[Quick Summary: An obsessed poker player, who is unlucky in real life, faces off with his estranged, obsessed poker player father in the World Series of Poker.]
I tend to avoid first drafts on this blog. However I do make exceptions.
Today's script is a rare original story and script* from a 5 time Oscar nominee who is best known for adaptations.**
I wanted to know: What set it apart? Why did Eric Bana, Robert Duvall, and Drew Barrymore sign on? What element(s) in the story sold it?
I think one element is WHERE the writer started Huck's emotional state:
- Huck is winning just enough to feed that addiction high. But he's really numb.
- When he meets Billie, he starts to feel good again.
- Huck's dad, however, is scared he's losing his edge, yet plows on.
I like the midpoint scene below because it is a PAYOFF of all the above:
- Huck is at a crossroads: Plow on like dad or take another path?
- Huck has just stolen Billie's paycheck, gambled it away. He finally has the entry fee for his dream...so why does it feel so hollow?
INT. THE CAESARS PALACE - DAYBREAK
Day's dawning. The casino near empty. The dealers standing waiting for players at the crap table. A lone man at a blackjack table. The other blackjack dealers standing like penguins at the empty blackjack tables. The roulette dealer standing silently his arms crossed. And we see Huck, on the downside, slouched, his hands in his raincoat pockets, sitting on a couch in the lobby...the daylight coming in through the doors, painting him...and there's something not funny about any of it...not interesting...not colorful...there's something so lonely, it breaks you apart...
HUCK'S (V.O.): I don't know why...I'm so tired..everything seems, I don't know, empty...
Ge takes Billie's driver's license out of his pocket, looking at her picture...
HUCK'S (V.O.)(a beat, quietly, it's an effort): Pop quiz...Billie...Her middle name..? Is it: A. Anne...
...And the choices appear on the screen...
HUCK'S (V.O.): B. Carol. C. Catherine. or, D. Jessica.
...looking at her license....
HUCK'S (V.O.): If you said "B.," Carol...give yourself a gold star, you've been listening..
He motions to her name on her license...And he's quiet, looking at her picture...
HUCK'S (V.O.): She's pretty, huh? Break your heart pretty. I can't stop thinking about her.
And for no particular reason he takes the cash out of his raincoat pockets...he lays the packets of money on his chest...and as he sits slouched in the lobby with the money on him...and there's no satisfaction in it...the quiet casino behind him, the first light of the day coming in...And as he looks at Billie's photograph on her driver's license...
WHAT I'VE LEARNED: I liked that the change was so organic.
Huck consumes synthetic happiness--> feels real happiness w/Billie-->wakes up that synthetic is not so great.
Lucky You (2007)(6/21/02, 1st draft)
by Eric Roth
Story by Eric Roth
* Note: This first draft was eventually re-written by the director/writer Curtis Hanson.
**Forrest Gump, The Insider, Munich, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, A Star is Born.
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