SYCOPHANT©

Directors:  Reuben James Steindorf

Screenwriter:  Reuben James Steindorf

Genre:  Psychological, Thriller, Horror

The early seventies was booming, for the heroin trade.  Especially pure product coming out of Vietnam.  Many capitalized on this lucrative drug epidemic, but few knew how far the supply lines traveled, inland.   Chicago was home to several organized crime families throughout recent history, but one family managed to remain largely anonymous.  A large Irish/Italian entrepreneur with lavish taste, known as 'Papa-Bear Rigatelli" ran large swaths of heroin turf in Chi-town.  Most of his greatest sins, were pinned on other families, due to his uncanny ability to escape all the finger-pointing by johnnie law.  His family, influence and waste-line grew with every decade his business thrived.   His success was in large part, a result of his practice of hiring, single-use personnel, known as 'sycophants' to do all of the dirty deeds, for a one-time big payout.    Papa Bear had two off-spring from his dearly-departed wife, an impotent son, named Ignasio and a fertile daughter, named Diane.  Papa's heir-apparent was naturally Ignasio, but Diane's only son, David, would eventually get it all.  As David grew he was eventually taught the business and chosen to hire the next 'sycophant' to deliver a year's supply of personal-use heroin to his uncle, Ignasio.  Dave met a man, named Clayton, who he instantly hit it off with and recruited him for the generous assignment, which would net him a lucrative payment in both drugs and money.  Clayton accepted, but because of the sensitive cargo, David opted to assist.  They never made it to Ignasio with the package. 

    Fearing foul play, Ignasio assembles a group of eighteen mercenaries to find Clayton and retrieve both his nephew and the drugs.  Clayton, not realizing that Ignasio had attached a GPS tracker to his Lincoln Town-car, attempts to disappear, deep into the woodlands of Western Wisconsin, with an unconscious David, in his trunk.  Clayton comes upon, what appears to be a private resort compound, for a wealthy family, and decides to hold up for as long as he can, until he knows the heat is off his trail.  At the same time, a beautiful, young, graduating high-school student, named Jordan has convinced her father to let her use the family's resort compound for one last 'fun weekend' with her friends, before they all head off to separate colleges.   This may be the weekend that Jordan and her friends meet their end as Clayton turns the compound into a gauntlet of terror, all the while, Ignasio's eighteen mercenaries are on their way to settle the score.  Based on a true story.  © Copyright 2012-2021

*First Draft of this screenplay, titled "The Sycophant"© was written and copyrighted by Reuben James Steindorf of Vision Realm, on January 15th, 2012.

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