Let’s start out the new year with a little-known Vincent Ventresca project.  When I first came across this project, I thought it was the trailer for a movie, but I found out from producer Jack Sollecito that it is actually a trailer for a TV pilot.  The story is based on Jack’s experiences growing up in a boy’s Catholic military academy.  Jack was kind enough to let me read the script as well as the query and cast bios.  

Vince plays the lead role.  His character, Daniel Cesta, is a freelance writer who returns back to his old school to teach history and English for a month.  His motives, however, are another matter.  Daniel, still bitter from his experiences at the school, is there to dig up dirt and write an expose on the harsh mental and emotional abuses that the boys are subjected to.  Others at the school learn of Daniel’s true agenda and accuse him of being selfish and juvenile.  In their minds Daniel really never learned anything in the time he was a student there.  Slowly Daniel’s attitude begins to change and he begins to think more about helping the boys rather than just his own selfish goal.  He decides to accept an extended teaching position that had been offered to him at the school.

I found the script to be well written and the subject matter to be unlike anything else I’ve ever seen covered in a TV show.  This is the kind of show that I could see a cable channel picking up since they are usually more willing to take on unusual subjects and premises than the networks.  Jack tells me that he’s had some good response from industry people that have read the script, so time will tell whether this project ever becomes a TV series.

Here’s the trailer to the pilot…