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<strong>BENEATH</strong><br />
A SIX PART 1 HOUR DRAMA SERIES<br />
BASED ON A TRUE STORY
WRITTEN BY<br />
CRAIG FREIMOND & ROBBIE THORPE<br />
BASED ON<br />
COLD CASE CONFESSION<br />
BY ALEX YELISEEV<br />
DEVELOPED BY<br />
OCHRE MOVING PICTURES
SERIES LOGLINE<br />
Two modern day bounty hunters<br />
working outside a malfunctioning law<br />
enforcement system, stumble upon a<br />
confession letter to one of Joburg’s<br />
most bizarre murders. Will our ham<br />
fisted heroes be able to solve this<br />
gritty crime?
THE WORLD<br />
Beneath is set in modern day Johannesburg South Africa, a<br />
crazy-ass place often referred to as the crime capital of the<br />
world. With a toxic mix of a sky-high murder rate, a woefully<br />
under resourced and often corrupt police force, Joburg is not<br />
for the faint-hearted. It’s a rough and ready mining town that<br />
drew fortune seekers, bandits and pimps. A hundred and twentyfive<br />
years later, little has changed. It is Africa’s El Dorado<br />
- the city of gold. In Joburg, justice can come from the<br />
unlikeliest places and often from those operating outside the<br />
law. Enter our two unlikely heroes Al and TJ, both ex-cops, who<br />
worked as partners in Joburg’s notorious Narc squad. They left<br />
the force under a cloud and now operate as private detectives,<br />
police informers, VIP protection, bouncers, anything they can<br />
do to turn a buck. Their methods are blunt and unconventional,<br />
their effectiveness ranges from sensational to disastrous.
THE WORLD<br />
Al is older, calmer, his life as an agent is catching up with<br />
him, forcing him to slow down and consider the angles. TJ, is<br />
no strategist, no Gary Kasparov of criminal investigation. He<br />
is the energy, the passion, the sledgehammer. They are both<br />
street level operators who occupy the shadows between the<br />
layers of society. They share a love of tattoos, motorbikes,<br />
guns and a bizarre quest for justice. They are not afraid<br />
to break laws or bones to crack a case.<br />
They are pitted<br />
against a dizzying array of unusual suspects who rely on the<br />
dysfunctional system to get away with murder.
SEASON ONE<br />
THE NAKED AND THE DEAD<br />
"BASED ON A TRUE STORY"<br />
We use the murky world of true South African crime<br />
stories as the departure point for our series. We<br />
blend fact and fiction to tell stories that are so<br />
strange and peculiar they can only be true.<br />
Based on the explosive true story of the Betty<br />
Kitane murder as explored in Alex Yeliseev’s best<br />
seller Cold Case Confession.
SYNOPSIS<br />
A Johannesburg landlord finds a confession letter<br />
under a dog-piss stained carpet. The contents of the<br />
confession contain clues to a chaotic murder committed<br />
four years earlier. The letter lands in the hands of<br />
unconventional private investigators Al and TJ who take<br />
on the bizarre case believing they can solve it and sell<br />
the information to the police. They discover a circle of<br />
desperate and misguided individuals, who have committed a<br />
grotesque murder to cover up their own crimes. The story<br />
emanates from of one of Johannesburg’s most well-known<br />
restaurants, an eccentric Thai eatery called Cranks.
SYNOPSIS<br />
The place is as famous for its “hot and sour soup” as<br />
it is for the copulating Barbie dolls dangling from the<br />
ceilings and its extremely mysterious owner Florian.<br />
Mary Kunene was Florian’s right-hand person who had<br />
worked for him for fifteen years until one day, she<br />
simply disappeared without trace. She was an innocent<br />
bystander who knew too much and had to be removed. The<br />
perpetrators have for the last four years quite simply,<br />
gotten away with murder. Al and TJ ’s unorthodox<br />
methods might just be what is needed to crack this case<br />
right open. The story weaves between past and present.<br />
The events are bizarre and brutal, but the tone of the<br />
telling is darkly comic.
CHARACTERS<br />
JAMIE BARTLETT AS AL<br />
Alex White; Al for short, is a gnarled, bruised and broken white man<br />
who has led a dangerous life veering wildly on both sides of the law.<br />
Having been through two messy divorces he guards his emotions closely.<br />
His health is always on the verge of collapse. Underneath the Joburg<br />
South accent and bad tattoos he is a canny investigator.<br />
BRENDON DANIELS AS TJ<br />
Timothy Jacobs, TJ for short, is a physically strong and intimidating<br />
black man, with a big laugh and a short fuse. He is extremely impulsive<br />
and often moves boldly in the wrong direction. He separated from his wife<br />
and childhood sweetheart Melanie.
