PROOF OF CONCEPT SHOT · SIZZLE SCREENING NOW · SEASON ONE PACKAGING
An Egyptian immigrant chasing the American Dream through a New York City halal cart uncovers the phantom extortion racket bleeding the street dry, and must decide whether to expose the scam or seize its power.
Created & Directed by Amer J Hanini · Written by Amer J Hanini & Aymann Ismail · Executive Producer Director X
SCN 01 · THE SERIES
Omar lands at JFK with one suitcase, his father's oud pick, and his cousin's stories about the money waiting on every New York corner. What he finds is a halal cart with a price tag that never stops growing: cash to the seller, cash to the fixer, cash slipped under an anonymous door for a boss nobody has ever seen.
Then one envelope goes under the wrong door, and Omar discovers what the whole street has been paying for. Halal Cart Dreams is a crime story where the criminal enterprise is a rumor, and a comedy about every hustler, dreamer, and cousin with a get-rich scheme keeping that rumor alive.
LAWFUL BY ALLAH · THE WORLD OF THE SERIES
SCN 02 · PROOF, NOT PROMISES
Most series at this stage are a deck and a prayer. Halal Cart Dreams is footage. A full proof of concept is shot on location in New York with a working halal cart, a real subway, and a cast that lives this world. The sizzle is cut, and it has already screened for industry during Tribeca.
Every frame on this page is from our production. This is the show. It exists. The remaining capital finishes the season.
✦ SIZZLE SCREENED FOR INDUSTRY DURING TRIBECA 2026 · NEW YORK ✦
SCN 03 · THE INVESTMENT
The asset here is the story: a shot proof of concept, a world television has never been inside, and a voice sitting in the exact lane the market keeps rewarding. That stands on its own. The season is budgeted at $720,000 gross, $120,000 per episode, with investor-first economics structured in from day one. New Jersey's film tax credit is the bonus on top, with projected recovery bringing the net season cost toward $500,000.
CREDIT TIERS
Your name in the credits of every episode, monthly production dispatches, and access to the private screening room throughout post.
Producer credit on screen, in press materials, and in festival programs, plus set visits during the season shoot.
One hundred twenty thousand dollars is one full episode. Executive Producer credit, the highest available to investors, and a permanent place in the official record of the series.
WHAT COMES WITH IT
A complete prestige season, delivered for less than what most shows spend on one episode.
THE BONUS
Rock Factory Films is based in Newark, and the season is planned around the state incentive program: payroll, vendors, stages, and post structured so every qualifying dollar comes back.
On all qualifying cast and crew payroll, resident and non-resident, above and below the line.
Qualified bonuses can raise the effective rate on eligible spend to as high as 39%.
For applications approved from January 2026, New Jersey purchases unused credits at 95 cents on the dollar. The credit is nearly cash.
The program is extended through 2049. This is stable, legislated money, not a short-term experiment.
A ROCK FACTORY FILMS PRODUCTION · PHOTOGRAPHED BY GRITTY DOVE
Figures are the current season plan. The full line-item budget, net-after-credit model, waterfall, and definitive investor terms are provided in the investment summary and offering documents upon request. Tax credit figures reflect the New Jersey Film & Digital Media Tax Credit Program as administered by the NJEDA and are subject to program rules, approval, and qualification of expenses.
NEWARK, NEW JERSEY
SCN 04 · MARKET CONTEXT
The most valuable half-hours of the last five years are specific, culturally rooted, creator-driven stories that critics champion and audiences evangelize. Buyers are actively looking for the next one. Halal Cart Dreams sits at the exact intersection they keep rewarding: an immigrant story, a crime engine, and a world television has never been inside.
Proved an Arab-American, Muslim-led half-hour could win a Golden Globe and a Peabody, run three seasons, and anchor a streamer's prestige slate.
A Palestinian-American immigrant hustling through the American system, in English and Arabic. Critically adored across two seasons and proof the audience shows up for this exact voice.
A dark, culturally specific limited series that swept the Emmys and Golden Globes. The template for how a contained, character-driven season becomes an awards juggernaut.
Turned the pressure-cooker economics of a family food business into the most decorated comedy in Emmy history. Food service as prestige television is now a proven engine.
The blueprint. A New Jersey crime story rooted in one specific ethnic community that redefined television. Proof that Jersey-set crime, told with total cultural specificity, defines eras.
Two hustlers chasing the dream through New York's street economy. The tonal cousin: real city texture, ground-level ambition, the grind itself as the story.
SCN 05 · THE TEAM
Founder of Rock Factory Films (Newark, NJ / NYC). Multifaceted entrepreneur and filmmaker building Halal Cart Dreams from lived proximity to the world it portrays, from script through the shot proof of concept.
One of the most influential visual directors of his generation, with landmark work for Drake, Rihanna, and Kendrick Lamar, and the feature Superfly. His attachment signals the level this series is playing at.
Gritty Dove. The eye behind the series' sodium-vapor look: real streets, real steam, a New York shot from inside the cart window instead of outside it.
Staff writer at Slate whose award-winning journalism on Arab and Muslim American life gives the series its reportorial spine. He has spent years inside the real stories this show is built on.
Producer and the editor shaping the footage on this page. Every cut of the sizzle moves through his hands first, turning the proof of concept into the season's blueprint.
Line-level producing muscle keeping a location-heavy, bilingual New York shoot on schedule and on budget through the proof of concept, and architecting the season plan.
SCN 06 · TIMELINE
SCN 07 · SCREENING ROOM
This room holds the current sizzle and selects from the proof of concept. Access is limited to invited investors and partners. Enter the passphrase from your invitation.
The link below opens the latest cut. Please treat this as confidential work-in-progress material: color, sound, and VFX are not final. Do not forward or re-share the link.
▶ Play The Latest CutSCN 08 · GET IN TOUCH
We are speaking with a select group of investors and partners to complete season one financing. The proof of concept is shot, the incentive structure is in place, and the window to come in at this stage is short.
DIRECT CONTACT
amer@rockfactoryfilms.com
Rock Factory Films · Newark, NJ / New York City
Full investment summary, budget, and net-after-credit model available on request.