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A weathered cowboy holding a glowing gold rodeo champion belt buckle. The title 'The Bull Rider' set in yellow and ember on a dust-textured teal field.

A modern western · A redemption drama · A film by Ricardo Colorado

“There are storms that do not come to destroy you, but to force you to meet the man you become when you survive.”

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Concept trailer

A first look

Sound on if you have a moment alone with it.

  • A dance with the fear of God.
  • Your son needs more than half a man.
  • A whisper of shine on top of nothing. We deal in gold.

The story

Mike Herford. The Kentucky Hammer.

What remains after the fall.

Mike Herford, “The Kentucky Hammer,” was once the most feared rodeo champion in America.

Thirty years later, he drifts through El Paso like a fading ghost — leaning on a crutch, clutching a gold belt buckle worth less than the life he traded for it.

When his son is born too early in Chihuahua and the hospital debt closes in around him, Mike is forced onto the ranch of the one man who never wanted him there: Ramiro, his father-in-law — a proud Mexican rancher who despises him for everything he represents.

What begins as a debt becomes something deeper: two aging men, divided by country, pride, and failure, trapped beneath the same sky.

This is not a story about losing everything.

It is about what remains after the fall.

Genre
Modern Western · Thriller · Family Drama
Runtime
110 – 120 minutes
Format
Bilingual · English & Spanish
Audience
Adults 30–65 · Latinx & global arthouse

The heart

01

Fathers & daughters

At its core this is a story about fathers, daughters, and the price of redemption. Two aging men with nothing left to prove except whether they can still be of use to the family they nearly lost.

02

Pride & survival

A bilingual frontier where English and Spanish, America and Mexico, pride and survival collide beneath the same dust-filled sky. Identity here is not chosen — it is what's left after everything else is taken.

03

What remains

A whisper of shine on top of nothing. The world only deals in gold, and what he has won so far has been measured against it and found wanting. This is not a story about losing everything. It is about what remains after the fall.

Tone

A twilight western with dark humor

It carries the bruised soul of The Wrestler and the haunted silence of Unforgiven — but its heart belongs to the border.

Violence
Dry, swift, without ornament. When it arrives — the shootout in the Sierra, the gold theft, Gallo's death, the puma attack — it hurts the way real life hurts.
Humor
Emerges from cultural friction. Watching a world champion, once used to applause, unable to tag a calf becomes a metaphor for the entire film. The laughter of Mexican cowboys is not mockery — it is the first step toward acceptance.
Drama
Simmers slowly — in silences, in sidelong glances, in the moment when Ramiro, mortally wounded, asks Mike to take care of his daughter.

Key tonal references

  • Hell or High Water

    David Mackenzie

    Modern tension in open landscapes.

  • Unforgiven

    Clint Eastwood

    Deconstruction of the hero and the weight of the past.

  • The Wrestler

    Darren Aronofsky

    The visceral portrait of a body destroyed by glory.

  • No Country for Old Men

    Coen Brothers

    The brutal stillness of the desert as a silent witness.

Visual style

Dust on the lens

The film will be shot on a high-end digital package designed to capture the texture of dust on the lens. The audience won't just see the border — they'll feel it on their skin.

  1. Act I

    El Paso · Juárez

    Desaturated palette, dirty neon, harsh lighting. Handheld, restless camera. The chaos of a man who has lost control.

  2. Act II

    The Ranch · Sierra Tarahumara

    Olive greens, dawn blues, golden ochres. The camera settles. Majestic wide shots dwarf Mike. This is the land of Apache leaders — Geronimo, Mangas Coloradas, Victorio. The West in its purest state.

  3. Act III

    Sierra Thriller

    Night. Moonlight. Rifle flashes. Ramiro's flashlight. The camera turns shaky. The western becomes survival.

  4. Epilogue

    Las Vegas

    Warm light, saturated colors — but Vegas neon is cold, artificial. A world Mike no longer belongs to. Now, he belongs to the land.

Visual references

  • Sergio Leone

    Graphic framing. The face as territory.

  • Chloé Zhao

    Organic integration of man and landscape (The Rider).

  • Coen Brothers

    The brutal simplicity of the desert.

  • Roger Deakins

    Natural light as tension (Sicario).

Why this film, now

Western storytelling is back

In recent years, western storytelling has experienced a powerful resurgence across film and streaming worldwide. Audiences are once again drawn to grounded frontier dramas — stories of survival, honor, and moral conflict set against vast landscapes.

The Bull Rider taps into that renewed appetite by merging the raw authenticity of rodeo culture with a deeply human cross-border story set between Mexico and the United States.

