William DeMeo is scriptwriter, star, and co-director for the crime drama Wannabes. Hotheated older brother Angelo (DeMeo) and more-thoughtful younger brother Paulie (Conor Dubin) are both fired from their jobs as waiters at an Italian restaurant in Brooklyn. They join up with two of their neighborhood friends, Pete (Daniel Margotta) and Dom (John Palumbo) to start up a bookie business with a 20,000-dollar loan. The group has a rocky start, but soon acquires some help from a partner in Coney Island and expands into more complicated illegal activites. Local crime boss Santo Minieri (Joe Viterelli) develops an interest in the new business and soon takes Angelo up as his protégé. Santo's biological son, Vinny (Joesph D'Onofrio), is angered by his father's choice and seems headed for destruction.