Epstein’s Shadow: Ghislaine Maxwell

TV docuseries for NBC Peacock and SKY UK

This three-part docu series was co-created with director Barbara Shearer and executive produced for NBC Peacock and SKY UK. It tells the story of a woman of power and privilege who became the accomplice to the criminal Jeffrey Epstein. You can watch the series here.

Lincoln’s Law

TV Drama Series

Created with Mark Hoeger

Currently in Development for Night Fox Entertainment

Lincoln’s Law brings to life the humble frontier beginnings of Abraham Lincoln as a young Illinois trial lawyer beginning in 1838, examining the crucial cases, critical decisions, and pivotal experiences that molded him into the president responsible for unifying a fractured nation.

It is the story of young Lincoln finding his legal voice in a young country embroiled in a bloody struggle with its original sin—slavery.

It is the story of Lincoln confronting social issues—the rights of women and children and enslaved Black people—as they come in public consciousness, and threaten to divide the nation.

It is the story of Lincoln’s mastery of rough and tumble frontier politics, of surging rivalries and harsh vendettas, as Lincoln moves from state representative to the US Congress.

The Vapors

TV Drama Series

Created with Michael Sofranko, Eric Chase & Tomas Elliott

Currently Marketing

The Vapors is one of the most storied nightclubs in American history—but it’s a club whose story is largely unknown to the world. Until now. 

Set in the spa city of Hot Springs, Arkansas, surrounded by the lush Ouachita mountains, The Vapors opens its doors in 1960 as a home to music, fine dining, dancing, and full service gambling. And it soon becomes the clubhouse for American organized crime.

Owney’s partner in The Vapors is WWII fighter pilot Danny Hall, an Arkansas native son and upstanding citizen who is the club’s front man. Together, the duo plan to give their customers whatever they want. But Danny Hall soon discovers that the customers want more than even the “look the other way” law of Hot Springs allows. 

Danny likes the money he’s making for his wife Christie and children Danny Jr. and Susie, and he likes the glamour. And Owney likes the Arkansas shadows in which he can continue his criminal business. When J. Edgar Hoover and Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy get wind of The Vapors, they have Owney in their sights. 

All the while, America and The Vapors are living through turbulent social change: the Cold War against Communism; the hot war in Vietnam; the rise of the Civil Rights movement and the harshness of their opponents; the assassination of JFK; the space race; and every night at The Vapors, the musical talents of artists from Tony Bennett to Rosemary Clooney to the Smothers Brothers, to the upstart rock n’ rollers who want to take over the tune.

And of course, there’s the gambling, for that’s what makes The Vapors its real money, and that’s what brings in the trouble. Owney’s gangster pals from New York and Chicago see a good thing here in friendly old Hot Springs—and they want a piece of it. 

So Danny Hall has to fend off the law and the gangsters to protect his gangster partner. To protect his new way of life. And to stay alive.

Let’s Do A Miracle

Feature Documentary

Created with Elissa Montanti, Alice Barrett Mitchell & Nancy Bell

Written, directed, co-produced, Michael McKinley

Please view the trailer for this film here.

The Singing Coach

TV Reality Series

Created with Julia Amisano

Engraved on a Nation: “Man vs. Machine”

TV Documentary

TSN 2019

Co-executive producer

“I lost to a car.” That’s what Larry Walker, the first Canadian MLB MVP said in 1997, when the Lou Marsh Trophy for the Canadian Athlete of the year was awarded to F1 driver Jacques Villeneuve.

Man vs. Machine tells the story of one of the most debated years of Canadian accomplishments in sports. Part of TSN’s Engraved on a Nation series.

“There are many great sports-themed documentaries... Among the best in this country is TSN’s Engraved on a Nation.”

www.sportingnews.com

The Jesus Strand

Feature Documentary

History TV

Creator & co-producer

Now for the first time in history a man of faith and a man of science are teaming up to search for Jesus’ DNA. Using the latest advances in DNA technology Oxford University geneticist George Busby and biblical scholar Pastor Joe Basile are investigating the world’s most famous holy relics including the Shroud of Turin, The Sudarium of Oviedo and the newly discovered bones of Jesus’ cousin, John the Baptist. Their journey takes them to holy sites around the world from Spain and Italy to Israel and the shores of the Black Sea. By extracting and analyzing samples of each of these holy relics they hope to retrieve a sample of DNA that possibly belongs to Jesus or a member of his family. They believe that if they can find a strand of Jesus’ DNA it could help identify who among us today are descendants of Jesus and provide us with new insight into the man many consider to be the most important person in history, Jesus.

Finding Jesus: Faith. Fact. Forgery.

Documentary Series

CNN, 2015 & 2017

Creator & co-producer

After Jesus: The First Christians

TV Documentary

CNN, 2010

Creator, co-writer & producer

It’s a dangerous, tumultuous time in the Roman Empire. There are wars and rebellions among the empire’s client-states, and the emperors are becoming increasing brutal in suppressing any hint of revolution. That spells trouble for the restive Jewish nation on the eastern edge of the empire.  There are would-be messiahs and magic men all over Israel, many proclaiming a special connection to the God of Israel. For the Roman Empire, these men are not worth noticing. The Romans respect the Jews and their single god, Yahweh, and they’ve cut them quite a bit of slack. But when one prophet, Jesus of Nazareth upsets the powers that be by chasing out the money changers out of the Temple in Jerusalem—Judaism’s holiest site—he’s marked for death.

No matter that his followers claim he’s the messiah; the Romans and the Temple priests in Jerusalem think otherwise. Jesus of Nazareth is crucified on a hill with two other common criminals, just another routine execution for the Romans to keep the natives happy. But it’s a Friday, coming up on the Sabbath, so the Romans allow Jesus’ followers to take down his body for burial. And three days later, his followers discover something astonishing: his body has somehow escaped from the rock-sealed tomb. As prophecy and he both promised, he has risen from the dead. Christianity has begun…

After Jesus, co-written and produced by Michael McKinley and David Gibson with CNN,  investigates just how a man who wanted to shake up Judaism wound up starting a global faith– after his death. Using the official version of early Christianity as given to us by the Gospels and Saint Paul, After Jesus ventures into the world beyond to reveal the complex, violent, and surprising world that gave birth to a new religion.

The Two Marys

TV Documentary

CNN, 2008

Winner of the Gracie Award for Best Hour-long Documentary Aired in the US

Creator, co-writer & producer

Michael McKinley and David Gibson wrote and produced this film for CNN Presents in 2005. It won a Gracie Award as the outstanding mid-length documentary aired in the US, from the Alliance for Women in Media. In it, we look at two young women in 1st century Israel, and how one Mary became the mother of God and the other, Mary Magdalene, one of the most mysterious women in history.

“Solar Storm” and “Ice Storm”

Dramatic sections for “Perfect Disasters”

The Discovery Channel, 2004

Writer

Lost in the Snow

Dramatic sections of “Lost in the Snow” for “I Shouldn’t Be Alive,” the Discovery Channel, 2004

Writer

The Mystery of Jesus

TV documentary for CNN, 2004

Creator & co-writer

Sacred Ballot

TV Documentary for CNN and CBC

Creator & co-producer

A documentary about the election of the successor to John Paul II

Impolite

Winner of BC Film’s New Views Award

Writer