When a young prince inherits a crown built on punishment and blood, he must decide whether to preserve a system that kills the innocent, or become the kind of ruler the powerful fear.
Proof of Concept · Short Film
A short film proof of concept, starring Antonio Cipriano (Off Campus, A Week Away, National Treasure, Edge of Tomorrow), Salvatore John Sbrocca, and Katelyn Grace Sbrocca. Original Score by John Panfili. Produced by Might Be Smart Productions. Written and Directed by Salvatore John Sbrocca.
Dramatis Personae · Series Leads
Also in the court · supporting
Triston’s shadow for forty years. Many say he truly runs the kingdom.
The handsome face of an empire whose dawn has long since darkened.
A Pagan warrior, gentle in spirit. Marcroft’s mirror. They have not yet met.
Thirteen years old. He once lost a bet to her. She has been keeping him alive ever since.
They gave their lives for the Crown and got nothing for it.
They were lied to, kept low, and told the dawn was not coming.
So they brought it themselves.
A Letter from the Creator Why Now
Where once there was a singular, all-encompassing, water-cooler dominating, bar-hosting, culture-defining fantasy show, now there is nothing. Perhaps remnant stories that satiate the appetite here and there, but nothing like the feast we once had on those few Sunday nights for eight years.
Until now.
Heavy is the Crown centers on the struggle between the haves and the have-nots. The glorious Kingdom of Hiraeth against its very citizens. The common, working folk have been taken advantage of, taken for granted, and taken to war against their better judgment, all to return and find their homes and land slowly devoured by the royals they give their lives to protect.
Around the world, people have felt the sting of the powers-that-be trying to keep them from their rightful share. The time, not just in our industry but across many industries, is now for this story to be told.
Epic fantasy isn’t a genre. It is the ancient form that all stories are derived from. The audience for Heavy is the Crown is any and every fan of fantasy, Game of Thrones, The Lord of the Rings, The Witcher, Dune, Harry Potter, Star Wars.
We don’t want some random re-hash of an old IP trying to saddle-back on the success of its predecessors. We don’t want a sequel. We don’t want camp.
The world is starving for Heavy is the Crown. When they finally take that first bite, they won’t be able to stop themselves from going for seconds.
The World The Kingdom
Hiraeth is loosely analogous to Western Europe in the medieval period, but the resemblance is only skin. Beneath the aesthetic lies a political, cultural, and industrial structure all its own. Six provinces. One throne. One growing rebellion.
The succession of the Sedor line does not distinguish between firstborn sexes. There are no reflections of our reality concerning sexuality or gender expression. All that matters is that an heir be created or decreed, and be legitimized as a Sedor in the eyes of the gods above and below.
The Pagan Wars have just ended. A failed decade-long campaign that those in power have spun as a successful repulsion. The reality: they started it themselves, in hopes of claiming uncrowned land, and they lost an extraordinary amount of men in the trying.
All names drawn from the ancient Welsh
The primogenital dynasty of Hiraeth, started by Arthur Sedor I, remembered as the Dawnbringer. Triston II now sits the throne; his Blade, Rous Ebonhilt, sits behind it.
A growing faction of rebellious workers, veterans of the Pagan Wars, and even some sympathetic highborne. “Ere the sun rises, it is always darkest; when it breaks, the dawn shall come.”
People of the Old Way. Naturalism, spiritualism, communal living, and a magic that is old and vague, respected by those near the borderlands, feared by those who never were. A Pagan has no surname. They are of the land.
The Apologies
The lords of the six provinces travel to the capital to make their cases to the king and his inner circle. The best speakers, whether through charisma, intellect, or guile, return home with the most. A cultural festival for the common folk; a political knife-fight for the highborne. Our pilot is centered on the night of the Apologies, and on the inciting incident that splits the kingdom in two.
Pilot · Series Opener
Uther Draig returns to his father’s land after a decade in the Pagan Wars. The land has been sold. The new lord’s men come to threaten his wife and daughter. Before they can hurt his girls, he strikes first. It is a massacre. Bloody. Sad. Righteous.
In the capital, the prince Aleister Sedor is hauled from a brothel by his thirteen-year-old assistant Annika to meet his father. On their way, they pass a hanging, rebels of the New Dawn, an eleven-year-old boy among them. Aleister tries to stop it. He is too late. A riot ensues. He saves a girl from the crush.
Across the city, Senara Ebonhilt collects a debt with practiced violence. In the room: Uther Draig, hand wrapped around a folded paper. She sees his value before she sees his face. The paper unfurls as she leaves. A New Dawn Shall Rise.
The lords arrive. Senara is approached by an androgynous, blue-eyed stranger named Uraias, who suggests a meeting with their master. Aleister announces the night’s most curious arrival: Caradoc Godsgift, new Lord of Maes, whose maiden speech is galvanizing, provocative, divisive, a call to crush the rebellion before it grows.
Across the city, Endelyn, Evan, and young Alban run a bank under the cover of the festival. The watch is supposed to be at the Apologies. The watch is not at the Apologies. Rous Ebonhilt has known all along.
In the great hall, King Triston sips from Aleister’s cup and seizes in agony. In the bank, the rebels are surrounded. Aleister rushes to his father. Evan looks at Endelyn, “Wish I’d met you sooner”, and drives his dagger into his own neck rather than be taken alive. Everything is falling apart.
Tone · Visual Reference
The show lives in the space between Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon, the sweep of an empire told through a few rooms, a few faces, a few cups of wine that may or may not be poisoned.
Naturalistic dialogue and Shakespearean breath. The camera does not flinch from violence and does not glorify it. The score is restrained until it isn’t. The light is the light of beeswax candles and ironworks.
Homer in the bones. Shakespeare in the breath. The dirt under the fingernails of a man who has buried his own father.
Mood · The light of a kingdom in decay
The Creator
From Detroit, Michigan, currently, and forever more, based in New York City. I’ve had a deep love for the fantastic all of my life. The myths, the long forms, the works that take a man apart in front of you and leave the room different.
I’ve taken every lesson from those legendary authors and infused them into my own stories: from the first time I put pen to paper to write a Dungeons & Dragons campaign for my friends and I to get lost in, to developing an extracurricular study on The Winter’s Tale in order to receive an offer from The Shakespeare Institute at the University of Birmingham, UK, for their PhD of Shakespearean Theatre Studies programme.
Heavy is the Crown is the culmination of the inimitable tales that made me into the man I am today. Beyond all things I hope to be courageous, honorable, empathetic, hopeful, and kind. These characteristics are derived from Aeowyn and Aragorn, Eddard and Jon, Luke and Ben, and of course, Samwise.
The pantheon of my growth is born out of these fantastic portrayals of ideal people in the face of overwhelming odds. Heavy is the Crown is the picture I have been walking toward, quietly, for years, and the one I would like, with your blessing, to help make.