Idea for a show. Part 2

By Gonzalo López Martí – Creative director, etc / LMMiami.com

Elevator pitch:

• Melrose Place meets Downton Abbey meets Ballers meets Big Brother.
• Lifestyles of the young, restless, rich & famous with generous doses of real estate porn.
• A modern-day telenovela 100% apt for non-linear consumption.

Name:

• Trepadores
• Alt name: Trepas
• Alt name: Cima

Trepador (male: trepador; female: trepadora; from the verb: trepar, to climb) stands for many things: social climber, ambitious, driven, career-driven, charmer, manipulative. It is used pejoratively for the most part. In certain contexts “trepadora” may mean “gold digger”.

Taglines:

• ¿Hasta dónde puedes trepar? ¿Cuán alto quieres llegar?

Logline:

• The show will take place in Miami and will touch upon various zeitgeist topics: climate change, family, health, loyalty, identity, gender, self-image, loneliness, success, life/work balance, sports, alternative lifestyles, corruption.

Treatment:

• It will be 100% non-linear, watchable and snackable on multiple devices. From a narrative POV, the viewer will be able to “direct” the cameras he/she wants to view: security cameras across the buildings corridors and common areas. Combined with the various social feeds of the cast, who will have a particular tendency to overshare.

Pilot synopsis:

• The residents of a hyper exclusive, luxurious, ocean-front Miami condo, The Cima Building, prepare for what looks like a category 1 storm. Nothing to worry about given the fact that the 50-story high-rise they inhabit is spanking new, designed and built following the latest, strictest construction codes.
• Unexpectedly, the weather takes a turn for the worst: what was supposed to be just a strong tropical storm escalates into a massive, fast-moving category 4 hurricane. A state of frenzy and chaos overtakes traditional and social media. It is too late to evacuate though so authorities call for the residents to hole up, stay safe and brace for landfall, particularly those who live on coastal areas.

Cast:

• Antonio: a Mexican retired soccer star. He is young, early 30s, but his meteoric career was broadsided by a bad knee injury, right before he was about to be transferred to Real Madrid for a huge amount of money. After a brief stint od depression and with the help of his ever-present single mom, Adela, he became a successful coach. But he had a falling out with Mexican bookies (organized crime) who wanted to fix games with threats and bribes. He took a job with a nascent Miami soccer franchise partly for safety reasons but also to prove to the soccer world that he can build a name for himself outside of his home country. He lives with his beloved mother, who keeps him grounded and is a bit of a matriarch for several of their neighbors at The Cusp. Her well-meant yet overbearing presence tends to gets in the way of his romantic life.
• Pilar: a beautiful Venezuelan “sifrina” (posh girl) who holds a high-pressure corporate job. She comes from money and could probably lead a cushy lifestyle regardless. She is extremely self-demanding, an all-out perfectionist in everything she does: her looks, her work, her manners, the décor of her home. So much so that she tends to sabotage all of her romantic relationships over minor issues that she is unwilling or unable to forgive in her suitors. Her secret: she’s been struggling with eating disorders since her teens.
• Victoria: a successful Colombian plastic surgeon. She runs a profitable clinic in town where the rich & famous “get work done”. She is tall, attractive and voluptuous. She is not shy about applying most of her beauty techniques to her own self. She wears the latest and most risqué fashions. She is proudly single and an unabashed man-eater. She has young kids from a failed marriage. Her only weakness: she feels guilty over not spending enough quality time with her kids.
• Joe: a New York transplant living in the tropics. He looks white because he has mixed Irish Catholic and Puerto Rican ancestry. A hard-charging self-made man who worked his way through college and now runs a successful investment company. He has a voracious, devil-may-care appetite for risk: he lives on the brink of becoming a billionaire or going bankrupt. He doesn’t seem to have time for relationships. Or is he gay?
• Rony: a sexy hunk who works in maintenance at The Cusp. He is the consummate bad boy women from all social backgrounds are attracted too (or at least curious about). He’s ripped, covered in tattoos, always tanned and overly confident. He’s a hedonist intent on enjoying the present. He flirts with every single woman who crosses his path. Single or married. His uncanny ability as a handyman/grease monkey and his street hustling chops provide him with enough income to send money to his family in Cuba and buy himself all the toys a 20something guy craves: motorcycles, pickup trucks, etcetera.
• Mario: the maintenance manager, a gentleman in his 60s who fled his home country in Latin America and rebuilt his life in Miami. He’s seen it all and is quite hardened by life, maybe overly so. He doesn’t like to talk about his past, it might have been traumatic &/or violent. He deals with life with the stern manly stoicism of a bygone era.
• Mayte: the other comadre/matriarch of the building. She’s good friends with Adela, Antonio’s mom, despite the fact that she’s way less conservative, more open-minded and pragmatic. She is the daytime concierge and the de facto manager. She knows everything that goes on on the premises, even behind closed doors. She dispenses advice liberally, wanted or otherwise. She’s bossy and nosy but she means well.

Read Part 1