Devil’s Advocate
EP and Head Writer of drama series in development featuring Martin Sheen as EP and in a key supporting role.
September, 1969. One month after Woodstock.
The old world order is rapidly unraveling around the globe, as the post-WWII generation finds its own voice in the midst of another escalating war – in Vietnam. Unrest has rippled out from American cities and college campuses like a wildfire spreading unchecked. Now, young people throughout the world are taking to the streets to spread their doctrine of peace and love, with a contagious fervor fueled by sex, drugs and rock n’ roll.
New York. Paris. Sydney. London... and now Rome. This new gospel of youthful rebellion knows no political or religious boundaries. In fact, its spirit has even penetrated the seemingly impenetrable walls of the Vatican – an institution seldom lauded for its embrace of cultural waves. But the Second Vatican Council is four years old, and change is already in the air.
Within the ancient offices of the Roman Church, centuries of steadfast dogma are colliding with an unprecedented popular awakening, and the friction of that struggle is being felt within the hearts and minds of some of Catholicism’s ablest torchbearers. Among them is Father Mychal Campion, a 35 year-old British Jesuit who has risen fast through the Vatican ranks, and now serves as its Advocatus Diaboli, or “Devil’s Advocate.” In a period when the fundamental order of good and evil is being challenged, Mychal’s role requires him to see the distinction in black and white. He is charged with making the case against any potential candidates for sainthood. It is a thankless role designed for a pessimist and skeptic, but Mychal is neither of those. Daily, he must put aside his own faith to disprove the supposed holiness of those who have gone before him. But this isn’t his only internal struggle, or even his most profound.
Mychal, a convert to Catholicism, is a former playboy and a recovering alcoholic, now bound by the shackles of celibacy in an age of free love. Though he tries daily to resist the temptations that surround him – principally, his unspoken love for a young and beautiful Vatican Radio employee named Elizabeth – the pull of worldly desire is strong and unrelenting.
Devil’s Advocate is a new dramatic series that questions absolute truth through the experience of one very good man who is seeking to find it. Against the real-world backdrop of the tumultuous 1960s, the series juxtaposes the mystifying and inexplicable world of the supernatural, both the “light” and “the dark side.” We will dabble in the realm of purported miracles (which Campion’s office is charged with disproving) and descend into the depths of exorcism as well. It’s a saga of angels and demons… and this time, the cases under investigation will be inspired by true stories found in the Vatican’s archives.
Devil’s Advocate is a timeless story of good and evil, sin and sanctity, science and religion… but mostly of the struggle between faith and doubt, taking place at a volatile crossroads between past and future.
