CREATIVE PROJECTS AT BRANTLINGER ENTERTAINMENT

DRAMA SERIES:

¡SPIN! – by Elizabeth Devine

The rapidly changing and fickle media landscape creates professional challenges to any established PR firm, but when the CFO jumps to his death leaving Padilla Public Relations facing financial ruin, crisis management turns inward, leaving the former close-knit publicists scrambling to save their careers, celebrity clients and clout. With a LatinX lens we follow successful publicists navigating careers in Beverly Hills but who originate from a variety of urban neighborhoods of LA and elsewhere. These are assimilated people of color wearing designer clothes with high profile careers yet are never too far from their roots.

¡SPIN! challenges what the public digests on a daily basis on social media platforms. We will explore cancel culture, Internet sleuths and social media stars. With a distinctly Latin flavor, ¡SPIN! is a gritty, sometimes amusing look at the public relations machine, the inner workings of a diverse firm juggling work and personal life and the lengths publicists/marketing professionals go to maintain a client’s “brand” while showcasing one man’s effort to hold on to his hard-earned legacy while battling the demons of his past.

DOPPELGANGERS – by James R. Martin

What if one of America’s greatest adversaries was in the midst of a full-fledged shadow war within our borders, but we didn’t even know it? This is the world of Doppelgangers. A high-tech genealogy company offers a groundbreaking new service, and a foreign power sees it as the perfect opportunity. They infiltrate the ranks of the company and use the stolen user data to position sleeper agents within the United States. But there’s something entirely different and more dangerous about these foreign assets… something which will change the face of the country, and possibly the world, if this superpower has its way. Only one thing can stop them – an unassuming group of one of America’s original citizens, with an uncanny ability to see through their deadly ruse. With Doppelgangers, writer and creator James R. Martin weaves an intricate and terrifying picture of a country whose technological advancements have outpaced our ability to foresee the potential dangers. From the energetic halls of America’s high-tech corridor, through the dark workings of a foreign government, to the Reservation of one of our country’s near-forgotten Native populations, Doppelgangers brings viewers face-to-face with the question, “How does one defeat an enemy that can’t be seen?”

NEW AUSTRALIA – by James R. Martin

With further Mars exploration stalled, NASA turns to an unlikely source for its future: recruiting convicts to volunteer as the first Mars Colonists in exchange for a second chance at life. 

NASA has a problem. Recent studies into physical and health dangers of exposure to the Mars environment are scaring off potential volunteers for travel to the red planet. If humanity is to have a future in the stars, a new plan is needed. Enter Eliza Sharp, the youngest, and first female, NASA Administrator. A member of the President’s Deep Space Exploration Council, she proposes granting clemency to hardened criminals possessed of a very specific skillset, in exchange for their service in establishing the first human colony on Mars – a modern version of Australia’s original penal colony system. Despite gaining the support of the President and Department of Justice, Eliza encounters vocal opposition from the Secretary of Defense and, ultimately, from within her own organization. To complicate matters, the prisoners, exhilarated by a second chance at life, find their old habits creeping back to the surface, resulting in power struggles and new political dynamics both in space, and here at home. This mission has the potential to be one of humanity’s greatest triumphs… with the risk of being one of our greatest disasters. 

GRIND – by Mark Sevi

A troubled ex-Vietnam vet in the mid-1960’s becomes the man who starts the multi-billion dollar adult entertainment industry in South Florida while fighting local organized crime, so-called community standards, and a beautiful dancer who he can’t resist.

Adult entertainment is a multi-billion-dollar industry serving cultures from Bangkok, Thailand to Bangor, Maine. There is no city in the world, except perhaps for Vatican City that doesn’t have a gentleman’s club of some sort. These days, even the term Gentleman’s Club is outdated because clubs that cater to women, trans, and other groups are everywhere. Also, these clubs have become high-end entertainment in 50,000 square foot facilities that have the finest food, booze, and talent. Not exactly small time. But it wasn’t always this way.

“Grind” will shed light on the bigger issues of this infamous money-machine—politics local to national; the threat of sex trafficking; harassment from the mob all mixed into the very human and no less tragic stories of the dancers and the staff.

The series is inspired by real-life club owner, Jeff Levy, whose 20+ years of experience (past and current) inform all aspects of this powerful, intense drama.

“Grind” is as real as South Beach, New York and Vegas where gentlemen’s clubs have achieved the pinnacle of adult entertainment. The stories and people may be fictionalized but their lives are not. “Grind” illuminates a world seldom seen where men and women party and engage in bad behavior which Caz then has to clean up.

ROBIN HOOD: LEGACY – by James R. Martin

*UPDATE* Robin Hood: Legacy (Book One) is now an Amazon bestselling novel! See it here!

