A young Latina professor on the run seeks to loosen the fatal stranglehold the mega-drought has inflicted on the desperate inhabitants of California.

SYNOPSIS:

Rainmaker is a contemporary, cutting-edge 1-hour TV drama series that captures important headline stories supported by factual events surrounding the multi-year drought in California. Think of it as "Don't Look Up" -- only as a TV series about the climate crisis getting worse every season.

Pilot episode by Tom Stohlgren and Jon Bulette; Episodes 2-13 by Tom Stohlgren

[Stohlgren also adapted the series for South Africa with Art Thomas; and Australia]

TARGET AUDIENCE: 18-49 demographic.

TIME/PLACE: Today’s multi-year drought intensifies in the very near future, centered around Lake Tahoe with locations spanning Sacramento, California to Reno, Nevada.

MAJOR AND SUPPORING ROLES: Maria Ramos (a feisty Latina, 30), supported by Dax Green, Huan Zou and Parker Has No Horse (20’s), Deputy Walt Hanson (35), Sheriff Dalton (70-75) and; and antagonists including a major C.E.O., Water Pirates, and various Con Artists.

CHALLENGES: To “See the world as it should be, rather than how it is” as Don Quixote and Maria Ramos would characteristically declare in the wake of the Dust Bowl Two (the worst drought in centuries). To entertain first and educate second. To overcome despair, panic, and gullibility with scientific reasoning, education, and hope.

OBSTACLES: The megadrought brings out the worst in people. Greedy corporations like Hollyfield, Inc., evolve into corrupt and opportunistic tyrants with close government ties. Everyday farmers, ranchers, and small-town folk are trapped in a sinkhole of uncertainty, which festers into fear. Reason is replaced by chaos and anarchy as our most vital resource of all -- water -- becomes increasingly limited. It is a certainty that some will profit, while many others are doomed to suffer the consequences. Solutions are never easy. A voice of reason is urgently needed.

RESOLUTION: Professor Maria Ramos personifies that lone voice of reason. On the run with three recent college grads fired from Hollyfield Inc., Maria transitions into a superheroine and a fearless legend, as she and her traveling companions courageously battle the greedy corporation and other charlatans who are hell bent to prosper on the downtrodden. Unwittingly, Maria gets caught up in her sudden fame and acclaim, which threatens to become her Achilles heel. Her parents’ ranch, friends, and love life hang in the balance.

SYNOPSIS:

Unique World: In the near future, California is mired in a 20-year, record-breaking megadrought. Running amuck in the Dust Bowl Two are greedy corporations, Con Artists, Water Pirates, Citizen Water Guard Militias, and a crazed Pyromaniac. Traditional farmers, ranchers, and small businesses struggle to stay afloat. Water, the transparent gold of the West, has all but disappeared. It’s a steppingstone away to “Mad Max.”

Our Protagonist: a beautiful Latina professor, Maria Ramos (30), is a descendant of a fifth-generation ranching family residing just outside Auburn, California. She loses her job at the prestigious Stanford University due to advocating science and cooler heads in a time of crisis. She is demoted and forced to teach at lowly Sierra College in Rocklin (just outside Sacramento), which is under surveillance for anti-American activities. Maria’s cabin in the woods is the target of a drone strike, and she is on the run.

Our Antagonist: Hollyfield Inc. is the largest government contractor in the country. It now monopolizes and controls the domestic drone program, dam construction, and energy development in the Western U.S. At its helm is their ruthless and arrogant C.E.O., Roderick Devlin III (60), whose company stands to profit billions of tax dollars from proposed Cloud Seeding programs, dam construction contracts, and privatized surveillance operations to weed out environmentalists who defiantly stand in their way.

Maria Ramos is befriended by three, young, seemingly harmless engineers, who were recently fired by Hollyfield, Inc., including an African-American, Dax Green; Asian-American, Huan Zou; and Native American, Parker Has-No-Horse; all in their early twenties, and each with their own hidden agendas. Unbeknownst to Maria, these three ardent activists have only revenge on their minds. And falling in love with handsome Deputy Walt Hanson (35) from Auburn, only serves to complicate Maria’s life. Walt’s boss, Sheriff Dalton is the stabilizing legal figure in the otherwise chaotic region. The eclectic team travels throughout the Lake Tahoe region battling the unscrupulous corporation, Con Artists, Water Pirates, and Water Guards at every turn.

Our proposed series will combine action, adventure, dark drama, and light comedy delivered with subtle lessons in science, critical thinking, and Maria’s quixotic wisdom. RAINMAKER is told through the worldly eyes of our series Narrator, Maria’s 14-year-old daughter, Angela, remembering with pride, her mother’s legendary life

RAINMAKER TV SERIES BY TOM STOHLGREN AND JON BULETTE