the story
David Kenyon has served his country as a CIA field agent for over twenty years. But when he makes a mistake that costs an American civilian her life, the Agency disowns him and fakes his suicide to avoid the public outcry. They take his job, his home, his friends, his name, and his identity - even his face is surgically altered. With nowhere else left to go, he is sent to the only unit that will take him.
Since the Cold War, rumors have circulated within the intelligence community of an unofficial organization of spies and assassins, populated by former American agents whose failures have been too extreme and too public to ever be redeemed. These "Cavedwellers" or "Trogs", as they are called, are used to clean up problems too sensitive for the official governmental agencies. When Kenyon, now going by his new name of "Daniel Almond", arrives at the Trogs' headquarters - a typewriter repair shop in Southeast DC - he finds himself paired with five other outcasts under the autocratic rule of Andrew Longshanks, who controls his team through blackmail and fear.
The Trogs are an illegal and clandestine organization, with no government sanction or funding. They operate in the strictest secrecy, with nothing to fall back on but their wits and experience. Their lives are in constant danger from their enemies and, as often as not, from their allies. They are so dependent on the lies they tell to keep themselves alive that they have all but forgotten how to tell the truth. They've learned that they can't trust each other with anything - except their lives.
Shadow Puppets, by Tim and Martin Marks, is an hour-long, character-based television drama focusing on the lives of Daniel Almond and his fellow Trogs. It is our intention to redefine the spy serial, just as The Wire redefined the police procedural or The Sopranos redefined the mob show. We believe it is possible to make a show about spies and assassins that avoids easy clichés, stock characters, and dei ex machina. Our focus is on providing rich and immersive storytelling that emphasizes realism, depth of character, and reliance on genuine human drama rather than disjointed series of explosions and firefights.
Shadow Puppets was one of only five pilots selected as a finalist in the WILDsound TV Screenplay Festival. Their reviewers praised its strong characters, detailed setting, unpredictable twists, dark humor, and intelligent dialogue, saying that the pilot episode "is intriguing, original, and leaves the audience wanting more".
Shadow Puppets has also been selected as a semi-finalist in the NexTv Writing and Pitch Competition, whose reviwers described it as "a very compelling and commercial story with characters that are vibrant, flawed and exactly what actors and tv execs alike get turned on by."
On September 3rd, Shadow Puppets was also named as a finalist in the Slamdance Screenplay Competition, and was ranked one of the 40 best teleplays in the competition. This contest, with more than 2,000 submissions, is the largest and most prestigious competition we've placed in to date.