TODAY'S NUGGET: Lucky You (2007) - WHERE the Writer Starts the Emotional Journey (Setup-Payoff)

[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.

TODAY'S NUGGET: Munich (2005) - Cyclical Vengeance; I'm OK with a Long Script

[Quick Summary: Avner leads a team of assassins to wage vengeance on the team that killed the 1972 Israeli Olympians.]

I don't particularly like reading vengeance scripts, as they're often too long, i.e., heavy, IMPORTANT, and over-written.  (Yes, that's sarcasm.)

So I was surprised to find that this script actually needs the length (163 pgs.)

I think the writers and Spielberg and needed the space to do what they were trying to do here: Show the cyclical pattern of vengeance and it's fruitlessness.

One contributing factor to the cycle is the money.  It is so large that no one questions where it came from, and it will take great character to walk away from it.

We are reminded of this in the scene below:
- Avner goes to meet Papa, the head info broker who's made a fortune selling intel.
- Papa has requested this first in-person meeting after Avner's team messed up.
- This scene gives the audiences a little normalcy and a chance to breathe. However, the threat is never too far behind: We are similar; do not cross me.

INT. INSIDE THE FARMHOUSE - DAY

...He hands Avner a big metal bowl filled with kidneys. He points to the sink. 

PAPA (CONT'D): There.

Avner brings the bowl to the sink, turns on the tap. Papa hurries over, nudges Avner out of the way, turns off the tap. He gestures with the large knife he's holding.

PAPA (CONT'D): No! Don't wash! It will taste like boiled sponge.

AVNER: Then why put them in the sink?

PAPA: If the juices spurt out, it's a big mess, the whole kitchen smells like piss. Peel off the fat.

He dexterously peels off a kidney's thin membrane of fat.

PAPA (CONT'D): Let me see your hands.

Avner shows Papa his hands.

PAPA: Too big for a good cook! That was my problem too.

Papa holds his right hand up, flat against Avner's.

PAPA (CONT'D): I'd have been a master but I have thick stupid butcher's hands, like yours. We are tragic men. Butcher's hands, gentle souls.

He tousles Avner's hair, gently, affectionately slaps his face.

WHAT I'VE LEARNED: I was tired out reading this script. However, I do think it was as short as they could get it. Cycles do need space and time.

Munich (2005)(undated)
by Tony Kushner and Eric Roth
Based on the book, "Vengeance: The True Story of an Israeli Counter-Terrorist Team," by George Jonas

TODAY'S NUGGET: The Horse Whisperer (1998) - Tightrope Moment of Yearning & Dread

[Quick Summary: Annie and her teen daughter arrive in Montana in hopes that the horses whisperer can help heal their injured horse Pilgrim.]

Kids think romance is black and white, follow certain rules, and are sequential.

Adults know that reality is grey, flaunt rules, and sometimes stack on each other.

This adaptation does a nice job of capturing the messiness: self-sacrifice for the greater good; the struggles of yearning vs. dreading the loss afterwards.

This scene below particularly captures that tightrope feeling.  Tom and Annie want to grasp the moment vs. do not want to hang too tightly to the temporary.

EXT. HANK'S RANCH - NIGHT

Tom is walking alone when he turns the corner of Hank's house and finds;

Annie sitting alone, staring up at the night. They see each other. From behind the house, no one else can see them.

It is as if the fates brought them face to face and alone. Without any will to stop it, they embrace and kiss passionately. But when they look into each other's eyes, there is no joy in the kiss. Tom releases her and walks away, heading for the shed. Annie quickly pulls herself together and enters the main house through the back door.

WHAT I'VE LEARNED: Because the emotions here are complex, I like that the scene is simple.   If both were complex, it would be distracting.

The Horse Whisperer (1998)(2nd draft, 1/21/97)
by Eric Roth
Based on the novel by Nicholas Evans
Revised by Richard LaGravenese

TODAY'S NUGGET: Daredevil (2003) - What is Missing from Romantic Scenes Today

[Quick Summary: Matt Murdock, a blind lawyer, becomes Daredevil at night to find out who really killed a college girl and blamed his client.]

Comic book adaptations have always been hit or miss, but this script is very good. I was surprised how much I liked its romantic arc.  You read that right - romance!

Ebert also liked it and points out what is often missing from romantic scenes today, i.e., Beauty:

She and Daredevil are powerfully attracted to each other, and even share some PG-13 sex, which is a relief because when superheroes have sex at the R level, I am always afraid someone will get hurt. There is a rather beautiful scene where he asks her to stand in the rain because his ears are so sensitive they can create an image of her face from the sound of the raindrops.

I also liked this particular scene because it does double duty: 1) vulnerable, I-see-you connection (emotional); 2) a setup for a future payoff (structural).

EXT. STREET - NIGHT

...We hear the MUTED PATTER of the raindrops now, hitting the leaves overhead, as Elektra listens to Matt's world.

MATT (CONT'D): Suddenly there's a roof to the universe...and everything that was shapeless is given contours and textures...

He stops and inhales the world around him.

MATT (CONT'D): Car exhaust washes away rreplaced by the smell of earth and grass...and for a moment everything is clear.

MATT'S POV

Where we see the rain visualized as DROPS OF SOUND. Elektra steps closer as they bounce off of her shoulders, her hair, the bridge of her nose, until they reveal her in a perfect silhouette. She's even more beautiful than he imagined.

MATT (CONT'D): For a moment...I can see again.

NEW ANGLE

As she takes his hand and places it on her face.

CU FINGERTIPS

as Matt slowly caresses her delicate features, the raindrops streaming between his fingers and her cheeks in rivulets.

MATT (CONT'D): You are so beautiful.

They start to kiss. Matt losing himself in the moment...

WHAT I'VE LEARNED: When one character sees the best version of another character, it is beautiful and romantic.

Daredevil (2003)(7/3/01 draft)
by Mark Steven Johnson
Revisions by Brian Helgeland, Mark Steven Johnson

*Even post Iron Man (2008), not all comic book films will land with audiences.

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