CHARACTERS<br />
UDO KIER AS FLORIAN VON STRAATEN<br />
Florian is flamboyant, paranoid and unpredictable, his accent as mysterious as his past.<br />
Stories abound about him. People say he was a mercenary, an arms dealer, a drug dealer and<br />
a killer. He is exceptionally private, a man of few words who gives very little away. He has<br />
a violent temper and several nom-de-plumes which he uses when it suites him. Florian has no<br />
allegiance to anybody except himself and will take out anybody who stands in his way.<br />
MICHELLE ANG AS VERONIQUE VON STRAATEN<br />
Veronique is sexy, devious and dangerous. She’s learnt to be hard and manipulative from an<br />
early age. She’s extremely ambitious and will do almost anything to achieve her desires. She<br />
uses her sexuality as a weapon. She is the femme fatale of the story and the catalyst for<br />
the misery that unfolds but when everyone looks for her, she has slipped out the back door.<br />
SAM REIF AS HAMILTON LAWSON<br />
Privileged, deluded and more than a little insane. On the surface Hamilton is suave, educated<br />
and charming. Adopted as a baby to rich parents and brought up in Joburg’s wealthiest suburbs.<br />
His genealogy never fitted well with his sophisticated surroundings and from an early age<br />
he became a rebellious child constantly rescued by his long-suffering parents. He lives in<br />
a dream world where he plays out his James Bond fantasies in his private detective agency.<br />
He surrounds himself with losers and misfits. He is a practicing nudist. He falls under<br />
Veronique’s spell and is the ruthless killer of Mary Kunene.
CHARACTERS<br />
KIM ENGELBRECHT AS MELANIE JACOBS<br />
Melanie is a stunningly beautiful black woman on the outside but tough as<br />
nails underneath. Like TJ she grew up tough in the township of Westbury;<br />
a gang infested community where only the toughest survive.<br />
SARAH POTTER AS SAVANNAH<br />
Al ’s only child to his estranged first wife Valerie. Savannah is a fiery<br />
and reckless redhead. She’s works as a tattoo artist in a thriving Joburg<br />
parlour. She is openly gay and involved in a tempestuous relationship<br />
with Suzie, a drummer in an Afrikaans rock band.
CHARACTERS<br />
GRANT SWANBY AS CONRAD SMYTHE<br />
Life is a struggle for Conrad Smythe. Born into difficult circumstances he tries his best but always<br />
comes up short. He is tall and lanky but his self-esteem is so low, it has stooped his posture. He<br />
suffers from “black holes” in his memory that have caused major problems in his life. He is easily<br />
exploited and manipulated by more cunning people, like Hamilton. He loves his wife Blanche desperately<br />
and hates to disappoint her. He becomes an unwitting accomplice to Mary’s murder.<br />
LINDA SOKHULU AS MARY KUNENE<br />
Mary is firm, steadfast and loyal. She came to Joburg from the Eastern Cape with nothing and has learnt<br />
to survive in the crazy city. She has worked as the head cook at Cranks for fifteen years and runs the<br />
kitchen with an iron fist, taking no nonsense from anyone, not even Florian. Her two kids are her pride<br />
and joy, one lives with her Mother in the Eastern Cape and the baby, lives with her. She likes to drink<br />
black label quarts from the bottle and smoke Coutleigh cigarettes. Sometimes she drinks too much. Life<br />
is hard.
EPISODIC BREAKDOWN<br />
ONE<br />
A failed abalone raid in Chinatown leaves TJ and Al embarrassed, out of pocket and desperately looking for a new gig. A confession letter found<br />
under a carpet, describing a murder committed four years earlier, is brought to their attention. To solve the case, they will need a suspect, a<br />
motive and most importantly a body. Clues in the confession lead them to the obsequious Conrad Smythe who claims to be dogged by “black holes’ in<br />
his memory. Posing as cops they put him under massive pressure and he cracks telling them what he knows. Based on this they information they dig<br />
up his furious German landlord’s back yard looking for the body but come away empty handed. What they learn is that the body has been exhumed,<br />
smashed into pieces and scattered all over Johannesburg.<br />
TWO<br />
Out of financial desperation TJ secretly takes a job as an insurance investigator. With the murder case slipping away, Al makes a breakthrough<br />
which brings him into stark conflict with the sinister proprietor of Cranks restaurant, Florian Von Straaten. Al has realised that the murdered<br />
woman, Mary Kunene worked as a cook at the restaurant for fifteen years before she disappeared without a trace. Florian knows way more than he<br />
is letting on and explodes when Al mistakenly shows him the confession letter penned by Hamilton Lawson. Al must beat a hasty retreat realizing<br />
how much he relies on TJ’s muscle. When Al and TJ return to the restaurant, the doors are firmly locked with a hand-written sign saying simply,<br />
“closed until further notice”.
