Bamboozled Page #3

She sits in front of her television, hand on remote, flipping

channels and eating takeout Chinese food.

INT. CHEEBA AND MANRAY'S APARTMENT - NIGHT

They both are devouring the chicken with rice, as they watch

bootleg HBO.

INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT - NIGHT

Delacroix sits at his desk, a ream of white bond paper in

front of him, a box of number-two pencils and an electric

pencil sharpener.

DELACROIX (V.O.)

I was never good at performing

under the gun.

14.

CLOSE:

Pencil after pencil gets inserted and sharpened to a knife

like point.

DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D)

Well, this wasn't a gun, it was a

bazooka and it was pressed dead

blank right against my dome.

CLOSE ON:

Delacroix, staring at the blank ream of paper. It is very

intimidating.

CLOSE ON:

Monitor. Bernie Williams is at the plate for the New York

Yankees.

CLOSE ON:

Sign atop monitor. Again, it reads "FEED THE IDIOT BOX."

INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT

She too is blank. A screen saver bobs and weaves on her

laptop.

INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT

Delacroix grabs a pencil and put it to paper.

CLOSE ON:

Paper. He doodles.

INT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT

Manray screws out the bare light bulb which is the sole

source of illumination and lays down onto his mattress on

the floor.

INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT

Sloan closes her laptop and jumps into her bed.

INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT

Delacroix is already in the bed, the lights are out.

CLOSE ON:

Delacroix, who's wide awake.

15.

INT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT

Manray and Cheeba are both sound asleep.

CLOSE ON:

Cheeba, he has a sheet pulled over his head.

CLOSE ON:

Manray, who's sawing logs, snoring loudly.

OFF-SCREEN, WE HEAR A RUCKUS, A BIG COMMOTION. VOICES

yelling. Police sirens, cars and trucks.

ANGLE ON:

Apartment. Cheeba and Manray run to the window and look out.

THEIR POV:

The street is filled with police cars, vans and wagons.

Helicopters hover overhead with their searchlights on the

building.

CHEEBA:

Oh snap! It's a raid!

Cheeba and Manray jump into their cloths.

EXT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT

Cops in riot gear storm into the tenement. A police chief

barks over a speaker system.

POLICE CHIEF:

Please evacuate this building. All

of you are illegal residents of

this condemned building. Please

leave immediately, by order of the

Mayor of New York City, Rudolph

Giuliani.

INT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT

Stairwell. It's bedlam. The hundreds of SQUATTERS who have

been living here all making a bad dash trying to flee the

NYPD as they "bumrush the show."

ANGLE ON:

Floor. Cheeba and Manray try to push against the crowd.

16.

CHEEBA:

Not this way. Out through the fire

escape.

The COPS are running up the staircase. People try to escape

with as many of their belongings that they can hold.

MANRAY:

My tap shoes.

INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT

DELACROIX:

EUREKA!!

He jumps out of bed.

INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT

SLOAN:

Oh my God!!!

She too jumps out of bed.

EXT. TENEMENT BUILDING

It is a MADHOUSE, BEDLAM. It's PANDEMONIUM. The Squatters

are being seized as soon as they come out of the tenement.

Searchlights go back and forth, as the cops make their

arrests and fill the "Paddy" wagons.

ANGLE ON:

Street. The Squatters are like ROACHES in a dark kitchen at

night, scrambling as the lights turn on. Do you remember

those old "RAID" commercials. "Let's scram, IT'S RAID!!!"

INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT - NIGHT

The phone rings.

CUT TO SPLIT SCREEN

CU OF DELACROIX AND SLOAN

Delacroix picks it up. They yell in unison.

DELACROIX:

Manray!

SLOAN:

Manray!

17.

DELACROIX:

How did you know?

SLOAN:

It hit me like a ton of bricks.

DELACROIX:

How can this be? You and me at the

same time, the exact same thought.

It's scary.

SLOAN:

The idea was out there in the

universe. Now what?

INT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT

Cheeba and Manray run down the fire escape and just elude a

group of cops.

ANGLE ON:

Fence. They lay still as the Fuzz run past them.

MANRAY:

We ran out without my shoes and the

floor. I gotta get my stuff. What

about our savings?

CHEEBA:

Are you crazy? The joint is

crawling with cops now. You wanna

go to Rikers? Go to the hoosegow?

Manray looks at his friend, he knows he is right, at least

this time.

EXT. CNS BUILDING - EARLY MORNING

Delacroix and Sloan sip hot coffee as they stand in front of

their office building.

DELACROIX:

Manray was under our nose the whole

time.

SLOAN:

Do you know how you will use him?

DELACROIX:

Not yet, but this thing will never

get made.

18.

SLOAN:

You lost me.

DELACROIX:

Dunwitty wants a Coon show. And

that's what I'm going to give him,

it's going to be so racist, so

negative, he won't have the balls

to put it on the air. Hence I'll

prove my point.

SLOAN:

What point is that?

DELACROIX:

The point being that him, the

networks don't want Black people on

television unless they are buffoons.

SLOAN:

Sounds risky to me.

DELACROIX:

You getting cold feet?

SLOAN:

I'm in till the end.

DELACROIX:

Good. I'm going to need your

support.

SLOAN:

Can't you just quit? Walk away?

DELACROIX:

And lose out on my money? The only

way I get paid is if I get fired.

And that's what I intend to do.

EXT. CNS BUILDING - NEW DAY

It is pouring rain and Delacroix and Sloan huddle under an

umbrella.

DELACROIX (V.O.)

Everything was going according to

plan. I was working on the outline.

Dunwitty was off my back for now.

CLOSE ON:

Delacroix.

19.

DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D)

But there was a catch. A big catch.

CLOSE ON:

Sloan.

DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D)

Manray and Cheeba were nowhere to

be found.

EXT. GRAND CENTRAL STATION - DAY

Manray and Cheeba are soaking wet. They stand together in a

doorway, trying to stay out of the elements.

ANGLE ON:

Street. They run in the downpour.

DELACROIX (V.O.)

It was like they had disappeared

off the face of the earth.

CLOSE ON:

Cheeba.

DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D)

I had no contact numbers, no

address, no beeper.

CLOSE ON:

Manray.

DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D)

No nuthin', no clues...

EXT. CNS BUILDING - NEXT MORNING

It is a sunny and pleasant morning. Again, Sloan and

Delacroix hold vigil.

SLOAN:

Maybe something happened to them.

Maybe they're lying in an alley

bleed to death.

DELACROIX:

Manray better not be bleeding to

death. I need him. After we're

done he can do whatever he wants to

do, until then, he's ours.

20.

SLOAN:

You're beginning to sound like

Dunwitty.

EXT. TENEMENT BUILDING - MORNING

Manray and Cheeba stand across the street from their former

residence. All of the doors and windows have been boarded

up and two cops stand watch. They both look defeated, dirty

and hungry.

INT. CNS LOBBY - NEXT DAY

Sloan gets off the elevator and sees a skirmish. TWO

SECURITY GUARDS are trying to escort Manray and Cheeba out

of the building.

CHEEBA:

His name is Delapoint.

SECURITY GUARD #1

WE have no one by that name.

CHEEBA:

Delapot. Dela-something.

SECURITY GUARD #2

De La Soul ain't here either.

Let's go. Out. Off the premises.

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