A TRUE LOVE STORY & AMERICAN ODYSSEYBased on the #1 Best Selling MemoirBased on the #1 Best Selling Memoirby Edward Rahillby Edward Rahill 1
03Introduction07Synopsis09Key Themes17The Car23Characters33Franchise Potential31Contact Table of Contents
Introduction This is the untold true story of the largest, longest, and last outlaw road race ever run in America. An amateur racecar driver barrels down the New Mexico highway at 160mph with the love of his life and co-driver in the passenger seat. It’s 1984, and a group of established drivers has set out to organize the longest road race America has ever seen. Even longer than the Cannonball Run. First to make it from Boston to San Diego wins. The rules were few. Two-person teams, pick your own route. No professional drivers, no official sponsors, and if you want to win...get there first. “A thrilling, high-speed, 3000-mile record setting race across the country that stands to this day!” 3
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“It looked like a scene from a Burt Reynolds highway movie. It was a 3,000 mile trans-continental road race, using any route, at any speed.”“It had every state police force in the country on the prowl.” NBC LIVE NEWS COVERAGE OF THE 1983 RACE SCAN QR TO WATCH SCAN QR TO WATCH 5
1.1+ Million viewsWatch it hereThe memoir’s trailer has 6
Synopsis In June 1984, a heartbroken man climbs behind the wheel of a gray Trans Am and points it west. He has 3,100 miles to drive from Boston to San Diego. The entire American highway patrol system is looking for him and the 29 other drivers. Law enforcement has organized the most coordinated police blockade in American history. State troopers from multiple jurisdictions, helicopters with searchlights, strategic roadblocks turning the rally into an all- out manhunt. Every mile is a high-speed game of cat and mouse. The first time he tried to win this race, Ed failed. He’d driven with the love of his life Nancy riding beside him. The race put a strain on their relationship, and when he went for it a second time, she said it plainly: “He doesn’t have what it takes.” She would know. She drove it with him. Crushed but not defeated, Ed finds an unlikely ally in an old racing friend. In a twist of fate, the night before the race his Firebird comes back from GM with secret modifications just as he finds out that Nancy is going to marry someone else. But Ed's grandmother taught him long before he ever got behind a wheel: there's always a setback. It’s what you do next that makes the difference. What started as a letter to his children has become a meditation on family, legacy, and purpose, on what it means to live a meaningful life. Underneath the thrills, it's a story about legacy. The wisdom we inherit, the generational wounds we carry, and the cost of achieving our dreams. The memoir is a #1 Best Seller. This is the untold true story of the largest, longest, and last outlaw road race ever run in America. A True Love Story &A True Love Story & Clandestine Cross-Country RaceClandestine Cross-Country Race A True Love Story & Clandestine Cross-Country Race 7
VANISHING POINT“The American highway stretching to it’s vanishing point.” Director: Richard C. Sarafian, 1971 8
The Nationwide Manhunt There’s a reason this was the last ever outlaw road race in America. Simply put, they had become too dangerous and too high-stakes. Law enforcement had organized the most coordinated police blockade in American history. State troopers from multiple jurisdictions, helicopters with searchlights, strategic roadblocks turning the rally into an all-out manhunt. “I fully expect a coordinated nationwide enforcement effort unlike anything we’ve seen. It won’t be like last year when they were caught with their pants down. They will be ready with tougher police actions than we have ever experienced in the past.” – Ed Preston, Four Ball Rally Organizer only 11 out of 30 teams wouldonly 11 out of 30 teams would make it to the finish linemake it to the finish line only 11 out of 30 teams would make it to the finish line 9
FORD V FERRARI Also released as LE MANS ‘66 Director: James Mangold, 2019 10
THE LAST RACE OF ANYou know the Cannonball Run. The Four Ball Rally is the Grand-Daddy of Road Races. More distance...more dangerous. This was a serious, dangerous, and legitimate race for experienced drivers. More importantly, it was the last organized race like this that we’ve ever seen in America. What you're looking at is the untold true story of the largest, longest, and final chapter of a hundred-year American tradition. This story has its roots in American history in 1860, with the Pony Express. It picks up in 1893, when twenty-five cowboys lined up at a starting gate in Chadron, Nebraska for a thousand-mile horse race to Chicago, with Buffalo Bill Cody waiting at the finish line. Every period has its beginning and its end. The fate of the lone cowboy was sealed with barbed wire and the railroad. But as Ed writes: the uniquely American adventure of running a great contest across the land had only just begun. The free spirit of the cowboy would live on. From horseback to horsepower, it continues in 1905, when Dwight Huss and Milford Wigle raced an Oldsmobile across a continent on dirt roads and prayers, dragging logs behind them down a mountain pass in the Cascades to keep from going off a cliff. It runs through Cannonball Baker's legendary 1933 record, and Brock Yates' Cannonball Run in 1971, which reignited the American passion for the endurance racing tradition. The Four Ball Rally was the last chapter of that hundred-year tradition. Since then, these races have become impossible. Modern technology and coordinated law enforcement made sure of that. Ed Rahill won that race. Forty years later, he wrote the #1 Best Selling memoir which has consistently ranked above Go Like Hell on Amazon. Ford v Ferrari was based on that memoir of a real, historic moment in racing history. Similarly, this story features a sincere friendship between two men that captivates audiences who’ve never watched a race in their lives. As one of our reviewers says: “These races have been done on horse, car, bike, and foot - what's next?” AMERICAN TRADITION 11