In a world obsessed with neo-westerns like Yellowstone, 1883, and Hell or High Water, The Bull Rider rides into untouched ground: a bilingual frontier where English and Spanish collide beneath the same dust-filled sky.

Audience

Who this is for

  1. Primary

    Adults 30 – 65, U.S. & Mexico

    Fans of drama and westerns. Premium-streaming consumers on Netflix, Amazon, HBO seeking authentic content.

  2. Secondary

    U.S. Latinx market — 62 million people

    Reflected in themes of family, sacrifice, and border identity. A market that is consistently under-served by Hollywood and over-indexed in premium streaming consumption.

  3. Global

    Festival circuit & arthouse

    Cannes, Toronto, Morelia and the international arthouse audience, drawn by the quality of an international co-production.

Comparables

Why it works

Built on a proven commercial DNA, tuned for the modern western moment.

  • Yellowstone

    Modern western, prestige TV phenomenon.

  • 1883

    Period western with cross-border DNA.

  • Hell or High Water

    Modern tension, open landscapes.

  • The Wrestler

    Body, glory, and ruin.

  • Unforgiven

    The deconstructed hero.

  • The Rider

    Man and landscape, organic.

Universal themes
Family, redemption, the cost of pride.
Cross-border appeal
English + Spanish. U.S. + Mexico.
Prestige storytelling
Festival-credible. Streaming-ready.

Director

Ricardo Colorado Seira

Writer · Director

Ricardo Colorado Seira — Writer · Director

Ricardo Colorado is not a traditional filmmaker — and that is precisely what gives his cinema its edge.

Before entering film he built a career in business and law, giving him a rare understanding of structure, negotiation, risk, and execution. But his transition into cinema was never calculated from the outside. It came from something deeper: the need to tell stories with truth, scale, and emotional weight.

He does not approach filmmaking as fantasy. He approaches it as a man who has lived enough to understand what stories cost.

I am a man shaped by work, faith, and risk. I walked away from comfort to bet everything on myself, and I proved that I could build a film from almost nothing and carry it to the world.

But more than that, this story — of a man trying to rebuild himself from the ruins of who he once was — is not just a film I want to make.

It is the story I have spent my entire life becoming ready to tell.

As writer
  • Co-writer of the biopic Cantinflas (2010).
  • Co-writer of Crescendo (2011) — winner of 15 international festivals and Oscar race finalist.
As director
  • 16 international awards
  • 1 Oscar-race nomination (short film)
  • Global distribution across major streaming platforms

Press & online

In his own voice

Ricardo Colorado on Lateral Podcast

“Encontrar tu vocación en la crisis.” Episode 151. Hosted by Mario Salinas.

Open on Apple Podcasts

Production approach

Made on the land

Locations
Filmed on location in northern Mexico — authentic ranch environments, the Sierra Tarahumara, and the El Paso / Juárez border.
Action
Practical action, grounded realism. No stylized abstraction — when it hurts, it hurts the way real life hurts.
Distribution
Distribution letter already in place with Apple and Amazon Prime. Festival window targeting Cannes, Toronto, and Morelia.
Producer
A CME FILMS production.

For Mexican investors

100% tax deductible.

Your participation in The Bull Rider can be structured as a fully deductible expense under the SPECC patrimonial-planning model — turning capital that would otherwise be paid to the SAT into an indefinite participation in a feature film's net flows.

  • 100% deductible in the current fiscal year
  • Capital recovered free of ISR via Reembolso de Capital Acreditado
  • Indefinite participation in net flows (ad perpetuam)

The opportunity

Capital, participation, and the math

We are raising production financing structured to give investors an indefinite participation in net flows from theatrical, streaming, television, international licensing and ancillary rights — backed by a distribution letter already in place with Apple and Amazon Prime.

Capital required
USD 3,000,000

Production financing

Participation offered
45%

of net flow — ad perpetuam

Minimum ticket
USD 300,000

4.5% net-flow participation

Maximum ticket
USD 3,000,000

Full 45% participation

Order of distribution: distribution costs → SPECC fee → capital refund → investors (45%) → project (55%).

The SPECC model

Patrimonial planning through intangible assets

Designed by SPECC — Consultoría Corporativa Estratégica — the structure does not require new cash outflow. It identifies and formalizes intangible assets your company already produced last fiscal year, deducts them at 100% this year, and channels recovered capital into the film.

Deduct intangibles you already own at 100% this year. Recover capital free of ISR via Reembolso de Capital Acreditado. Invest a portion in the film for indefinite participation.

  1. 01

    Identify & value intangible assets

    SPECC diagnoses unrecognized intangibles — relational capital, know-how, proprietary processes, brand, client portfolio — valued against last fiscal year's results under NIF C-8, with an independent appraisal.

