A “boy-wonder” film executive scams his studio for millions with a dummy script that the whole town believes is genius, sends it straight to “Development Hell” so he can walk away with the cash, only to find he’s not the only “shark in the tank”. (THE PLAYER meets THE STING - Based on an actual case and a literary agent's experiences)

SYNOPSIS:

To Brennan Hale in 1989, a clever new MBA candidate from the wrong side of Philly, the world is one big game board upon which he intends to win. But, despite his undeniable intelligence and charm, inside, his doubts and paranoia never leave him. Owing his school thousands before he will be allowed to graduate, he “finds” the money in a single day: he buys a junked car and its “paper,” matching and renting the same model at a rental agency, swaps the V.I.N. numbers, sells the rental car with the wreck’s title for cash on the street, steals the rental back, switches back the V.I.N. plates, and returns the rental, no one the wiser, flush, now with cash. Just like that, he’s settled his debt, and can graduate with his class.

From there, he sets his sights on Hollywood and joins Hamilton-Harris, a prestigious “boutique” talent agency now one of the industry elite, his low-life past now far behind him. Starting as an agent “trainee,” charming everyone he meets, he quickly picks up the game, and begins to formulate a plan for success.

Finding a young screenwriter, Damian Burns, with a “can’t miss” feature film project, CRISIS--about a high-tech U.N. Crisis-Assessment team which is first to land in some of the most dangerous hot-spots in the 3rd world—only months after joining H-H, Hale leaves the agency, becomes an independent producer, and moves the project from nascent feature film to potential television series going to pilot. But, as Hale wraps production on the pilot at its New York location, back on the west coast, Damian Burns dies in a car crash in the southern California mountains.

Seven Years Pass.

Hale has taken CRISIS forward, becoming another MAS*H, running for six seasons, ruling the ratings. And, now, in a top Executive position at Millenium-Global Studios (MGS), he’s cemented his reputation in a new, emerging, Hollywood Golden Age. But, for Hale, the game is becoming boring, success elusive, and he knows just what to do about it. Someone, however, is watching.

By the mid ‘90s, the internet age has dawned. Hollywood has become a kind of “wild west” for huge “spec script” sales. Online private website “chat rooms,” or “tracker boards,” have emerged to discover and channel the sale and development of new material amidst Hollywood’s fierce competition.

Meanwhile, another ascending executive with the magic touch, “Development Goddess Extraordinaire,” Serene (pronounced “Sa-renn-a”) Hunter, is lured to MGS, and begins working with Hale and company, tracking the hottest new projects, and expanding and enlarging her already formidable reputation. As they begin to work together, Hale and Hunter move from being colleagues to becoming MGS competitors, and then… to lovers.

But, swirling around Hale at MGS, as the studio scrambles to weather a looming writers’ strike, and everyone fears for their job, all may not be what it seems. He’s latched onto a young writer, Dan Weatherman, and his remarkable new script, DARK CONFESSIONS, creating a huge “buzz” on the tracker boards. Recalling how he managed to find the money to graduate back in Philly, Hale realizes that what he did with cars, he could do, now… with scripts.

He’s sponsored Mick, a school pal from Philly, as an agent at Hamilton-Harris. He recommends Dan Weatherman and DARK CONFESSIONS for representation and auction, promising to set the floor bid, and, because he’s first, he can come in at the end for a 5% topping privilege. Then, he descends into the studio archive, the “morgue,” known as the “Seven Circles of Development Hell,” finds a decades old forgotten film noir script, and combining Weatherman’s work with the older one, he creates a hybrid: DARKNESS CALLS ME, written by “unknown” screenwriter, “Dante N. Furnau”. This “Dan,” then, is signed, unseen, to H-H, while their agent, Mick, meets the new screenwriter, “Dan” Weatherman. Hale has Weatherman re-title DARK CONFESSIONS to TWILIGHT OF THE HEART because it “conflicts with another MGS project”. So, now, Weatherman is rep’d by H-H, and H-H will be auctioning the “hot” new screenplay “buzzed” on the tracker boards, with a “new” title: Hale’s DARKNESS CALLS ME. And Weatherman, H-H, and Hollywood, are none-the-wiser. And the buyer: MGS’s Brennan—“Dante N. Furnau”--Hale, with the studio’s “Seven Circles” waiting for Hale’s eventual judgment.

SPOILERS AHEAD

Hale’s partner in developing CRISIS seven years earlier, Damian Burns, was, in fact, murdered on that mountain road. And the investigating officer, Detective Tom Shannon, had never stopped working the case. Others in Hollywood suspected it wasn’t what it seemed, either, Serene Hunter, foremost among them. As Hale’s new purchase sets the new record amount for a “spec” sale, she confronts Hale with the evidence: Hale had traveled from New York City to California and back, over 18 hours, the day Burns was killed, perhaps intending to commit the murder. But he was beaten to it by Burns’s dis-affected lover. Nonetheless, all signs implicated Hale, while the lover got away with it. And only one person put it all together: Serene Hunter.

So, while she engineers Hale’s arrest and conviction for Damian Burns’s murder, she picks up Hale’s scam for herself, replacing him as the acquisition monarch of Hollywood. But, lest it all rest there, Hale sees what she’s done while behind bars, and manages to turn the tables on her without ever leaving his cell. And proving the adage, nobody in Hollywood really knows anything, every improbable loose strand in the story comes to some kind of grand outcome at the end. #

RATIONALE----------Why a Film About Hollywood?

I'm aware that Hollywood tends not to do films about itself. But… there are compelling reasons why that view should be reconsidered. First, Hollywood has an allure for the public: they’re fascinated with the stars, the lifestyle, the production process, even the exotic setting, itself. Then, with Hollywood as the setting, a story that’s a page turner, funny and clever--in other words, a “movie,” --will attract a director, stars, and that audience.

Any argument that the audience can’t relate to Hollywood is wrong. Your lawn guy or your dry cleaner didn’t know what being a lawyer or a cop or a doctor was like before seeing them onscreen. If you can find the stakes in a story, make it sexy, and give the audience people they’re charmed by, and care about, the story can be about anything. Then, there’s the production cost. You’ve got the setting already built: the city, the studios, the soundstages, the personnel and equipment, the agencies, and even the stars for possible cameos. The world, itself, doesn’t have to be built!

There have been several successful films about the film business. Costing $90M, ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD grossed nearly $400M. Costing just over $30M, GET SHORTY grossed about $115M. THE PLAYER cost $8M, and grossed almost $22M. DARKNESS CALLS ME (THE PLAYER meets THE STING) is based, first, on a real crime that the arresting F.B.I. agent called “the cleverest scam” he’d seen in his 25 years in the Bureau; and, second, on my experiences as a Writers Guild Signatory literary agent selling to film producers and book publishers in the 1990s.