Episodes 1–3 · Prometheus Studios: The NYC Anthology (Season 1)
A data center architect is ordered to divert emergency cooling water from his family's village to save a Wall Street trading firm four milliseconds of latency — and has to decide how far he'll go along with it. We're casting the leads and supporting roles for this three-episode arc, shot in a raw basement utility room in Long Island City.
[VISUAL] Extreme close-up on a rack of industrial servers. The small digital readouts are flashing red: 38.8°C… 39.1°C. The low, deafening hum of cooling fans fills the audio.
The camera tilts down vertically to TARIQ (30s, Fulani-American infrastructure architect, sharp, wearing a rumpled linen shirt). He is typing furiously on a terminal. Standing over him is DIRECTOR VANCE (40s, sharp corporate suit, looking completely cold).
"The Wall Street high-frequency trading block is throttling, Tariq. Every millisecond we lose on the London transit corridor costs the fund four million dollars. Shift the computational load now."
"I can't shift it to the Western grid without blowing a substation, Vance. The only sector with excess thermal headroom is our sub-Saharan node in West Africa. But that facility is already running at peak ambient temperature."
"Then spin up the secondary cooling system on that node. It's an automated water-chilled loop. Hit the override."
"That automated loop draws from the local regional aquifer, Vance. My family lives three miles from that facility. If I pull another ten thousand gallons a minute to cool your quantitative trading models, the municipal pumps in the valley go dry by morning. They won't have drinking water."
"They aren't trading on our corridor, Tariq. The capital is here. Hit the override."
[VISUAL] Tariq's hand hovers over the keyboard. His jaw tightens. He presses the enter key. The screen flashes green: COMPUTE ALLOCATION COMPLETED.
[VISUAL] The same server basement, hours later. The room is dark, lit only by blue LEDs. Tariq sits on a concrete step, his phone pressed to his ear. He is listening to a WhatsApp voice note. The audio is scratchy, breaking up.
"Tariq… a hanti. The water stopped flowing in the village taps this afternoon. The government says the river level dropped too fast. The crops are wilting in the heat. Your brother had to drive forty kilometers to the commercial filling station just to get a basin for the children…"
[VISUAL] Tariq closes his eyes, a heavy silence settling over him. Vance steps back into the frame, holding a tablet.
"Excellent work, Tariq. The latency cleared. But the predictive model is showing a new congestion bottleneck coming during the European market open at 0300. We need another thermal dump."
"No. I'm throttling the NYC servers instead. Let the traders lose their millisecond. My mother is collecting grey water from a ditch right now because of the last dump."
Full pages for Episodes 1–2 · Episode 3 sides shared with cast upon casting
Download the Script ↓Read the script above, then apply below. Include a link to your self-tape — readings from Tariq, Vance, or Mother's Voice are all welcome.
We will be in touch as we finalize casting. Follow @_awasanneh for updates.