“TRACK” Copyright WGA - © 2010 – SACD #234401 / K.C. Schulberg / Stellar Group S.a.r.l. Contact: kcs@ ww om.com - mobile: + 33 6 08 49 25 57 « TRACK » A saga for television set against the glamorous world of international thoroughbred horse racing Created by K.C. Schulberg / © Stellar Group Tentative French Series Casting The Strathmore family: Ambrose de Strathmore Jean Rochefort Xavier de Strathmore Thierry Lhermite Etienne de Strathmore Gaspard Ulliel The Gioria Barko team: Gioria Barko Josiane Bolasko (Already contacted/interest expressed) Emmanuel “Manny” Running Bear George Aguilar (Already contacted/interest expressed) Horace Crooked Tail Lorenzo Roman Nose (Already contacted/interest expressed) The Sheikh Khalifa bin Sultan Al Sowel team : Belle Halliday Jeane Manson (Already contacted/interest expressed) Arthus Pivoine Dominique Pinon (Already contacted/interest expressed) Sheikh Al Sowel Omar Sharif The Journalist: Sabrina Rochefoucauld Claire Keim “TRACK” Copyright WGA - ©2010 – SACD #234401 / K.C. Schulberg / Stellar Group S.a.r.l. Contact: [email protected] - mobile: + 33 6 08 49 25 57 « TRACK » A saga for television set against the glamorous world of international thoroughbred horse racing Three powerful dynasties: Two run by strong-willed, independent women and the third by the feared patriarch of one of France’s oldest family fortunes – all vie for influence and domination in the competitive and dangerous world of professional horse racing in France. Into this mix, we add a young woman journalist on a mission - An expert on the racing industry, but more than that…A woman who will not tire until she reveals certain painful truths about not only racing’s past….but her own…. 1) The family of Ambrose de Strathmore – Legendary French industrialists of British ancestry. The family business conglomerate includes a supermarket chain, a line of luxury goods, controlling shares in private banking institutions and the only significant remaining private investment in Suez Environment, dating from the family’s charter investment in La Compagnie Financière de Suez in 1856. Their love of horses dates from the early 19th century when the family was instrumental in bringing modern racing from the British Isles to France. Ambrose is the great-grandson of Wilfred de Strathmore, the first president of the Societe d'Encouragement pour l'Amelioration des Races de Chevaux en France, which evolved to become today’s famed Jockey Club. The de Strathmore’s have one of the leading stables in Chantilly and their stud farm In Normandy boasts horses whose bloodlines trace back 20 generations to the original Darley Arabian (1704) and Godolphin Arabian (1729). The de Strathmore’s are fiercely competitive, have connections throughout the upper echelons of society and government and customarily pay top dollar to employ the finest trainers and jockeys in the world. Ambrose de Strathmore (80 years old) - white haired, aristocratic (Jean Rochefort), known for his arched sense of humor, his iron discipline, his demand for total obedience and his penchant for cognac, dice and flirting with young girls. Xavier de Strathmore (50’s) – son of Ambrose and scion of the de Strathmore family dynasty. (Thierry Lhermite) A modern business man, whose skills in the board room helped turn a one-man family dynasty into a modern multi-national powerhouse, the rival of any in the world. Etienne de Strathmore (20) – grandson of Ambrose, son of Xavier, wild, unwilling to respect family traditions, a flamboyant playboy, sometime DJ and inveterate club-hound (Gaspard Ulliel). With his movie-star good looks and nonchalant charm, this heir to the rich and famous de Strathmore family is indisputably the most eligible bachelor on the Chantilly scene. There is a deep and terrible secret buried in the de Strathmore family history - one that will gradually come to light during the course of the saga, with horrific consequences for this all-powerful dynasty. 2) Gioria Barko (50’s) – Gioria’s father, Gyozaly Barkozian, was an Armenian Jew of modest origins who arrived in France just after the Second World War with nothing more than a sewing machine and a tradition of fine Armenian tailoring. He died in 1959, before he could transfer his passion for sewing to his nine-year-old “TRACK” Copyright WGA - ©2010 – SACD #234401 / K.C. Schulberg / Stellar Group S.a.r.l. Contact: [email protected] - mobile: + 33 6 08 49 25 57 daughter, the “wild child”, Gioria (Josiane Bolasko). As a rebellious girl of the 60’s, Gioria only wanted to smoke pot, make group love and take hallucinogenic drugs. But, she found herself increasingly creating costumes for all her friends’ rock bands while developing her own distinctive personal clothing style. At the age of 22, while the jean craze was in full swing, she hit on an idea. She began buying