MOGULS

Project Overview

SYNOPSIS:
Los Angeles, 1935. The Silver brothers are purveyors of B-level pictures with A-level aspirations, determined to turn their ramshackle Poverty Row operation into a Hollywood empire capable of rivaling MGM, Warner Brothers and Paramount.
Leading them is HARRY SILBERSTEIN, a brilliant salesman and relentless dreamer haunted by the frightened Eastern European Jewish boy he once was. Having fled brutal antisemitic violence as a child, Harry associates his past with weakness, poverty, persecution and a family forced to hide while more powerful men controlled their fate. He wants to be something else: strong, respected and unquestionably American.

So Harry sells the family garment business to finance his Hollywood ambitions, changes their name from Silberstein to Silver, and uses charm, bravado and sheer force of will to gain entry into a world dominated by an Anglo-Saxon elite. Alongside his cautious brother Max and reckless, debauched younger brother Leon, Harry sets out to transform Silver Studios into one of the most powerful media companies in America, or die trying.

In Hollywood, troubled souls hide behind a veil of movie magic, and Harry may be the greatest illusionist of them all. His confidence masks insecurity; his ambition masks shame. With every success, Harry Silver moves further away from Chaim Silberstein, the Jewish boy he has spent his life trying to bury.

For a time, the illusion works. Then… Hitler rises. With Nazi Germany harnessesing film, radio and propaganda to spread antisemitism across Europe, Harry’s growing media empire finds itself confronting another machine built on the power of mass communication. Ultimately, Harry must decide whether to protect the status and identity he has spent his life constructing… or publicly embrace who he truly is and risk everything by turning his own dream factory against Hitler’s.

WHY NOW:
At the heart of MOGULS is a question that feels especially urgent today: what happens when acceptance into the cultural establishment comes into conflict with openly owning your identity?

Harry believes power and assimilation can protect him from the frightened Jewish boy he once was. He reinvents himself to earn a place among an elite that once saw him as an outsider. But the march of history is coming to test him.

His dilemma is especially relevant after October 7th, as Jewish artists and public figures navigate challenging questions around Jewish identity and the consequences of speaking publicly. The tension between belonging and speaking out is very much alive today.

MOGULS explores this dynamic through the distanced lens of history. Harry spends years building a voice powerful enough to shape how America sees itself. But when the moment comes to use that voice on behalf of his own people, it could cost him everything he believed he had to become in order to earn it. The series asks a simple but difficult question: Once you finally have power, what are you willing to risk by using it?

STATUS:
The pilot script is complete and ready for the market.

CREATIVE TEAM:
Tony Dean Smith and Ryan W. Smith are Jewish brothers, born in South Africa and raised largely in Vancouver, Canada. They began making films together as kids and later wrote and produced the independent feature VOLITION, which Tony directed. The film earned strong reviews: VARIETY hailed it “Succinctly propulsive”, THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER praised it as “Ingeniously constructed”, and The NEW YORK TIMES deemed it “a clever puzzle of a story.” The film subsequently sold to SHOWTIME in the US.

Tony has gone on to direct multiple features for Paramount, including WE CAME BY (starring Tom Hollander), THE HIGHEST STAKES (Seth Green), and STRANGERS (Jon Voight); while Ryan has written various features for Anonymous Content, including an adaptation of Bob Woodward’s THE LAST OF THE PRESIDENT’S MEN, and ADDRESS UNKNOWN. Ryan also wrote on Netflix’s animated feature, NEXT GEN (John Krasinski), and has a football feature, BACK IN THE GAME (starring Tony Gonzalez), premiering on Roku next fall.