TOMMY MRJANOVICH is a gregarious ex-boxer who spent half a century building a tow-truck empire in metropolitan Toronto. Then he’s felled by a stroke, during a roadside altercation with a pair of rival tow-truck drivers – steroid-jacked gangbangers with ties to the drug-trade. As shock-waves spread, Tommy’s son-in-law KRIS AHMED – a one-time Special Forces sniper – steps up to fill the old man’s size-14s. He moves quicky to counter the threat posed by DEZ KINCAID, the gang-linked owner of an upstart towing outfit, who sees his chance to seize new turf. But the existential danger will come from the last source Kris could have imagined: his wife ANKA, Tommy’s whip-smart daughter and the love of Kris’s life. Anka is prepared to go much further in her zeal to avenge her father – and she’s already fatally compromised.
NEWS
Set against the real-life turf gang wars in the Greater Toronto Area, TURF WARS is a sweeping fictional saga with ripped-from-the-headlines authenticity. The largest and most diverse metropolis in Canada, Toronto’s roads are notoriously congested with a million-plus vehicles each day. That’s a bonanza for the towing industry, and the absence of provincial regulation creates a Wild West. Honest drivers vie for their livelihoods – and sometimes their lives – against predatory opportunists, as organized crime moves in. Insurance fraud generates $2 billion per year, as tow-truck drivers take kick-backs from corrupt body shops, with lucrative side-scams involving physios and clinics. And that’s just where it starts. Crime groups exploit the towing industry to smuggle drugs and weapons, and are involved in transnational auto theft.
TOMMY MRJANOVICH is a gregarious ex-boxer who spent half a century building a tow-truck empire in metropolitan Toronto. Then he’s felled by a stroke, during a roadside altercation with a pair of rival tow-truck drivers – steroid-jacked gangbangers with ties to the drug-trade. As shock-waves spread, Tommy’s son-in-law KRIS AHMED – a one-time Special Forces sniper – steps up to fill the old man’s size-14s. He moves quicky to counter the threat posed by DEZ KINCAID, the gang-linked owner of an upstart towing outfit, who sees his chance to seize new turf. But the existential danger will come from the last source Kris could have imagined: his wife ANKA, Tommy’s whip-smart daughter and the love of Kris’s life. Anka is prepared to go much further in her zeal to avenge her father – and she’s already fatally compromised.
NEWS
Set against the real-life turf gang wars in the Greater Toronto Area, TURF WARS is a sweeping fictional saga with ripped-from-the-headlines authenticity. The largest and most diverse metropolis in Canada, Toronto’s roads are notoriously congested with a million-plus vehicles each day. That’s a bonanza for the towing industry, and the absence of provincial regulation creates a Wild West. Honest drivers vie for their livelihoods – and sometimes their lives – against predatory opportunists, as organized crime moves in. Insurance fraud generates $2 billion per year, as tow-truck drivers take kick-backs from corrupt body shops, with lucrative side-scams involving physios and clinics. And that’s just where it starts. Crime groups exploit the towing industry to smuggle drugs and weapons, and are involved in transnational auto theft.
CHARACTERS
TOMMY MRJANOVIC
(late 60s) has been the beating heart of Fox Towing for more than 40 years, building it from a tiny operation into a significant player in the GTA, with 60 trucks and a staff of nearly 100. A bear of a man, an ex-boxer who was once the #3-ranked heavyweight in Canada, Tommy is a force of nature: garrulous, back-slapping, charming... and perilous to cross. Over the decades, he has built a vast network of contacts – friends and business associates and people who owe him favours – on both sides of the law. Fox Towing itself has always been able to steer clear of outright corruption, partly because Tommy has the wary respect of key (older) organized crime figures – along with some well-placed friends on the police force. But Tommy is also willing to play hardball, and everybody knows it. As an ex fighter, he’s been active for years helping run a boxing/MMA club in Mississauga, serving as a mentor to kids from rough backgrounds. It’s his way of giving back to the community – and it’s also, a pipeline for ultra-tough young men who are deeply loyal to Tommy, a number of have gone on to work for Fox Towing...which is another part of Fox’s formidable mystique. When Tommy is felled by a massive stroke in the Pilot Episode, the shock-waves are seismic, and far reaching.
