“Everyone has one good story, I’m told. After my dad passed away, I was renovating our families house and found a false wall. I found out he was living a double life and my childhood home was bugged for over 18 years. My old man managed to mic every room and every phone on every floor. It’s really clever how he engineered it. Just imagine what 12,000 cassette tapes looks like, its an odd treasure trove for me, its bitter sweet.”
-Michael Perri
“The world you created in ‘Nick The Hat’, is a very real, raw and vivid one, with characters who are vibrant, interesting and layered. An engaging story it is.” — Theo Davies – Founder, The Southern California Screenplay Competition.
LOG LINE: A blue-collar family man snaps after a brutal attack at the hands of aurthorities, loses faith in the system and quickly rises in the ranks of Brooklyn’s criminal underworld while he slowly looses his mind.
(Warning Explicit Material) Where and When?
1980’s Brooklyn, Queens, NYC:
SERIES INSPIRATION: Nick the Hat was the real-life father of series creator Michael Perri. An electrician who in 1975 while working on a building, when a group of 200 construction workers turned up for a jurisdictional dispute with another union that suddenly meleed into a massive riot. Nick was mistakenly beaten by five policemen with their nightsticks.
The episodes are inspired by the thousands of hours of cassette recordings transporting you to this world. It’s a leaderless time, there is a Mafia power vacuum open for grabs and the city is struggling with its daily exigencies. This pilot is the start of all of that. Each episode will start with a thematically appropriate sound byte from the recordings.
My aunt would always say, “I wish you knew your father, you don’t know your father, they beat him so badly that day, I lost my brother that day!”
Eventually the line blurred for Nick and he came to distrust everyone and everything. He started leading a double life, doing nefarious deeds while he obsessively recorded his friends and enemies alike, surmising to always be one step ahead.
Please request the series bible and pilot below.
If you have any input, notes or feedback please contact me.
Thanks for the consideration.
Michael Perri Email: NickTheHatInfo@gmail.com
