THE STORY

Inspired by Deepwater Horizon, an international terrorist team seizes TEXICAN 8, a major oil derrick, and plans to blow it up during the worst hurricane of the century–creating a disaster a hundred times worst than the current crisis. By a twist of fate, a cobbled together Coast Guard assault team from the Cutter Intrepid becomes America’s last line of defense against this insane threat. They throw themselves into the raging seas and at night, in the dark, in the midst of the storm, they fight a battle to the death.

You are invited to download the script (free) and to rate it and leave a comment.

Download the Hollywood Pitch Festival Handout Here:

  Texican 8 Handout (783.1 KiB, 35 hits)

Had a very successful Pitchfest, meting with more than thirty (30) development people, and got several requests for Texican 8. Four major companies (the ones who can get the level of funding required) requested the script, and a half-dozen of the others “really liked it,” but they were not high enough in the company to request the script. They indicated that they would recommend it to their Producers.

One of the interesting phenomena was that last year at this same event, three development people said that, “blowing up a Gulf of Mexico Derrick isn’t much of a diasaster,” but no one said that this time around. Everyone seemed to immediately grasp the significance of the story and the potential for the movie. Also, a number were intrigued by the fact that the heroes were in the Coast Guard and not from one of the typical tough-guy outfits, like Navy Seals.

With continued support from the public (download the script, read, and comment), maybe we can see the film in the near future.

Gary

I will be heading out to Hollywood on the 30th to pitch the screenplay to Producers and Development Executives. Last year, when I pitched it, several people responded, “But, that’s not a big enough disaster!” I am now hoping that the idea of potentially blowing up a Derrick fourteen times the size of Deepwater Horizon will get their attention … and not only that the film will get made, but also that our Homeland Security agency will take the threat seriously.

Among screenwriters who attend these events, there is an ongoing debate about whether the writer should leave behind a Logline and Synopsis of the script, or not. For the first time, I have decided to leave one, and I have prepared a document that looks like a special edition of USA Today. If you are interested, I have placed a PDF download link at the top of the page.

I will let everyone know how it goes.

Gary

Last night (June 17, 2010), Katie Couric responded to a viewer who wondered about the possibility of a Terrorist Attack on a derrick in the Gulf of Mexico–the essential story of TEXICAN 8–and Correspondent Bob Orr, who covers Homeland Security, said it’s not high on the terrorists’ list.

Of course, he cited his unnamed contacts (the experts) and suggested that there were a host of more important targets; however, it is my belief that with the exception of nuclear materials, none of them would produce anything like a major oil disaster.

I wrote the original version of TEXICAN 8 a year before the Deepwater Horizon disaster, and when I pitched it to Hollywood Producers in the summer of 2009, one of the common comments was, “It’s not a big enough disaster!” While the tragedy that we are experiencing is devastating, it is nothing compared to the loss of a major pumping derrick — one that has dozens of wells spread over hundreds of square miles and that is lost in the middle of the hurricane of the century.

It would be impossible to produce the original screenplay, to film the story, without acknowledging the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe, and that is what I have done–knowing that if the Terrorists had not thought about attacking in the Gulf, they certainly have now. If I were a “expert,” I would put planning for the defense of Gulf (and other) oil derricks at the top of my list. (In 2000, I wonder how many of our defense experts put an attack on the World Trade Center high on the Terrorists’ lists?)

Gary

Ryan Erickson, an active Coast Guard blogger is helping the cause by announcing the screenplay on his personal site and on the “Unofficial Coast Guard Blog,” encouraging readers to read it, critique it, and comment on it. We need more people doing the same thing — not just rating and commenting on the script, but telling others about it. MANY THANKS, RYAN.

A government filmmaker, one who is familiar with high-tech, military filmmaking, has praised the script. See his comments about “high tensions” and an “audience on the edge of its seat;” and about being “excited to see this one made.”

As the subtitle of the Blog indicates, “Texican 8″ is a story about American heroes. It is about the war on terror. I think that this story needs to be told (the film needs to be made), and I am inviting you to participate in that process.

You are invited to download the script, to read it, and to come back to the site and rate the script and MOST IMPORTANTLY, leave a comment about the story. Tell me, and others who visit this site, what you think. Did you like the story? Do you think the film should be made? Who do you think should play the lead? Anything and everything else you might want to say.

And, or course, if you like it and want to see it made, tell your friends about it.

G. C. Davis