bolts of blue jean fabric that had been “rejected” by the three leading jean manufacturers because of blemishes in the weave. These bolts could be bought for pennies on the dollar as the wholesalers did not want to transport them back to Taiwan, where they were manufactured. Gioria devised a way to “distress” the fabric and thus single-handedly invented the “stone- washed” jean industry in the mid-70’s, marketing her trendy jeans worldwide under the fast-growing Barko brand. Now a smart and innovative business woman, her signature trademark is bright red-orange hair that she wears in bangs and large red-framed glasses that keep her looking eternally young. In 2008, just before the worldwide economic meltdown, she sold the Barko Jean brand for 1.2 billion Euros to an American multi- national. Now she does whatever she pleases. She bought the famous Khashoggi yacht. She is an international celebrity, whose fire-red bangs and glasses are known around the world and whose reputation for unorthodox dress and unpredictable behavior are well earned. At the same time, she has always been socially concerned. Every Friday night for the past ten years, she’s spent the evening doling out supper at one of the soup kitchens founded by her friend, the actor, comedian and activist, Coluche. And she once created a scandal by buying a block of high-priced seats in the stands for one of Chantilly’s leading races and filling them with her homeless friends from the soup kitchen. And further scandal by inviting these friends to join her after the race under the luxury sponsor’s tent. Waiting to conclude her deal with the Americans, she spent three weeks on a horse ranch in Utah where she met members of the Apache Indian tribe, who took her horseback riding through the Rocky Mountains. Now smitten with horses, she returned to France and, on a dare, paid 22 million Euros for one of the leading stables in Chantilly. As soon as the stable purchase was sealed, she brought over two of her Apache friends to train the horses and manage her stable. These “horse-whispering” Indians turn Chantilly on its ear refusing to submit to the centuries old (largely unspoken) traditions by which everyone abides. The employees at the stable, who are now under the orders of the unorthodox owner and her two Indians, bridle at the unconventional training methods. Still, they must respect these methods as the horses are healthier, more alert and active and perform better than at any time in the venerable stable’s 50 year history. Much to the envy of the jaundiced Chantilly racing community and the utter delight of Gioria, the Barko horses, whose training blankets are bright pink and red, are performing better than ever in the racing time trials. Her prize horse, Salvador Darling (who sometimes races with a large curled mustache painted on his grey face), is now favored to win the upcoming pivotal race, LE PRIX DE JACQUARD, with the 2nd largest purse in France – just over 1m Euros. When Gioria takes her seat in the festooned Barko box trackside to watch her horses run, the spectacle of her, in colorful attire escorted by two American Indians in full native regalia, always creates a sensation. Emmanuel (“Manny”) Running Bear (50’s) – Gioria’s chief trainer, Manny (George Aguilar) lived all his life on the reservation in Utah until meeting Gioria. Largely through sign language at first, she told him of life in Europe. And he regaled her with stories of his forefathers who, as famous and powerful chiefs, had at one time been responsible for vast expanses of land across the American planes. Though his family name is legend among the Apaches, Manny is now forced to live in a simple trailer in one of the reservation communities. His only consolation has been his horses. He lives, eats and sleeps horses and has an almost other-worldly connection with his equine friends. “TRACK” Copyright WGA - ©2010 – SACD #234401 / K.C. Schulberg / Stellar Group S.a.r.l. Contact: [email protected] - mobile: + 33 6 08 49 25 57 Horace Crooked Tail (30’s) – Horace or “horse” as the French invariably pronounce it, is Manny’s nephew and also a superb horseman and trick rider (Lorenzo Roman Nose). He spent his teens as a champion rodeo rider and his 20’s doing Disney horse shows all over the US. An ancestor on his mother’s side was a pretty young Apache woman and trick rider who accompanied Buffalo Bill on his triumphant tour to Paris in 1889. When she returned to the US in 1890, she was pregnant. And so, French blood courses through Horace’s veins. 3) The family of Sheikh Khalifa bin Sultan Al Sowel (70’s) – Sheikh Al Sowel (Omar Sharif), the colossally wealthy ruler of one of the Emirates leading families remembers his earliest days, when his father selected him, at age 12, to rule the family over the protests of nearly 50 half-brothers and sisters.