PITTSBURGHA private preview
Dallas · November 1963Historical fiction

The shot was only the beginning.

She’s hunting Kennedy’s killers. He’s one of them.

Meet the man she trusts

01 / A confession interrupted

He came to confess.
Then he met her.

After Dallas, Jake Troy Delaney is hunted by the people who sent him. He goes to the Washington Star to confess.

There he meets Rosaly Bloomfield. For the first time since his brother’s death, he can imagine a future. He chooses intimacy over confession.

She is investigating Kennedy’s murder.
He is one of the men she is looking for.

She trusts him. Call her and ask why.Microphone used for the call · No audio recording
Jake plays his acoustic guitar in a quiet Washington room at night
Washington / Jake at the guitarConcept imagery
Pittsburgh
Music by Jake Troy Delaney
3:24

02 / Something to lose

Before the rifle,
there was a guitar.

Before Dallas, there was Pittsburgh: two brothers, one shared room and the dream of becoming the Delaney Brothers. Jake taught his younger brother Phil to play.

With Rosaly, he can imagine an ordinary life again. Music gives her a way to know the man beyond his military past. It gives us a glimpse of what his secret could destroy.

Meet Phil Delaney

03 / The secret at the table

She trusts him.
You know him.

Rosaly reads beside the man she loves. You carry the memory of Dallas into the room.

Jake and Rosaly at the breakfast table, with an ordinary photograph in the newspaper
The identical breakfast composition; the newspaper photograph evokes Jake’s concealed Dallas past
WHAT WE KNOWWHAT SHE SEES
Detail of the ordinary photograph Rosaly sees in the newspaper
The photograph in Rosaly’s newspaper.

For her, an ordinary morning.
For us, a man protecting a terrible secret.

Drag the dividing line, or reveal his past below.

Every question brings her closer.
Every answer costs him more.

See what it costs

04 / The walls close in

Every way out
takes him further from her.

  1. Jake watches the doorway of the safe house at Fontana Lake
    Fontana Lake · Concept scene

    01 / The refuge

    No refuge
    stays safe.

    A house above Fontana Lake should keep Jake out of sight. A presence inside proves the operation can reach him even here.

    Explore the location
  2. Rosaly follows the investigation in the newsroom after hours
    The Washington Star · Concept scene

    02 / The investigation

    She keeps looking.
    He keeps lying.

    A source dies before Rosaly can hear his story. She refuses to abandon the questions. At home, Jake has to conceal what he knows.

    Explore the location
  3. Jake takes cover behind an oak beside the Potomac
    The Potomac · Concept scene

    03 / The attack

    Survival means
    leaving.

    Shots from a boat nearly kill him. Jake decides he must disappear. Escaping the pursuit means abandoning the life he has built with Rosaly.

    Explore the location

05 / The price of escape

He can save his life.
He cannot take their future with him.

Jake calls Rosaly from a roadside telephone booth, keeping his departure hidden
The last call · Concept scene
What he tells her
A music tour.
What he has decided
To leave the life they built.

The coins run out. The connection breaks before Rosaly can tell him her news.

His escape leaves her
with the unanswered questions.

Read what follows

The story & its aftermath

The past does not
end with his escape.

A source dies before Rosaly can interview him. Jake’s friend is found dead. An address hidden in a jazz record leads Jake through a New York courier to a Florida contact. At home, Rosaly confronts his evasions.

Another attack convinces Jake to disappear. Decades later, their son and a letter reopen the wound, revealing the personal motive beneath the mission. Survival does not erase what he leaves behind.

Proposed feature · 110–120 minutesPsychological conspiracy thriller1963–1964 · A later family coda

Historical fiction based on the novel Pittsburgh. The assassination plot and its central characters are fictional.

The story in three movements
I / The choice

A confession interrupted.

A compromised safe house makes Jake’s future uncertain. At the Washington Star, a meeting with Rosaly gives him a reason to keep his secret.

II / The cost

He follows the network.
She follows the evidence.

The trail leads through a New York courier to a Florida contact. Jake survives by returning to violence; at home, Rosaly confronts his evasions.

III / The inheritance

Survival leaves someone behind.

Another attack convinces Jake to disappear. Years later, their son and a letter reopen the wound — revealing the personal motive beneath the mission.

Full synopsis · Ending included

06 / For the screen

A conspiracy thriller.
An intimate tragedy.

The political thriller brings the danger.
The relationship makes it matter.

Proposed format
Feature film110–120 minutes
At its heart
Two people.
One devastating secret.
Audience
Adult viewersInvestigative suspense & intimate drama
The proposed feature +

A 110–120 minute psychological conspiracy thriller. Concentrate the network through the courier and his contact; let memories of Phil interrupt the present without explaining Jake’s motive too early. Keep Rosaly’s reporting active and consequential. End with the family legacy, rather than a triumphant exposure of the conspiracy.

For adult viewers drawn to investigative suspense, morally compromised protagonists and intimate drama. This is a development proposal; screenplay structure and running time remain to be established.

The story in motion +

The proposed feature follows Jake and Rosaly through one year of pursuit and concealment, with a restrained coda fifty years later. The climax is Jake’s decision to leave. The coda reveals what that escape cost the family and why he accepted the assignment. It offers understanding without absolution.

Two leads. Two opposing desires. +

Jake wants an ordinary life without facing the violence behind it. The death of his brother Phil lies behind a wound he conceals. Rosaly has her own ambition and moral conviction; her pursuit of missing testimony drives the story rather than simply supporting his.

A frame that keeps a secret +

Stay close to hands, faces and interrupted gestures. Let a doorway or a window hold the threat. Move from quiet domestic observation to sudden pursuit, then return to something Jake can lose.

A spoon against a bowl. A telephone line cut off. Music offers Jake another identity; silence reveals the effort of protecting it.

Pittsburgh, Phil and the music +

Phil’s execution turns the brothers’ possible musical life into a wound Jake never resolves. Jazz gives Jake an identity beyond the soldier; a clue in a record sleeve draws him deeper into the conspiracy.

The title is his home city and his operation codename. In the final reckoning, the story returns to Pittsburgh and to the brother whose death changed everything.

07 / The next conversation

Bring Pittsburgh
to the screen.

Seeking a conversation with a producer or development partner about adapting the novel into a feature film.

Project contact

Lex Pieffersdepief@gmail.comDiscuss the adaptation

Read the pitch.

Download the pitch briefPDF · 2 pages · Premise, story, screen approach & contactFull synopsis · Includes the ending
Source
The novel Pittsburgh
Stage
Adaptation concept and visual pitch in development
Proposed form
Feature film · 110–120 minutes

Rights availability and production attachments are not confirmed in this pitch.

CharactersStory-world map