12 BULLITTDirector: Peter Yates, 1968
The Chase Scenes As an audience member, you won’t just watch this race. You’ll be in the car. To capture that, we're drawing directly from the playbook of cinematographer James Bauman and Allan Padelford Camera Cars, the company behind Ford v Ferrari and One Battle After Another. Padelford is regarded as one of the old-school masters of camera car work, and we intend to pursue his company as a key production collaborator. They strapped VistaVision cameras (originally just for tripods) directly onto the cars, with wide lenses mounted inches from the asphalt so the road rushes underneath like the ground is alive, which Bauman says was "really critical to building how the two cars chase each other in the cat-and-mouse game." This makes it feel like we’re right there in the car overlooking the dash, feeling every bump in the road. Similarly, we intend to shoot on location with mounted rigs and low, wide lenses. 13
THELMA AND LOUISEDirector: Ridley Scott, 1991 14
The Nostalgia When we think of the 80’s, most of us see neon. This story shows a different side of the 80’s, one that is perhaps more realistic and true to the everyman experience of this time. It’s Lynard Skynard, it’s Springsteen. It’s driving down the back roads, working in the garage, making out at the drive-in. The success of Stranger Things shows us that people are hungry for 80’s nostalgia. The 80’s evoke a certain warmth, both for those of us who lived it and for the younger generation who’s had it packaged and sold to us. It used to be that American life centered around cars. Muscle cars, sports cars. It was an identifier, an emblem, a badge that claims who you are. In 50 years, American car culture will be completely different from what it is now, and even further from what it was in the 80's. Classic sportscars will either be outlawed entirely, or in extraordinarily high demand. This story marks a cultural touchstone, an era where cars and the open road represented freedom and possibility. “When you watch documentaries about the 1960s, you get the impression that it was all war protests, Beatles, drugs, and Woodstock. That may have been the focus of the East Coast media and the big-city college crowd. But it was not our experience, at least not for most of us in flyover country. Yes, we had guys who’d been in the service, but it was what their brothers and fathers had done before. Our lives focused on friends and family, football, baseball, girls, and cars. Life was good.” – Edward Rahill: our protagonist, racecar champion, and author of the memoir One Mile at a Time 15
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The CarThe car is as much a hero of this story as Ed Rahill. The General Lee. The Bullitt Mustang. The DeLorean. Every iconic film has its hero car. We already have ours. The exact car that won the 1984 Four Ball Rally is currently in our possession, insured through Hagerty, and being restored by Dave Caffey, a classic car specialist and Barrett-Jackson evaluator who’s bringing her back to racecar- level condition so she can do it all over again on camera. This 1984 Trans Am was by no means factory-standard. It was the result of a secret, off-the-books sponsorship by General Motors, modified at their private proving grounds to endure the demands of a cross-country race. The color? Ohio-state-trooper gray. Built to disappear at 140mph+. Authentic hero vehicles are one of the most expensive line items in any production budget. To source, build, and insure period-accurate cars that can withstand the demands of filming, most productions have to rent or fabricate their hero vehicles at significant cost. We’re walking in with ours ready-to-go. This is over $100,000 in production value secured before a single dollar of yours is spent. This reduces production overhead from day one and goes directly toward the quality of what ends up on screen. The classic car enthusiasts and history buffs who are already our core audience will know the difference between a prop car built for a film and a road-tested car that actually won the race. We have the real thing: 400 horse power, 183mph top speed, and road-tested. 17
THE NOTEBOOKDirector: Nick Cassavetes, 200418
The Romance “It’s just that the time was wrong...” The song Romeo and Juliet may as well have been written about Nancy and Ed. This is a love story for the ages. They had already picked out the names of their children when fate brought them apart. Nancy wasn't just the woman Ed loved, either. She drove right alongside him racing with Ed for their first Four Ball Rally, coast to coast, standing on the brakes when they cut out! But the race put a strain on their relationship, and Nancy’s medical problems made her desire for a family into an urgent decision. Ed was already married to another woman, a dear friend who he’d helped get health insurance, and it was against his conscience to let her down. He and Nancy were not meant to be. As it is Casablanca, the greatest love stories aren't always the ones that work out. Sometimes, they show us the cost of our dreams and the things we're willing to sacrifice for our own integrity. Just because it is a tragedy, does not mean it is tragic....Sometimes, the beauty is in the catharsis. 19
