Written by Sal Landi and Daniel Yost
To be directed by Robert Reed Altman

ICM   STORY   DEPARTMENT   COVERAGE

TITLE: DOUBLE OR NOTHING
AGENT REQUESTING: Gilardi
PREPARED BY: Evan Kilgore

GENRE: THRILLER

CALAVERA (F/20s) Slender, dark-skinned, black-haired, Latina. American-born drug-runner stationed in Mexico; becomes Charley's ally. (CO)

GARY KANGOL (M/40s) Tall, slick, good-looking, refined, intelligent. High-powered entertainment lawyer who uses Charley and frames him. (FE)

LT. GORDON (M/50) Overweight, worn, world-weary, jaded, slimy. Corrupt, girl-abusing cop, in on the deal with Gary. (FE)

FRANK TUCKER (M/35) Well-built, good looking, refined, intelligent. Charley's younger brother, an FBI agent, who helps him. (FE)

LOGLINE: A framed drug runner gets out of prison to find that the man who set him up is now using his daughter in underage pornographic videos, and sets about tracking him down as he evades both the law and the lawless.

SYNOPSIS: Plagued with drug issues as a child, CHARLEY TUCKER is not doing much better 20 years later. After getting fired from a menial construction job, he goes home to try and squeeze his father-in-law, PAUL, for finances for a dubious movie project he has in mind. His wife, CAROLYN, temping at an entertainment attorney's office, is skeptical, and his oblivious daughter, AMY, only wants to play basketball. Charley's brother, FRANK, now an FBI agent, is dubious that Charley can make anything out of his life. A resilient Charley approaches GARY, Carolyn's entertainment lawyer boss, and pleads with him to shop his idea around. Gary, though, has a counterproposal: if Charley is really looking for some easy money, he has a sketchy drug running operation out of Mexico that could always use another hand.

After Charley discusses the idea with Frank in veiled terms, Frank quickly sees through his brother's plans, and tells him it is not worth the risk. After Carolyn and Amy get into a car accident they cannot afford, though, Charley takes the deal. He flies to Mexico and meets up with young Latina CALAVERA, who gets on a plane with him and her brother, and transports a significant volume of cocaine across the American border. In the midst of selling it to some surfer boys, though, the operation is busted - by Frank. Charley and Calavera go to jail for the next five years. Frank essentially disowns Charley, but Gary comes to Charley's prison cell and offers him $15,000 if he will keep his mouth shut about the operation.

Five years later, Charley emerges from prison to find Carolyn has left him for Gary, and Amy has a wicked drug habit. After Amy disappears and Carolyn finds a pornographic tape in which Gary is having sex with Amy, Carolyn shoots herself. Calavera calls Charley and tells him she thinks they were set up the night of the bust. Gary wanted a fall man and a chance at Carolyn. Charley gets Frank to confirm there was an anonymous tip, and he is already on the way to San Francisco to confront Gary when he learns of Carolyn's death. Gary claims that Amy is 18 and she has left of her own accord; LT. GORDON at the police station confirms that legally there is no recourse. Charley and Calavera begin spying on Gary and Gordon.

Lieutenant Gordon leads them to a warehouse where underage girls perform sex acts. Calavera goes inside to look for Amy, and turns up a short while later dead in the bathroom from a drug overdose. An enraged Charley breaks into Gary's house looking for any information on Amy, but Gary arrives before he can leave. They fight, and Charley beats up Gary. Gary later turns up shot in the head. Lieutenant Gordon claims Charley is responsible. Following a message Calavera left on Charley's phone before she died, Charley finds Lt. Gordon's cell phone at the scene of her death, but because his fingerprints are now all over it, he cannot use it for evidence. Using Calavera's message, he checks out a club where Amy apparently worked, and uses a webcam to see her. She has indeed been turned into a drugged out prostitute. Meanwhile, Frank approaches Lieutenant Gordon solicits his help in finding Charley. Lt. Gordon shoots Frank.

Charley subsequently follows Lieutenant Gordon to a ratty little house where it turns out Amy is staying. He has been skimming drugs from the police department in exchange for sex with her. As they are about to initiate another deal, Charley arrives and kills Lieutenant Gordon. In the process, he gets shot, and in a subsequent game of basketball to determine whether Amy will come with him or go off on her own, he collapses. At the hospital, Charley runs into Frank - not dead - and decides to embark upon a new life free of crime.

COMMENTS: Dark, gritty, fast-paced, and intense from start to finish, this script maintains a constant flow of action while developing a satisfyingly complex story around rich characters who grow nicely. Revolving around the desperation of a father who has more or less set himself up for conflict and failure, the tension and pacing never stumble as he endeavors to get his daughter back.

Structurally, the script does a nice job of setting up the grim and somewhat meager life of its protagonist, while at the same time handily illustrating the family dynamic he faces. His flirtation with the other side of the law feels natural and character-driven, and after Carolyn and Amy's accident forces him to finally cross that line, the story truly takes off.

As Charley gets involved with the drug running scheme, though, he quickly realizes that things are not as simple as he had hoped. When Carolyn commits suicide, and Charley realizes that he is going to have to find his daughter, the script takes a whole new direction that propels it into the second half of the second act. After Frank is shot and it seems as though Charley will not have any chance of finding Amy, Act II comes to a close, followed by a climactic face-off between Lieutenant Gordon and Charley.

The story provides nice variation. While it runs the risk of feeling somewhat frenetic as it seems to change its central idea around virtually every corner, because of the way in which it is executed, and the fact that, for the most part, the plot feels driven more by characters than by convenient story developments, this script manages to transform this potential problem into an asset. The variations in goals and obstacles create a fun and engaging thriller.

As a character, Charley is surprisingly sympathetic. In spite of the fact that he has had all kinds of trouble with the law and frequently flirted with the drug world, his struggles to support his family seem genuine, and his predicament renders him just pathetic enough to earn his support with the audience. As he comes into his own, he realizes that in truth, family is all that matters to him, the end of the script finds a reformed man in him by the end.

In the end, this script proves to be a wild ride through the dark social underbelly of San Francisco, in a world that is gritty, atmospheric, and alluring.

CONSIDER