Grass Snakes

Grass Snakes is both a throwback to 70s conspiracy thrillers, and a sendup of the modern day police procedural. It combines a series of blistering, escalating set pieces with authentic, dialogue-driven drama. Think Serpico meets Sicario, Three Days of Condor meets The Town, or Heat meets The Friends of Eddie Coyle.

In the grisly aftermath of a bank robbery, outcast detective Joyce Minor becomes entangled in an investigation into her own department. Haunted by past indiscretions, Joyce believes she isn’t worthy of redemption - Detective Derek Morland on the other hand, believes he’s entitled to it. With very different tactics and contradictory motives, the two sleuths race against time - and each other - to find a missing thief after a bank heist gone wrong leaves a getaway vehicle at the bottom of the Delaware River.

The investigation is further complicated by a broken marriage, a love affair with an exotic dancer, and an Internal Affairs inquiry. Unaware that she may not be able to fully trust Morland's team, Detective Minor follows a trail of clues left behind by the sunken bank robbers, leading her down a path of danger and violence that will push her moral compass to the limit. With I.A. officers Porter and Larson playing each character off each other like chess pieces, Minor must get to the bottom of the case before its darkness engulfs her completely.
Grass Snakes is a crime thriller about police corruption in Philadelphia. Through an electric, dialogue-driven story, with increasingly tension-filled set pieces, Snakes asks tough questions of its protagonist - questions that have become all-too important over the last few years. With a push for police reform currently spreading across the country – now is the time to make Grass Snakes, a script that challenges structural and societal norms, and asks, who is really worthy of redemption?

Why now?
I’ve grown up in a world where the difference between right and wrong are strangely ambiguous – at least to those who are in charge. I want to tell a story that captures this odd ambiguity, while honing in on characters that all think they’re the good guys. I’ve always been fascinated by the way people seem to envision themselves as the main character of their own story. Human beings are uniquely self-possessed in this way. A collision of inspirations drove me to write Grass Snakes. The recent light shone on the failures of modern day policing sparked my passion on the subject matter. The literary works of George V. Higgins, David Simon, and Richard Price fueled my writing style. The films of Taylor Sheridan, Michael Mann and The Coen Brothers showed me that audiences have an appetite for the sort of tonal tightrope walk that this type of storytelling requires.