SPRINGSTEEN: DELIVER ME FROM NOWHEREDirector: Scott Cooper, 202520
The Soundtrack This story is made of good music. The soundtrack speaks to so many moments in this story. Nancy crying on the floor, Ed holding her while he sings “Racing in the Street” The first time Ed ever heard “Born to Run”, working in the car shop with the other gearheads. “Holding Out for a Hero” blasting from the car stereo as Ed and Tim barrel down the Arizona highway at 150 miles an hour. The songs define the moments. 21
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Ed Rahill EDWARD RAHILL was 31 years old when he made that fateful drive. A romantic at heart, he grew up in garages with a dream of racing across America. A quiet inner confidence and world-class business acumen. Uniquely handsome in a way he’s not aware of. Sincere and thoughtful, with a vision inside. Fighting to become the man he knows be could be, Ed carries a broken heart like a stone in his chest, and it shows in how hard he drives. Over the 3,000 mile drive, he’s reduced to his core. The setbacks on the side of the road, the hours in the dark at 140 miles an hour, with Tim beside him and Nancy looming in his heart. Comparable Talent: Jeremy Allen White (The Bear, A Complete Unknown), Jacob Lofland (Landman), Tom Burke (War and Peace, Mad Max) 23
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Nancy NANCY, 28, is the emotional spine of this story. She is the kind of woman men write songs about: luminous, self-possessed, and undeniable charm. She co-piloted an illegal cross-country race at 120mph+, and even sweet-talked her way out of a speeding ticket in the middle of it. Dreaming of a family, endometriosis makes it urgent, and she must choose between great love and stability. Comparable Talent: Lily James (Baby Driver, Mamma Mia), Meg Ryan (circa When Harry Met Sally) 25
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Tim TIM MONTGOMERY, 27. A natural mechanic and a happy-go-lucky optimist in equal measure. Brazen and enigmatic, he is the film’s comic relief. Ed’s best friend and cross-country racing partner, they are each other’s foils, and Tim can read Ed like a book. On the road, he is laughter and competence and pure aliveness. The night before the most important race of their lives, he was up till 3am working on the car because he simply couldn’t stop himself. Tim helped break the record that still stands today. Comparable Talent: Kieran Culkin (Succession, A Real Pain), Aaron Taylor Johnson (Bullet Train, Kick Ass) 27
A Western Union telegram from a senior executive at Ford Motor in Detroit congratulating Ed Rahill’s grandmother on her performance. Notice his subtle humor as he refers to telling “our big dealers” to shape up. This was less than two years after she was first told they were not letting her keep it. 28
The Roots GRANDMA COTTRELL The First Woman to Own and Operate a Ford Dealership in the United States She left school after fifth grade to collect loose coal from the railroad yards of South Buffalo and sell it so her family could eat. She married, had four children, and finally found solid ground...until her husband died at thirty-seven, leaving her with no savings, no income, and a Ford dealership she'd been told she couldn't keep. Ford's regional manager came to take it back. She talked him into giving her one year. She went door to door. She ate blood soup at a stranger's kitchen table and didn't flinch, because the following week she sold that family a car. She converted Ford trucks into buses and contracted with the government to move factory workers during the war. She not only kept the dealership, she built it into the most successful multi-location Ford dealership in Western New York, and became the first woman in American history to own and operate a Ford franchise. Then she handed it to her son, got involved in the March of Dimes, sponsored Ukrainian refugee families, and spent the rest of her life quietly making sure the people around her didn't have to sacrifice the way she did. She drove a T-Bird with a police interceptor motor. She called Ed "Mick." And she told him, at eight years old, that the most devastating thing he would ever face was fear. That the only way through it was to pray as if everything depends on God, and to still try as if everything depends on you. She is the reason this story exists. 29
Franchise Potential While it’s now being developed as a feature film, this story can easily expand into a limited series, or other films: Profiles in Courage of legendary tales. The world of outlaw endurance racing is populated by characters whose stories have never been told; for example, Will Wright, the infamous SimCity game developer who raced in the US Express, another Cannonball Run successor that remains an untapped mythos. The franchise extends beyond racing entirely. Ed's grandmother was the first woman to own and operate a Ford dealership in the United States. Her story is a film in it’s own right: a period story of a woman who refused the limits of her era and passed that refusal down through generations. There is Tony, who Ed helped to secure health insurance to the at the risk of his own job security. There is Ed’s career-defining months in Mexico, where he helped save hundreds of thousands of jobs by restructuring the US-Mexico manufacturing infrastructure. 30
31 For inquires regarding to the book and film rights, please reach out to contact@onemileproductions.com. Contact
A True Love Story & American Odyssey Based on the #1 Best Selling Memoir by Edward Rahill