In Development
Trashman
Synopsis
Tyrese Hayes, a Midwestern college football player, finds himself in over his head after befriending a fellow Brooklyn native, Jimmy Chase, aka TrashMan. Already a small time marijuana dealer, Jimmy introduces Tyrese and a few of his fellow football players into a world of gambling, hard drugs, and violence. After discovering secrets about Jimmy's past, Tyrese must work to escape his grasp in order to protect his family and his life.
TYRESE HAYES (21) escaped the harsh realities of hood life in "Do or Die" Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn by getting a partial football scholarship to Kansas Tech. He's good, but not great -- though he doesn't know it yet. Deluded about a career in the NFL, he shirks his education and is forced to hustle weed to the student body in order to support his three-year-old kid. But this October at K-Tech is particularly "dry." The surrounding marijuana farms are plagued — like every other neighboring crop — with locusts. And on the football field, Tyrese's luck has finally run out. He's nearly expelled when a "cheap shot" during a game escalates into an all-out nationally televised brawl. Tyrese's scholarship is in jeopardy. To make matters worse, the Epsilon Sigma Fraternity House — where Tyrese and the rest of the team live and find sanctuary — is about to be condemned by the town's health department.
Enter the "Trash Man."
JIMMY CHASE (50s), a.k.a. TRASH MAN is a K-Tech "super booster" whose timely arrival is both welcome and mysterious. His business is sanitation, and he shows up at just the right moment to save the fraternity before it gets closed down. Like the infestation of locusts on the fields of Kansas, the Trash Man insinuates himself into frat house life. He begins running craps games and taking bets. And he takes a particular liking to Tyrese, giving the conflicted young man something that he's always wanted but never had — a father.
But fatherly love takes a foul turn...
Jimmy has heard of the weed drought and he sees an opportunity. He stakes Tyrese out with the only marijuana around. But he doesn't stop there. Trash Man handpicks a mix of violent and ambitious kids from the football team to form a "crew," and introduces them to a new way of life: "If you want something, take it; if anyone complains, hit 'em so bad they never complain again." Trash Man uses his newfound influence to launch a string of moneymaking schemes with Tyrese, his favorite, as the point man. Which is fine by Tyrese — as his star begins to rise and his swagger finally seems justified. But when this world of crime starts to poison the community and leads to murder, it threatens to destroy his life. Desperate to extract himself from the Trash Man's web, Tyrese works to uncover the truth: The "Trash Man" is a big-time gangster from New York formally known as Jimmy "THE BEAST" Gianno, who's tucked deep inside the Witness Protection Program. And Tyrese can't turn to the authorities – the local police are on Jimmy's payroll, and the federal government cares more about Jimmy's testimony against the "Boss of Bosses" than they do his K-Tech crime spree. In too deep with Gianno, and himself implicated in multiple felonies, Tyrese has no choice but to do the unthinkable: to head for New York and find Sal Torrente, the "Boss of Bosses" himself, and disclose Gianno's whereabouts.
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