England in the year 1290 is a world in turmoil. An ever-increasing social awareness is met with sharper attempts at oppression from those in charge. The Church is at odds with the Crown over rights of taxation; the Crown is at odds with the people, who are evermore bent on self-direction and oversight; and the people are at odds with both Crown and Church, feeling the pressure of taxation from both sides, the frequent tug-of-war between Clergy and King over whose rules took precedence (dividing loyalties of the citizens) and of an increasingly more hectic life driven by a population boom.

In the midst of it all, the fires of rebellion are lit by the unlikeliest of lawmen, as he strikes back against the royal injustices committed against those he is sworn to protect. The story of the man known as Robin Hood, and how that name became a legend which would span the generations.

Based on the historical research of writer and creator James R. Martin, discover the likely true identity of the original Robin Hood, through connections to real-life individuals, places, and events.

How was one man able to carry out acts in so many parts of the kingdom, simultaneously? How did he resurface in so many different time periods? In the most original and realistic Robin Hood epic to date, learn the answers to these questions and more as we explore Robin Hood: Legacy.

MOVIES:

In a world ensnared by dark forces, an abandoned farm boy and his mysterious cat must brave perilous trials to save his father from evil. Their magical odyssey reveals the origins of a beloved legend, as the boy confronts a village’s belief in his cursed destiny, weaving an enchanting tale of friendship and redemption.

FUGUE – by Mette Holt

A bartender in a backwater Texas town reluctantly opens herself to new love, but fails to consider that one man’s evil may pale in comparison to the darkness in her own past.

Maggie Owen is a complicated woman with a simple life. She is content to live each day much the same as the last – schlepping drinks by night, working the local 50s diner by day, feeding her often-absentee feral cat, and barely holding together her double-wide with chewing gum and baling wire. And setting aside every penny she earns to pay the detective… the detective she knows will help her find the answers she seeks. All of this had to be for something. So it comes as a surprise when a handsome stranger named Jackson bustles into town and upends the lives of everyone in town – or, at least, hers. But as she allows this charming man into more and more of her life, she leaves vulnerable the one thing she has kept the most secret from even her closest friends – a secret that has been hidden even from herself. As she finally grows to trust Jackson, he becomes the catalyst to Maggie uncovering her own stark reality – the darkness she fears in Jackson may be nothing compared to the darkness of her past. The person everyone thinks she is may only be a figment of her imagination, and she can only find her answers by confronting the person she doesn’t even know exists in her own heart.

WHAT GOES AROUND… – by James R. Martin

A small town psychologist must connect a series of murders to the local legend of a merry-go-round haunted by the spirit of a long-dead serial killer, whom he helped convict almost 30 years ago.

Evan Mitchell is a psychologist from a rural town who has gone on to bigger things. He returns to aid his lifelong friends, Peter and Gloria, as their son Zach takes a disturbing turn in his behavior. Early improvements are shattered as Zach embarks on a bloody crime spree. Evan and his childhood friend Buzz, the town sheriff, discover that there is more to Zach’s behavior than just adolescent rebellion, as they stumble upon the superstition that a local playground is haunted by a serial killer long believed dead, a serial killer whom Evan helped put away early in his career. Evan and Buzz frantically uncover the mystery surrounding Zach’s disturbing behavior, knowing all along that Evan, his ex-wife, and his two young daughters are in grave danger….

DR. BILL – by James R. Martin

An obnoxious TV psychologist turns vigilante and helps his neurotic carjackers in order to work through the problems in his own personal life.

Dr. Bill is an egotistical talk show psychologist who thinks he has all the right answers to everyone’s problems. His own problems are another matter, as he is plagued by low ratings, low self-esteem, and a fire-breathing wife with no respect for him or his ability to help others. When Dr. Bill is accidentally carjacked by Malcolm, a neurotic member of a band of vigilantes and amateur detectives led by Malcolm’s brother Leroy, Dr. Bill realizes he has found the clients of his dreams and possibly the solution to his troubled personal life. But the counseled become the counselors as the rogues must help Dr. Bill through an even bigger problem – the discovery of his wife’s affair with a pompous police officer out to shut down Leroy’s “business.” They must learn to help each other in order to save Leroy’s operation, to save Dr. Bill’s TV show, and to ensure everyone’s mental well-being.

INCARNATE: QUANTUM WAR – by Robert Russo

With mankind on the brink of defeat against A.I. controlled armies, a brilliant scientist discovers a soldier with a supernatural skill for battle that both humans and machines race to exploit.

In the distant future, a brilliant doctor discovers a way to turn the tide of battle by cloning a talented soldier with an uncanny ability to survive. But unexpected casualties bring Earth closer to annihilation at the hands of the very soldier that stands to serve as humanity’s salvation. Only one thing is clear – whether humankind or cyborgs come out on top in this war, the soldier’s haunting nightmares of his past threaten to tear him apart, so even if his species survives, he almost certainly will not.