Arland DiGirolamo and Alana Wexler’s period drama pilot Dirty Bird has joined the exclusive list of projects receiving a coveted Launch Pad Recommends honor.
The LP Recommends program has a history of success in identifying great emerging talent and promising projects and this designation is bestowed on only a small percentage of scripts submitted to our coverage service.
Dirty Bird follows a former lawyer turned housewife in the 1940s, who has to outmaneuver the mob boss who wants her husband dead. In the process, she unwittingly becomes the go-to lawyer for organized crime in Golden-Age Hollywood.
Our reader called the script “cohesive, suspenseful and dramatically effective,” highlighting the commercial premise and immersive period detail, summing up the script as a “sharp-witted, intrigue-filled and swiftly-paced pilot” that is “utterly riveting.” The pilot is available and Arland and Alana are open for representation.
Arland DiGirolamo’s former life as a U.S. government agent and international trade attorney with Top Secret clearance took him all over the world, stocking him with an inventory of hard-to-believe stories and characters (e.g. a CIA briefing during happy hour in a hotel lobby in Jakarta, margaritas, gunfire). After moving to Los Angeles with his wife, Alana, they initially collaborated on the short “The Hangrover,” which Arland wrote and directed for Yahoo’s comedy series Sketchy (over 500,000 views). He went on to write “Maker Shack Agency,” produced by Electus and streamed on Amazon, jokes for the Independent Spirit Awards, and consulted on pilots for Fox, FX, and Disney+.
Alana Wexler is a former Washington, DC lobbyist and published author on state constitutional law issues. She became a government attorney appointed to a national task force investigating the Russian mafia’s Medicare defrauding schemes in a multi-state sting operation. Currently, she works as in-house senior counsel for Amgen, one of the world’s largest biotech companies. The protagonist of “Dirty Bird” is based on Alana’s real-life organized crime experiences and firsthand knowledge of how to bring down the mob.
If you would like to take a look at the script, you can check out Arland and Alana‘s profiles on Coverfly, or email [email protected].