Anka MRJANOVIC
(mid-30s) is Tommy’s daughter and his only living child. (Her older brother Ratko died of a drug overdose some years ago, which has left a deep wound on the family.) The apple of her father’s eye, she has quite literally grown up at Fox Towing, and has been destined since adolescence to take it over one day. Both street-smart and book-smart, Anka has a degree in commerce from U of T to go along with her hands-on knowledge of Fox and the towing industry as a whole. As tough-minded as the old man, Anka lacks Tommy’s patience; she’s passionate to a fault, and her temper can be volcanic. It’s a trait that has always worried her father, and this helps explain why Tommy values Anka’s husband KRIS so highly, seeing him (correctly) as a strategic thinker and a calming influence
KRIS AHMED
(mid-30s) is at the core of the series storytelling. He and Anka have one child, a nine-year-old (biracial) daughter, JASMINE. Kris is fiercely devoted to his daughter, and she to him, and he deeply loves Anka as well – but the marriage has never been an easy one. There’s real passion, but it’s also unstable, and there’s been fault (and infidelity) on both sides. Though habitually calm and icily composed – on the surface – there’s another dimension to Kris; a turbulence, tinged with self-destructiveness, that erupts at rare intervals in brief but intense bouts of drinking, gambling, sexual flings, risk-taking, before Kris masters his emotions and forces the turbulence down again. This is almost certainly connected with his background in the military. A scrappy kid from a lower-middle-class family, Kris enlisted at 18 , trained as a sniper, and served for a time in Afghanistan. He doesn’t talk about his experiences there, and it would be too glib to say that he carries some element of PTSD. But it’s undeniable that he was profoundly affected by the experience, and it shapes his response to the threat that confronts Fox Towing in the Pilot Episode – and beyond. As the threat ramps up, Kris grows cooler and more analytical – something that can be mistaken for unwillingness to engage, or even cowardice. In fact it’s no such thing. It’s just that Kris knows where violence leads – he’s killed men himself – and sees it as a last resort, when reason and negotiation fail. But if Kris is pushed too far...watch out.
JOE BARRETT
(30s) isn’t family – but he’s close. A one-time protégé of Tommy’s at the gym, Joe is a guy from a deeply disadvantaged background who – in contrast to Kris – is ready to turn to violence as a first resort. He’s also deeply loyal to Tommy – or so everyone assumes. Except Joe is harbouring a secret about the events that led to Tommy’s stroke, and the possibility exists that he’s playing a double-game. Behind a practised smile, Joe is seething with suppressed resentment towards Kris, who is co-heir to the company while Joe is a “mere” employee. Joe is also having an affair with Anka, as we’ll discover midway through the Pilot Episode
DEZ KINCAID
is the driving force behind Jones, along with Cass. He started out driving for an established towing company, then split off two years ago to form his own company: an upstart outfit with a predatory ethos and zero respect for existing turf agreements. Dez has aggressively recruited drivers who are willing to cross all the lines, including active gang members. Dez has never been a gang member himself, but he grew in a tough Scarborough neighbourhood where street-level gangs jockeyed for turf; he’s been around these guys all his life...and his younger brother Ricky is a gang member. Savvy, charismatic and highly ambitious, Dez knows how these guys think, and what they want. His own goal is breath-takingly audacious – to build Jones Towing into a force, and to exploit the intersection between the unregulated towing industry and the world of organized crime, in pursuit of windfall profits. The most formidable obstacle in Dez’ path has been Tommy Mrjanovic and Fox Towing. When Tommy goes down in the Pilot Episode, Dez sees this as his golden opportunity. He moves swiftly and ruthlessly to muscle in on traditional Fox territory, and to amalgamate several smaller towing outfits – either by persuasion or coercion. This also means brokering a truce between the rival gangs that have always engaged in their own battles for turf. It’s fraught with challenges – the gang world is violent and chaotic – but if Dez can somehow pull this off...the sky’s the limit
CASS DESROSIERS
is a vital partner in this, partly because of her tough-minded business savvy. In Wire terms, Dez and Cass between them are a kind of Marlo figure – the new breed of competitor, unbound by the code of honour that constrained Tommy Mrjanovic’s generation. For Dez and Cass, the violence and coercion is seldom personal – but it’s as clinical and savage as it needs to be, when it suits their purposes. If anything, the intermittent friction in the relationship arises because Dez cares too much. As the product of a broken home – as is Cass – Dez is determined to build stability and safety and a family for the two of them...even if Cass gets impatient with any whiff of suburban aspirations. In her way she’s just as ambitious as Dez, and perhaps even more addicted to the adrenaline rush of building this mini-empire of theirs. Cass can also let personal antipathies influence her, to a greater degree than Dez – and Cass does not like Anka Mrjanovic. At all. That’s a potential complicating factor, and could tip Cass into rash decisions
RICKY KINCAID
four years younger than Dez, has always been the wilder brother. Growing up in a badly broken family, Dez was both a big brother and a kind of surrogate parent to Ricky, and the bond between the two of them is bone-deep...even though their relationship can be turbulent. Ricky has been a gang member since adolescence; he’s the one who pushes all the boundaries just because they exist – and Dez’ role has often been to keep Ricky from going too far...to save him from himself. But no one is more committed to Dez – and to his ambitions – than Ricky. Emotionally damaged, unexpectedly vulnerable, Ricky is driven by his own private demons and resentments, and it would be easy to see him as the classic example of a guy who is likely to be dead or in jail in a couple of years. But for the moment, Ricky is formidable as hell. And if he can keep it together, Ricky and Dez – and Cass – are a force to be reckoned with.
