CHRISTOPHER DE PAOLA
Immerse Yourself In The Game
FAULT
What Is Tennis?
If the World Boxing Association fucked a Brooks Brothers catalogue, you’d get the sport of tennis.
Two athletes alone- arena gladiators in battle- trading blows. Each whittling away at their opponent’s mental toughness and physical stamina… But in a very civilized sort of way.
Stringent and reserved, tennis is athletes in suits, bursting with moments when they break free of the restraints.
What is FAULT?
FAULT is a scripted television series that exposes the absurdity of wealth, class, and race in the sport of tennis. Over the course of the series, it will continually bounce between drama and comedy; between the beauty and athleticism of tennis, and the absurdity of the world surrounding it; it will inflate expectations and then burst them.
While balancing on the tightrope of comedy, FAULT thematically explores 4 major dramatic elements:
1) Father figures, and the roles they play
2) White power over athletes of color
3) Mental strength vs physical strength
4) End of a career and legacy
A NEW WORLD
Time and again, examples of critically successful television series have been ones that expose audiences to hidden worlds.
FAULT takes the as-of-yet unexplored world of professional tennis and comments on it, illustrates it, and dramatizes it. And with a uniquely American perspective, it goes in-depth to explore behind-the-scenes nuances of the characters, personalities, and situations which make up the 4th most popular sport in the world.
APPEAL: Tennis is seductive... sweaty bodies… wet clothing sticking to biceps and abs… long glistening legs… muscles straining and bulging under the pressure of heat and energy.
Give the audience the true images of the tennis athlete’s physical form… the blood, sweat and tears it takes to physically transform the human body into that of a professional athlete.
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"Tennis is a game of internal pain. There is no physical contact until the match has ended. There is no option to run out the clock or walk to a bench. A tennis player must struggle alone and actively push across the finish line. Tennis is the loneliest sport there is..."
- CHRIS ALMEIDA, The Ringer
"People often ask what it's like, this tennis life... More than anything else, it's a wrenching, thrilling, horrible, astonishing whirl."
- ANDRE AGASSI, Open