.I.A. covert prison adjacent to Bagram Air Base (known at the “Dark Prison”). Later he takes James Carson's two children and their mother, Bonnie hostage. His faction of Al-Qaeda, Children of Khorasan, terrorizes southern San Diego by using prostitutes as drug mules, then dumping their bodies with their breasts removed. He mounts large scale dumping along the beaches one summer. He later orchestrates a simultaneous bombing of the U.S.-Mexico border wall and the Statue of Liberty. - SUPPORTING CHARACTERS- Eliza Marisol Diaz - Richard Diaz's maternal grandmother. She immigrated to America, lives with Diaz and dotes on him, sometimes prying too much. She genuinely cares for him but has a chilly demeanor with his parents for some unknown reason. Jo-Ann Bunches - Donald Bunches' wife who is a functioning alcoholic, mainly due to her daughter becoming an Internet porn star. She is torn by her love for her Trans stepson, Baily James Bunches, and her husband's disdain for him. She is a devout Catholic like her husband, but questions why God views her children as sinners. Dolly Bunches - Bunches daughter who is an Internet porn star by the name of “Jane Bang.” She has an interracial gangbang video that goes viral earning money and notoriety while embarrassing her family. She is pregnant and hides it from her family and most of her friends, opting to give the baby up for adoption. Emily Means - A high school friend of Dolly Bunches. Once ruled over a small porn empire as a webmaster and talent manager to adult stars, but over time, she has turned into a raging drug addict. She introduced Dolly to the world of adult films and served as her manager before her gangbang clip went viral. Karen Moreno - A Chula Vista police officer who saves Richard Diaz’s life in the first episode. She receives a commendation and promotion to Detective for her efforts, against Lt. Brewster’s wishes. She is later given the high profile job of leading the task force investigating the Imperial Beach city bankruptcy. Lt. Dan Brewster - Diaz and Bunches' watch commander. Privately he is extremely weird, and an acolyte of an Alex Jones/Rush Limbaugh/Bill O’Reilly type media personality. However, he has a genuine love of his subordinate officers and a commitment to seeing justice served. He has as an issue with sexually harassing Moreno. Him and Bunches have a secret deal with the Tijuana cartel assuring safe passage of all shipments through Chula Vista in return for assurances that none of their narcotics are sold , or bodies from murder victims left, within the city limits. Bailey James Bunches - Donald Bunches illegitimate son that decides to openly identify as a transsexual female, renouncing his birth name of “Bobby.” Bailey leaves his live-in girlfriend to live with a man and eventually marries him. He is at odds with his deeply conservative father. The Duchess of Canterbury - A member of the British aristocracy and a first cousin of the Queen. Her son is taken prisoner while serving in Afghanistan, after the helicopter he is piloting crashes. She was ostracized from most Royal duties for getting pregnant out of wedlock and refusing to marry the father. Her son, David Canterbury, was a POW in Afghanistan and was returned with injuries that make him unsuitable for public life and Royal duties. She copes with the trauma by randomly shooting her prized stable of horses. To secure his release she arranged for heroin to be shipped from Khandahar on N.A.T.O. aircraft. Wanda Whiskey - Owns the porn production company that Dolly Bunches is contracted to after her gangbang clip goes viral. She was a former adult movie star in the 90’s. Also, owns an alcohol beverage brand and a line of bar-b-cue sauces called “Whistler’s” based off of her signature gimmick the “Wanda Whistle” she did during porn scenes and public appearances. Is known within the adult entertainment industry for supplying her starlets with drugs to get them to relax during performances. She help’s Bunches daughter, Dolly, hide her pregnancy and give her baby up for adoption. Jordache - Chulos’s wife and the mother of his daughter. She was incarcerated for carrying drugs and money for Chulo. She murdered someone while in county awaiting trial for “possession with intent to distribute” charges and was sent to prison. David Canterbury - The only son of the Duchess of Canterbury. He joins the military hoping to rehab his family’s name and get his mother back in the Queen’s good graces. While a captive in Afghanistan his tongue is cut out and his back is intentionally broken before he is released. John Cole (character for future story lines) - A 30-something year old Chula Vista Police officer. Becomes Bunches partner after Diaz is kidnapped. He is involved in the alt-right movement and then slides into working with white supremacists motorcycle gangs moving heroin over the Mexican border into San Diego. Later, he becomes a D.E.A. Special Agent and a double agent for the Mossad. Gabby Gonzalez (character for future story lines) - A female in her thirties on the San Diego Police force. She is assigned to a federal task force and Bunches takes her under his wing. She is more apt to call Bunches out on his opinions but he tolerates it and is less confrontational with her. THE PARK (spin-off series) - The Simi Park Vatos, a San Diego street gang, expands their drug distribution network to Los Angeles setting up a war with existing gangs, the Mexican Consulate and the LAPD. * The concept is to have this pilot episode, The Last Rodeo, premiere like a traditional movie, in theaters, film festivals etc. and have the first season’s episodes immediately follow via a streaming service. * I wrote the outline while living in a homeless shelter in Los Angeles. * I spent the day with police officers in Chula Vista, California to prepare for this pilot. * I also served in Afghanistan with the International Security Assistance Force and have insider knowledge of some of the specifics of the fictionalized accounts in this story. * INSTAGRAM: @spv.4.ever