Based on real people, true stories and events.

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LOGLINE

 

A vengeful vigilante, on a crusade to rescue his kidnapped sister from the sex trade and the Hatchet Men who took her, ruthlessly carves up the mobsters spraying the back alleys with their blood and body parts.

 

OVERVIEW

 

Creator, writer and producer Michael Trachiotis welcomes you to “Once Upon A Time in San Francisco – The Black Hatchet.”  Think “John Wick” with a “Fist of Fury” melded with “The Punisher” and “Gladiator” running amok with two razor sharp hatchets in “Gangs of New York" except it is the 1906 San Francisco Barbary Coast.

 

Michael was fortunate to have several mentors and influencers including John Sayles, Werner Herzog, David Webb Peoples, Penny Marshall and Stan Lee who shared “Marvelous” insights into story, script and character development that have been woven into the narrative.

 

“Once Upon A Time in San Francisco – The Black Hatchet” is for audiences that love high-octane-historical-action-adventure-dramas with heart-pounding, eye-popping, hair-raising, bloody martial arts combat. The many twists, turns, misdirection’s and cliff hangers will keep audiences turning pages, and on the edge of their seats, from the first scene to the nail-biting end -- fueled by the fearless Black Hatchet's dual cleavers of revenge.

 

As the title implies, this story bridges “Once Upon A Time in The West” and “Once Upon A Time in America,” perfectly wedged between the two periods. As well, we revive the Claudia Cardinale character from ‘”Once Upon A Time in The West” who takes her riches to San Francisco and opens the “Sweetwater” saloon.

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“For the Black Hatchet it’s a personal reckoning. We’re just along for the ride. He’s focused on saving his sister, not the world. But the benefits to his warfare are liberating young girls from sex slavery and dismembering so many Hatchet Men he halts their global human trafficking ring and opium shipments.

 

“To the citizens, he’s a no name vigilante wielding black blades of justice, but to the Tongs he’s the ghost of the 600 year-old ancient warrior Tornado sent to collect their vile souls,” elaborates Michael Trachiotis.

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SYNOPSIS

 

Malcolm Hutchins, a 26 year-old cowboy fails to stop Tong Hatchet Men from kidnapping his 14 year-old sister, Rose, as they stroll to a cattle auction through the San Francisco Barbary Coast. He barely survives the ambush and is left with a gruesome nine-inch hatchet gash on his face - a permanent reminder of his catastrophic blunder and festering guilt.

 

While recuperating on his family’s cattle ranch near Mt. Shasta and planning his rescue expedition with his blood brother White Crow, leader of the Okwanuchu and masters of black obsidian hatchet weaponry, his home is incinerated and parents burned alive by highwaymen.

 

Filled with guilt, shame and rage, Malcolm, who learned White Crane Kung Fu from a drifter-ranch hand, the Werewolf Shaolin Monk Grand Master, rushes back to San Francisco and ferociously hunts for Rose using his dual black blades of justice to mercilessly slaughter Hatchet Men.

 

Just as he closes in on the Pale Devil, the nasty Shanghai Green Dragon Tong albino enforcer who runs the Barbary Coast gangs - and the villain who engraved the Black Hatchet's face while kidnapping Rose - an 8.3 earthquake pulverizes the metropolis followed by a four day inferno that scorches it to near annihilation.

 

Enlisted to fight the fires, the Black Hatchet's suicidal acts of heroism save trapped victims, however he is swallowed by a collapsing and burning building.

 

Miraculously he survives, plunging into the underground network of pirate tunnels. Bruised and battered, as the Black Hatchet searches for an escape, fate guides him to the Pale Devil, trapped in a hideout with three captured girls he is trafficking to Shanghai with the Werewolf Monk, a wanted outlaw with a bounty on his head.

 

To his elation, Rose is one of the girls. As they face off, the Pale Devil reveals he hired Black Bart to incinerate his house and eliminate the Black Hatchet and his family. An epic, bloody, Kung Fu battle ensues as he and the Werewolf Monk brawl the Pale Devil and his Hatchet Men.

 

Just when it seems the Pale Devil has the Black Hatchet dead-to-rights, Rose intervenes and saves her brother.

 

Rose and the Black Hatchet barely escape the subterranean lair as it fills with water that sucks the Werewolf Monk into the savage current. Above ground in a hurricane of flames, the Black Hatchet sets his sights on reuniting with his girlfriend, but finds what appears to be her corpse in the rubble.

 

On horseback, he and Rose race through the maze of scorched ruins to safety where the Black Hatchet performs a dangerous, breathtaking, acrobatic maneuver to save the remaining city from burning to the ground.

 

When he awakens from his coma, the Black Hatchet is in the arms of his nurse girlfriend Lorna, who thought he perished in the earthquake and fire. Together with Rose and the weary survivors, for the first time in four days, the sun rises over the smoky, skeletal remains and splashes their charred, optimistic faces.

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Yet, the Black Hatchet knows his journey is not over, as he must find and bring to justice the Highwaymen who murdered his parents, then go to Shanghai and cut the off the head of the Green Dragon, as the Black Hatchet knows he, his sister and Lorna are not safe as long as the Tong lord is alive.

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

 

TITLE: Once Upon A Time in San Francisco - The Black Hatchet

SCREENPLAY LENGTH: 118 Pages

GENRE: Action, Adventure, Drama, Thriller, Martial Arts

BUDGET: $100,000,000+ (estimate)

SHOOT: TBD

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SEQUEL LOGLINES

 

ONCE UPON A TIME IN SAN FRANCISCO – THE GREEN DRAGON – SEQUEL 1

 

The Black Hatchet, now married, returns to his Shasta cattle ranch, and while hunting down the Highwaymen who murdered his parents, his wife and sister are kidnapped and taken to Shanghai, so the Black Hatchet and White Crow with the Werewolf Monk must battle the Green Dragon and his “Imperial” Hatchet Men in order to find and save his sister and wife.

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ONCE UPON A TIME IN SAN FRANCISCO – SKELETAL REMAINS – SEQUEL 2

 

The Black Hatchet is apparently slain by the Green Dragon as he, White Crow, his wife and sister embark on a ship back to San Francisco, however the Werewolf Monk resuscitates him, and together with pirates, race back to the city, join forces with past allies and hunt down the Green Dragon before his wife and sister are auctioned into sex slavery.

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ONCE UPON A TIME IN FRANCE – THE BLACK HATCHET

 

The Black Hatchet and Okwanuchu warriors are called upon by a General, toward the end of WWI, who the Black Hatchet owes his life, to perform an impossible, suicidal rescue of American prisoners held in a secret, underground German bunker surrounded by heavily guarded trenches.