Was in Quebec city this past summer visiting and fell in love with the city. Terrifically cinematic and given the tax incentives wanted to come up with a great spy thriller (one of my favorite genres). Surprisingly, it all came together rather quickly and I wrote the storyline with its various twists an turns and the pilot script in the past 4 months.
It's a limited series.
LOGLINE: A Quebec doctor is plunged into an international conspiracy when her dementia patient is exposed as a former Russian spy who has hidden evidence of a heinous crime committed by the U.S. President. Pursued by ruthless forces, she forms a desperate, morally compromising alliance with a ruthless CIA operative to manage a truth that could shatter both their realities.Pilot Synopsis
In the aftermath of the 2010 Ukrainian election in Kiev, CIA operative Colin Wainwright scrambles to cover up a horrific crime committed by visiting U.S. senator Scott Baker against a 12-year-old girl named Masha. Wainwright discovers the video surveillance footage has been stolen by an agent tied to the newly elected regime, implicating the senator in a major international intelligence crisis.
In present day Quebec City, Wainwright, now CIA Chief of Station, welcomes his protegee Marie Hunter to her new assignment: to identify influential Quebec politicians for coercion. A brilliant but troubled agent with a checkered past, she is initially reluctant, but acquiesces to make penance for a botched operation she led in Denmark.
Meanwhile, Dr. Chantal Roberge, Director of a local retirement home discovers her elderly patient Frank Bauer’s cognitive decline reveals a dangerous secretive past. When Bauer falls and is hospitalized, she learns that Bauer was once subjected to severe torture. Bauer himself becomes a target of a pair of Tatar immigrants who recognize him for unspeakable crimes.
Marie focuses her attention on Minister of Immigration Christian Tremblay, a former Foreign Affairs Minister who may hold scandalous secrets and whose estranged wife is Dr. Chantal Roberge.
Fearing his mind will fail him and the vengeful Tatars will soon find him, Bauer races to his bank safety deposit box. He retrieves cash, a handgun, and the external hard drive containing the long-lost video evidence, just as his world and Chantal’s begin to collapse.
Have at it. Thoughts, comments, critiques.
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THE MASHA EFFECT sounds interesting, Pierre Lapointe! I've never seen or heard of a Spy Thriller with a doctor as the protagonist. That hooked me the most. "her dementia patient is exposed as a former Russian spy who has hidden evidence of a heinous crime committed by the U.S. President" hooked me too. I'd definitely watch this limited series!