EPISODIC BREAKDOWN<br />
THREE<br />
Florian has vanished into thin air while TJ battles with the insurance job and keeping it a secret from Al. Al discovers the problems at Cranks<br />
started four years earlier when Florian’s daughter Veronique arrived from Australia. She was twenty-one, wild and out of control and hadn’t seen<br />
her father since she was two tears old. Veronique started a frenzied affair with dodgy private investigator Hamilton Lawson. Together they hatched<br />
a scheme to steal the illegal foreign currency in Florian’s safe and blame the staff at Cranks. The case starts to overwhelm Al who collapses<br />
after an all-night drinking binge. While Al lies unconscious TJ promises him that if he wakes up they will get the team back together.<br />
FOUR<br />
TJ helps Al escape from hospital with the tubes still hanging out of him. Turning their attention back to the case they grill the hapless Conrad<br />
Smythe for info about the alleged murderer Hamilton Lawson. Suddenly able to remember seemingly lost memories Conrad tells them how Veronique<br />
got Florian to hire Hamilton as a private investigator to find the thieves. Hamilton gets his crew to kidnap and torture the staff to confess to<br />
a crime he and Veronique had committed! Mary found out about the affair between Hamilton and Veronique and had to be silenced. Hamilton kills<br />
Mary by stabbing her through the head with a knitting needle. He tells Florian she was the one responsible for the theft. Al and TJ find crucial<br />
information about the corrupt cop Carl Andrews, one of Hamilton’s crew who can hopefully help them put the missing pieces of the puzzle back<br />
together.
EPISODIC BREAKDOWN<br />
FIVE<br />
Before they can get to him, an inebriated Carl Andrews warns Hamilton that people are sniffing around about Mary Kunene. Hamilton realises this<br />
must be the snitch Conrad and tries to kill him by running him over with his Range Rover in a caravan park. The slippery Conrad narrowly escapes.<br />
Al and TJ track down, the now blind drunk, Carl Andrews and force him to turn on his former boss Hamilton. He fills in the pieces of the puzzle,<br />
how Mary had miraculously survived the stabbing and crawled to a country hospital. Hamilton and Veronique mastermind Mary’s kidnapping by hiring<br />
an ambulance, dressing up as Doctors and abducting her from the hospital. Not being cold blooded killers none of them had the courage to finish<br />
her off. The next day they discover that Mary has died in the night. After heated debate and some mystifying logic, Conrad suggests they bury her<br />
in the small courtyard behind his house.<br />
SIX<br />
Al and TJ further interrogate an unravelling Conrad who can finally remember the missing parts of the story. Florian discovered his daughters part<br />
in the theft and turned up the heat on her and Hamilton. Veronique skipped the country with the cash leaving behind an angry and bitter Hamilton.<br />
Believing his life is in danger from Florian, Hamilton writes a detailed confession letter which he entrusts to Conrad. Conrad hides the letter<br />
under his carpet and almost immediately forgets where he put it. TJ and Al have at last figured out the entire twisted story but without a body<br />
they still have no case. Based on information gleaned by Al during a date with a Bosnian pathologist, they return to Conrad’s back yard, this<br />
time searching for tiny bone fragments rather than a body. They find some minute finger bones and can finally prove that Mary was in fact buried<br />
there. Hamilton persuades his last faithful crew member David Maxwell that their only hope is to kill Conrad. Desperate to save his life Conrad<br />
shows David the confession letter that implicates all of them. Instead of killing Conrad, David turns his gun on Hamilton shooting him several<br />
times. A triumphant Al and TJ hand the case over to the police and get their cash. On their way to celebrate their victory they are mowed down<br />
in a hail of bullets by lowlifes from an entirely unrelated case. Before passing out, a bleeding Al, looks at a wounded TJ and says, “there has<br />
to be an easier way to make a living”.
VISUAL REFERENCES
VISUAL REFERENCES
CONTACT<br />
STAN JOSEPH<br />
Email<br />
stan@ochre.co.za<br />
Mobile +27 83 309 9426<br />
ROBBIE THORPE<br />
Email robbie@ochre.co.za<br />
Mobile + 27 82 450 6180