  2. 02

    Recognize & deduct 100% this year

    The intangible is booked in this fiscal year with a defined useful life equal to the year. Under arts. 25-IV and 33 LISR the full value is deductible in the same period.

  3. 03

    Capitalize & raise the CUCA

    The intangible is contributed to share capital by public deed, raising the company's Cuenta de Capital de Aportación by the same amount (art. 78 LISR).

  4. 04

    Reembolso de Capital Acreditado

    With the CUCA raised, the company performs a capital reduction via RCA. Refund up to the CUCA per share is ISR-free for both company and shareholder.

  5. 05

    Channel a portion to the film

    A portion of the ISR-free capital is contributed to the CME FILMS investment vehicle. The investor participates with capital that would otherwise have been paid to the SAT or sat idle.

SPECC fees are calculated solely on value generated: 1/3 of ISR saved + 10% of value identified. No success → no fee.

Worked example

What the math looks like

Illustrative figures for a company with MXN 10M in fiscal profit. Actual analysis is tailored per investor at the initial diagnostic stage.

  • Prior-year fiscal profit$10,000,000 MXN
  • Corporate ISR rate30%
  • ISR due without planning$3,000,000 MXN
  • Intangible value identified$6,000,000 MXN
  • Original fiscal profit$10,000,000 MXN
  • Intangible deduction (100% — arts. 25-IV & 33 LISR)($6,000,000 MXN)
  • Adjusted taxable base$4,000,000 MXN
  • ISR due with the structure (30%)$1,200,000 MXN
  • ISR due without the structure (30%)$3,000,000 MXN
  • Fiscal saving this year$1,800,000 MXN
  • Fiscal saving (ISR not paid)$1,800,000 MXN
  • Capital recovered ISR-free via RCA$6,000,000 MXN
  • Total benefit generated$7,800,000 MXN
  • SPECC fees (1/3 ISR saved + 10% identified)($1,140,000 MXN)
  • Net benefit to the company$6,660,000 MXN
  • Available to invest in CME FILMSInvestor's choice

Reading the example

The company saves $1.8M MXN in ISR and recovers $6M MXN ISR-free — a $7.8M MXN total benefit. After SPECC's fees the net benefit is $6.66M MXN. The investor decides what portion of the RCA to channel into the film, participating in cinematic flows with capital that would otherwise have been paid to the SAT.

Return scenarios

Investment tiers

Returns shown are post-capital-refund, calculated on net flow available in each scenario. They are not a guarantee — evaluate with your independent advisors.

ContributionParticipationConservativeBaseHigh performance
USD 300,0004.5%USD 70,875USD 106,313USD 162,000
USD 600,0009.0%USD 141,750USD 212,625USD 324,000
USD 1,000,00015.0%USD 236,250USD 354,375USD 540,000
USD 1,500,00022.5%USD 354,375USD 531,563USD 810,000
USD 3,000,00045.0%USD 708,750USD 1,063,125USD 1,620,000

Indefinite participation — paid as long as the work generates income across box office, streaming, television, international licensing, and derivative rights.

Compliance

Legal framework

The whole structure — patrimonial planning and film investment alike — operates within the current Mexican legal framework, with the mechanisms required to defend it under fiscal or commercial review.

Intangible appraisalIndependent expert opinion under NIF C-8NIF C-8 · Art. 33 LISR
Business reasonMateriality file: description, economic utility, causal linkArt. 5-A CFF
In-kind capitalizationPublic deed before notary; shareholders' minutes; appraisalArts. 141 & 182 LGSM
Reembolso de Capital AcreditadoCapital-reduction deed; CUCA per-share calc; CFDIArt. 78 LISR
CME FILMS investmentIndividual contract + partner agreement before notaryLGSM · LISR
Flow traceabilityBank transfers only; CFDI per operation; no cashArt. 32 LFPIORPI
AML / counter-terrorismKYC protocol; source-of-funds declaration; UIF noticesArts. 17-XV, 18, 23 LFPIORPI

Next steps

How to get from here to invested

  1. 01

    Diagnostic meeting — SPECC reviews prior-year financials and identifies eligible intangibles.

    SPECC + your team

  2. 02

    Preliminary report — identified assets and estimated fiscal benefit (ISR saved + potential CUCA).

    SPECC

  3. 03

    Service agreement — formal engagement between SPECC and the investor company.

    SPECC + company

  4. 04

    Independent appraisal and materiality file.

    SPECC + appraiser

  5. 05

    Booking, capitalization deed, and CUCA / RCA calculation.

    SPECC + notary + accounting

  6. 06

    RCA executed and contribution to the CME FILMS investment vehicle formalized.

    SPECC + CME FILMS + company