The Cuban Circuit – Synopsis

THE CUBAN CIRCUIT

— an Award-Winning Screenplay — 

by

 Pamela Jaye Smith and Monty Hayes McMillan

 The Mob’s best man in Havana is a woman — and she wants out!

Our script is based on reality — “Operation Paper Clip” — which smuggled Nazi scientists into American nuclear programs after WWII.

It’s a female-driven story featuring a sexy and savvy courier for the Mob.

The Cuban Circuit could be an exciting and engaging series with plenty of material besides what’s in this feature-length script. Great game possibilities, too.

There are echoes of current events with the Latin American drug trade, CIA dark projects, blood diamonds, and international organized crime.

At the center of the story is a passionate love affair between the American heroine and a German industrialist.

SYNOPSIS

MYRNA McELWAINE is a snazzy dame with beauty and brains, top courier for the mob in 1948 Havana, a glamourous and dangerous place. Myrna longs for a more peaceful life and a chance at real love. But her boss and former boyfriend NICK doesn’t offer retirement benefits. Nobody gets off the Cuban Circuit alive.

Enforcer LOU is in heavy competition with Myrna for Nick’s approval just as CIA agent LARRY contracts with Nick to smuggle German rocket scientists into America, before the Russians can get to them. Myrna is assigned to escort HERR INGLES and the DE KALBS across the border and up to Los Alamos. There’s an immediate intense attraction between the savvy babe and the urbane aristocratic Ingles.

Myrna’s friend JOSIE, a flighty Cuban call girl, is back on drugs via JAEGER, a new rough-trade customer. Myrna’s troubled because Josie’s not supposed to be on the stuff and the drugs aren’t Nick’s.

The de Kalb’s bodyguard is slain amidst Casino partyers, ratcheting the Cuban Circuit timetable into fast-forward as Nick’s people search for who-done-it-and-why.

Myrna braves the sleazy barrio and discovers a behind-the-back drug connection between Josie’s macho younger brother, the bad boy Jaeger,and the Casino’s too-handsome singer RAFAEL, who still holds a torch for Myrna.

Myrna and Lou discover the de Kalb’s bodyguard was killed by Nazi-hunters who’re also after Jaeger, a rogue Nazi intent on restoring the Reich. Nick’s paranoia over all these complications is tripped when Josie is murdered and Jaeger steals the German scientists’ fake American passports, sending everybody scrambling.

Jaeger offs the Nazi-hunters and Lou overhears Rafael ask him for a cut of “the diamonds”. Lou executes Rafael for his disloyalty but only wounds Jaeger, hoping he’ll lead him to the diamonds.

While the attraction between Myrna and Ingles smolders, Larry bribes Nick to keep the Cuban Circuit open for his rocket scientists in return for setting up a South American drug pipeline, courtesy of the CIA.

Jaeger slays the De Kalbs, but finds no diamonds. Myrna takes command. She’s fed up with all the killing, frightened for Ingle’s safety, and confused by Larry’s covert job offers for her to join the CIA. They’ll go now!

On the yacht towards the U.S.-Mexican border and safety, Ingles and Myrna finally find time for the passionate tryst that’s been simmering beneath all the high-stakes intrigue. He pleads with her to come with him to America but she’s afraid she knows too much for Nick to ever let her go.

Will Myrna get Ingles safely across the border?

Where’s that dangerous Jaeger?

Where’s vicious, sneaky Lou?

Who’ll end up with the diamonds?

Can Myrna get herself off the Cuban Circuit once this mission is over?

View sample pages here

** To read the script, contact Pamela Jaye at 323-874-6447 or pamelajayesmith@gmail.com

*****

THE BAHAMAS INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 

THE CUBAN CIRCUIT was a Winner at the Bahamas International Film Festival.

Writers Monty Hayes McMillan and Pamela Jaye Smith attended the Screenwriters Residency Program in the Bahamas Nov 30 – Dec 4, 2015. They and the other winners had private meetings with the producer/mentors, attended outdoor screenings, enjoyed social events with other writers and filmmakers, and had a great time in this beautiful place.

“It’s great! What other stories would you want to pitch me?”
Vince Gerardis – Producer HBO’s Game of Thrones

“I like Myrna, she has flaws and is a complex character.”
Cameron Cubbison – Development Executive and Co-Founder of ScreenCraft

“Your antagonist Yaeger is a great character, very well developed.”
Sean Covell – Producer Napoleon Dynamite, Beneath, and Café

“Structurally it works.”
Matt Helderman – Co-CEO at Buffalo 8 Productions and Bondit

Our script also placed in:

The Hot 100 in the Capital Fund Screenplay Competition

The Top 100 in the Emerging Screenwriters Contest

and most recently,

Quarter-Finals in the Cynosure Screenwriting Awards

 

ABOUT THE WRITERS

Smith and McMillan are writers and filmmakers who’ve been in the professional media industry for 30+ years, in Hollywood and around the world.

They have co-written a number of scripts. The Cuban Circuit was under consideration at MGM (before a regime change). Their script Portrait has been optioned and they’ve done writing-for-hire on many other projects including The Naga Saga, a fictionalized version of true events in India and Burma.

Monty has served as an analyst on international affairs and has taught television production in Malaysia, filmed on the Arctic ice cap, and photographed the indigenous peoples of the Andes. He has attended National Security Forums at both the Army and Air Force War Colleges. As a director, he worked on several episodes of AUSA’s “America’s Army” and co-wrote and designed the US Army Signal Command’s 2000 Command Briefing DVD and video.

Pamela has written many other scripts, both for hire and on spec and does polishes for clients’ scripts. She was recently hired to adapt an historical novel into a mini-series, and at the Great American PitchFest 100% of the companies pitched took the leave-behinds for that story. She is an international speaker-consultant, award-winning producer-director and author of five books for media-makers. Pamela served on the US Army’s Advanced Warfighting Working Group and attended Air Force and Army War Colleges.

See more about Monty and Pamela Jaye at www.pamelajayesmith.com.