Logline
Driven from his homeland, Don Anton Capuzzo has built an empire in prohibition-era New York with his five sons. All ending in 1933 with a horrific twist on tragic factual events.
Synopsis
Born in Italy, 1871 to a modest but renowned family of generational farmers with deep indigenous knowledge, little Anton Capuzzo is orphaned by the age of nine and raised by his powerful Godfather, Don Carlo Vespone.
As a young adult, Anton is betrayed, outcast, widowed, and driven from his homeland. Leaving for a better life in America with his five loyal sons, together they build a dominant empire in prohibition-era New York. Yet with all this power, their fortune comes to a violent and very sudden end as the story twists true events from the period, and reveals a dark truth about American history.
“Un inferno da sbornia”
In this first story we focus on 1933, the apex of what gave the Capuzzo family their greatest riches; a controlling stake of the liquor distribution racket for the entire state of NY, and many of the states surrounding. Plus their sizeable legitimate business in the agriculture industry, cultivating the finest soils, and working with farmers to improve their crops through a practice sometimes called terra preta.
Rivals and police all had to play by their rules. Until an old enemy returns with a forged identity and a politically charged agenda to destroy the life of Anton Capuzzo. Again.
Writer’s Note
As a photographer in my main line of work, I’ve always dreamed of this story being shot on 35mm film or a close replica on digital, given an aged look to authentically match the era.
Nothing like this has ever been done before, at this scale, in this time period, blending these two wildly popular genres, while remaining loyal to the best of both. Full of clues, foreshadowing, and easter eggs, the deliberately non-linear story will leave much for the audience to enjoy and uncover over repeated viewings.
The most in-depth mafia family origin story since The Godfather; the most ambitious and suspenseful zombie story since World War Z or 28 Days Later. All leading to a truly wild ending, visually comparable to Sin City, but faster and more colorful, incorporating 2D and 3D hallucinogenic animation, vivid internal character visions, and a horde of countless undead filling the streets of 1933 New York.
I’d like to introduce you to Don Anton Capuzzo.
He is… The Don of the Dead
Project Goals
Primarily a screenplay, a feature length film is our main goal with TDOTD. But also very interested to explore a graphic novel adaptation to delve into the more gruesomely beautiful details, vivid psychedelic visions, and gore. Especially by oldest brother Renato Capuzzo during his torturous zombie transition. But even the early Italian countryside scenes would be beautiful to see illustrated.
Also outlined and drafting, are two additional storylines beyond the first feature script. A nearly all-zombie sequel that continues in real-time only moments after the ending of the first script. And the second is a prologue story exploring how the Capuzzo Family started their journey, arriving to America, and each step of how they came to power, forming their network, and started their legitimate farming and agriculture business ‘Capuzzo Family Farms’ supplying fertile soil and consulting on farming techniques to struggling farmers for miles around.
The Don of the Dead has the makings of a feature trilogy or series, with many opportunities to expand the storyline.
Our plan for the graphic novel is to start with individual panels of short script excerpts, then building to a more developed series with time. This will also help us create detailed storyboards for the screenplay, using a mixture between AI generative art and real artists.
Connections & Community
We are looking to work with producers, studios, directors, actors, publishers and illustrators who are interested in this potentially massive blockbuster project.
We are also looking to grow our marketing team and our tdotd community, so please get in touch! We’d love to hear from you. Email CapuzzoEmpire@gmail.com to connect with us.
Looking forward to growing this wild and ambitious project along with our fans and the Film.io community. Thank you so much for your support and belief in our story. Let’s make film history together.