AMUSEMENT ONLY

“Millions of tax dollars are lost annually from an underground slot machine industry in Baltimore City and Baltimore County. Though slot machine gambling is illegal in Maryland, Baltimore’s slot industry operates with the sanction of local government – under the guise that the machines are for ‘amusement only.’”

- Joan Jacobson, Syndicated Columnist

This is a story of Baltimore's underbelly. Set in the 1990s, a decade of citywide crime, the Army has left veteran Michael Bowers cynical, and unsettled over his future. With a wife, and a newborn on the way, a chance meeting with family friend and sociopathic millionaire Sonny Warner ushers Michael into the hierarchy of illegal gambling, a gray area of the city ripe for exploitation.

They control the cities' pendulum of power.

This alters Michael's life forever as his decision-making and sensibility derail himself and his family. Along the way, Michael and Sonny's lives intertwine with unassuming but curious Lieutenant Jessica Silver, undergoing a high stakes "investigation" of her own. With the odds stacked against her among her male counterparts, and secrecy as a code of honor around the department, she soon reconsiders whether her suspects are really the ones who need investigating, in this story of greed, trust and conspiracy.

MACHINE MEN: THE ADAPTED PILOT SCRIPT

Our publishing house has developed and is currently shopping a TV package based on our initial release, “Amusement Only” by Paul Schiffbauer Sr. and Darrian Harford Hopson entitled “MACHINE MEN” after receiving positive feedback from scriptwriting competitions such as Script Pipeline.

Logline: Fate leads a crooked detective to investigate a desperate, black Gulf War veteran after he begrudgingly inherits a million-dollar criminal regime from his prejudiced, white uncle-in-law. Despite looks, nothing is black and white here.

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