William Colby's Reel

Desaparecido. Someone has got to go. Desaparecido is a Spanish word that means “disappeared.” It may refer to a person who is abducted by a state or political organization, followed by a refusal to acknowledge the person's fate and whereabouts. Trevor seems to take great pleasure in irritating Fray Carlos, exposing his frailties and deceitfulness. Two cultures collide. As referenced early in the story, the fight for control of the New Mexico Territory was a multi-sided battle, with six...

A day in the life of the young Sheriff Monty Law on the Western Slope of Colorado. There's trouble up in Aspen. Seems that the sheriff is missing. And so is the mayor. Time to head over McClure Pass on Highway 133 and sort things out...

Every so often, an unwelcome visitor arrives in the Box Canyon, disturbing the typical peace and harmony of the Colorado High Country. Never before and hopefully never again will we see the likes of Leslie Thompson. This episodic character emerged at the same time a similar woman took center stage in an unprecedented courtroom drama in Maricopa County, Arizona. Her name was Jodi Arias. They walk among us. Their latent tendencies often take control and leave a trail of death and destruction.

Supernatural. Human-borne. Galactic. Maybe a combination of the three. This community needs an explanation for why their kids have disappeared through the decades. They receive no help. The low value ascribed to the native population by government agencies and authorities is shameful. Chad steps right into a mess. His timing could not have been worse, arriving in Shiprock just as another Navajo boy disappears. They have an outsider in their midst and a void in their lives.

Welcome to Shiprock, my strange friends in the dark. For generations, Navajo kids have been disappearing into the night, into the storm. An outsider arrives in Shiprock just as the next victim is claimed by the night. He is an outsider yet has a strange connection to Shiprock's unnatural history.

DESERT CAMP - A Limited Series. The characters step into frame and commence to reveal their objectives and predicaments. There is a lot of drama in this gilded land of desert castles...

In development now, Desert Camp - A Limited Series. This is a thinly-veiled composite of some of my neighbors in North Scottsdale. I'll worry about the repercussions later...

GALISTEO - The Movie Santa has his workshop up at the North Pole, cranking out toys for boys and girls everywhere. I have the Character Factory, creating and composing characters, the ambassadors to my screen stories. The story is character-driven. Characters create their own ecosystems. Survival is the goal...

EMPRESARIO - The Borderland Tale of High Crimes and Conspiracy Person. Place. Thing. Time. It was a generation or two ago. The place – the high deserts of West Texas, Southern New Mexico, and Nevada, the jungles of Mexico and Colombia, the high seas of the Caribbean. His name was Lee Chagra. He weaves this cautionary, maybe even foundational, tale of high crimes and conspiracy into the Borderland and into popular American culture. And then there is this thing, the separation and evolution...

The scourge of humanity descends on a small mountain community. It will leave a trail of bodies in its wake - young, unsuspecting kids just trying to fit in, just having a good time. A group of hikers finds the body of a young teenage girl at a high alpine camp. But she is not the first, and unfortunately, not the last. It has been a rather peaceful time in the Town of Telluride since the storm. Nothing unusual or dramatic. No mysterious disappearances, kidnappings, or deaths. But an age-old scourge has returned, with a vengeance.