Creator & Executive Producer
Andrew Palmer is a Toronto based Director, Producer, Novelist and Screenwriter. He co- eveloped the award-winning animated series Yuki vs. Panda,adapted from the internationally published comic book of the same title. His novella Awake received critical acclaim from indiereader.com and Reedsy.Andrew’s writing also includes song lyrics, and his first music video Endless Road achieved semi-finalist at multiple US festivals. He graduated fromcomputer engineering, and is a full member of the DGC, with over 10 years of experience on TV & Film productions. In 2014, Andrew foundedSynapz Productions.
Writter & Creator
Ian Weir is a multiple award-winning West Coast screenwriter, showrunner and novelist. His TV credits as creator and showrunner include theadventure-drama Arctic Air, starring Adam Beach. Previously he was creator, writer and executive producer of the critically acclaimed gangland miniseriesDragon Boys, which featured an international cast headed by Byron Mann, Eric Tsang and Tzi Ma, and creator/showrunner of the long-running teen dramaseries Edgemont. Otherwise, he has written nearly 150 episodes for two dozen series in Canada and the US, ranging from ReBoot to Flashpoint toOne Life to Live. Awards include two Geminis, four Leos, a WGC Award and a Jessie for his playwrighting. Ian is also the author of three novels:Daniel O’Thunder, Will Starling, and The Death and Life of Strother Purcell. They have been published internationally. Recently, he ventured intocinematic horror with the screenplay for The Breach, based on the novel by Canadian horror-master Nick Cutter – and with a musical score by the rocklegend Slash – currently in post-production.
Creator & Executive Producer
Andrew Palmer is a Toronto based Director, Producer, Novelist and Screenwriter. He co- eveloped the award-winning animated series Yuki vs. Panda,adapted from the internationally published comic book of the same title. His novella Awake received critical acclaim from indiereader.com and Reedsy.Andrew’s writing also includes song lyrics, and his first music video Endless Road achieved semi-finalist at multiple US festivals. He graduated fromcomputer engineering, and is a full member of the DGC, with over 10 years of experience on TV & Film productions. In 2014, Andrew foundedSynapz Productions.
Writter & Creator
Ian Weir is a multiple award-winning West Coast screenwriter, showrunner and novelist. His TV credits as creator and showrunner include theadventure-drama Arctic Air, starring Adam Beach. Previously he was creator, writer and executive producer of the critically acclaimed gangland miniseriesDragon Boys, which featured an international cast headed by Byron Mann, Eric Tsang and Tzi Ma, and creator/showrunner of the long-running teen dramaseries Edgemont. Otherwise, he has written nearly 150 episodes for two dozen series in Canada and the US, ranging from ReBoot to Flashpoint toOne Life to Live. Awards include two Geminis, four Leos, a WGC Award and a Jessie for his playwrighting. Ian is also the author of three novels:Daniel O’Thunder, Will Starling, and The Death and Life of Strother Purcell. They have been published internationally. Recently, he ventured intocinematic horror with the screenplay for The Breach, based on the novel by Canadian horror-master Nick Cutter – and with a musical score by the rocklegend Slash – currently in post-production.