The Player

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Quiet on the set.

Scene one, take ten.

Marker.

And action!

Joel Levison's office.

I'm sorry, he's not in yet.

May I take a message?

- Mr. Levy, I'll tell him you called.

- Never say that.

He's either in conference, in a meeting.

He's always in.

- Who was that?

- Larry Levy.

Was there anything in the trades

this morning?

- I don't know. The mail's late.

- Go get them. Now!

I want them back here

before he arrives.

Griffin, hi. Adam Simon.

We weren't supposed to meet

until next week, but...

- I didn't know we were.

- I wanted to plant a seed in your head.

- I'm booked up.

- Picture this.

It's a planet in the far future

with two suns.

- Who plays the sons?

- No, suns. Large solar disks.

Run this idea by Bonnie Sherow.

The pictures they make these days

are all MTV. Cut, cut, cut.

The opening shot of Touch of Evil

was six and a half minutes long.

- Six and a half minutes?

- Three or four, anyway.

He set up the whole picture

with that one tracking shot.

My father was key grip on that shoot.

What about Absolute Beginners?

That was an extraordinary shot.

- Never heard of it.

- It's an English film.

- A Peligrino, please.

- I've got Calistoga.

- Buck, how are you?

- Good. How you doin'?

- Good. What have you got for me?

- Okay, here it is.

- The Graduate, Part ll.

- Oh, good.

Listen, the three principals

are still with us.

Dustin Hoffman, Anne Bancroft,

Katharine Ross, 25 years later.

And so are the characters,

Ben, Elaine and Mrs. Robinson.

Ben and Elaine are married, still.

They live in a big, spooky house

up in northern California somewhere.

And Mrs. Robinson

lives with them...

...her aging mother

who's had a stroke...

...so she can't talk.

- Will it be funny?

- It'll be funny. Dark, weird and funny.

And with a stroke.

Maybe it's not a stroke.

I don't know what it is.

It's a malady of some sort.

She's up in the bedroom listening

to everything that happens.

They've got a daughter

who's just graduated from college.

Twenty-two, twenty-three-year-old,

like a Julia Roberts.

Excuse me.

What should I do with these scripts?

They go to Bonnie. And find out from

security how Adam Simon got on the lot.

- I want to know.

- Adam Simon? Okay.

Julia Roberts comes home,

their daughter, the graduate.

The new graduate.

Griffin loved it.

He wanted me to run it by you.

- It's a band of human survivors.

- Write this down for me.

I can't process this.

Write it down for me.

It's not about words.

You have to visualize.

Jimmy, are you okay?

What happened?

- Are you all right?

- My name's Jimmy Chase.

He came out of nowhere, ran right

in front of the cart. I never saw him.

- That's Adam Simon.

- How you doin', kid?

Rebecca DeMornay.

Actually, you're better looking.

- No, I'm not Rebecca DeMornay.

- You're a dead ringer.

Thank you very much.

Do you know where

Joel Levison's office is?

The head of the studio?

It's moving.

It'll rip your heart out.

This is the area where we make decisions

to give a green light to a picture.

We're going to go 17 stories high.

We'll continue to use all Sony products.

Domo arigato to the Sony products.

If you need someone to eat sashimi

with you, give me a ring.

The traffic from Malibu

was impossible.

- Good morning, Joel.

- Sandy, park the car, please.

Good morning Marty, Annie.

- What are the Japs doing here?

- What's this talk about heads rolling?

The bank's putting screws to us.

Goldman's son is coming out from Boston.

I don't like it.

Reggie Goldman's a pipsqueak.

You can't be serious.

Some changes are going on here.

That's always the way.

It happened at Paramount

three years ago.

Columbia's going through it now.

I hear we're looking

to replace Griffin.

Griffin? I don't believe it.

With whom?

Burke or Patrick.

Maybe Larry Levy.

I want to know why

the security is lax.

I'll talk to you later.

I'm in the middle of a pitch.

Listen, go ahead.

- It's a TV star who goes on a safari.

- A TV star in a motion picture?

- A TV star played by a movie star.

- A movie star playing a TV star.

- Michelle, Bette, Lily.

- Dolly Parton would be good.

- I like Goldie.

- Great, because we have a relationship.

Goldie goes to Africa.

- She's found by this tribe.

- Of small people.

She's found and they worship her.

It's like The Gods Must Be Crazy

except the coke bottle is an actress.

Right. It's Out of Africa

meets Pretty Woman.

She has to decide whether to stay

with the TV show...

...or save the tribe.

- Where's Griffin Mill's office?

- Right here.

- You're Martin Scorsese!

- No, but I know Harvey Keitel.

I know you do.

I loved Cape Fear.

My old man worked for Hitchcock.

Rope. It was a masterpiece.

The story wasn't any good.

He shot the whole thing without cuts.

I hate all this 'Cut, cut, cut!'

What about Bertolucci, the great shot

with Winger in Sheltering Sky?

I didn't see it.

- I've been here since 8:00.

- I took a chance getting you this job.

- Who were you with?

- I was with Alan Rudolph.

- What were you doing with him?

- He asked me to have coffee.

You're my assistant.

You don't get involved with writers.

I wasn't getting involved. I was

listening to this amazing idea he had.

That's interesting.

What's your pitch?

- Does political scare you?

- Political doesn't scare me.

Radical political scares me.

Political political scares me.

This is politely politically radical,

but it's funny.

- It's a funny political thing.

- And it's a thriller, too, all at once.

- What's the story?

- I want Bruce Willis. I can talk to him.

It's a story about a bad-guy senator.

He's traveling around the country

on the country's dime, like Sununu did.

It's a cynical, political

thriller comedy.

But it's got heart in the right spot.

Anyway, he has an accident.

And he becomes clairvoyant,

like a psychic.

So it's a psychic, political,

thriller comedy with a heart.

With a heart, not unlike Ghost

meets Manchurian Candidate.

- Go on, I'm listening.

- He starts reading people's minds.

And when he gets to the President's mind

it's completely blank.

- Can I get you anything?

- I'd like a beer, please.

- We don't have beer.

- Red wine, please.

Someone gets killed at the end.

They always do in political thrillers.

- Griffin Mill's office.

- Can you put him on?

- May I ask who's calling?

- I'd like to speak to Griffin Mill.

He's in a meeting right now. I can take

your name and have him get back to you.

- Excuse me?

- He'll get back to me?

- Do you know how often I've heard this?

- Who is this?

- If he doesn't get back to me...

- Who was that?

- I don't know. He didn't say.

- What do you mean?

I don't know how you'll cast it. The

lead is a 50-year-old circus performer.

Let me read the coverage.

Are we still having lunch

with Aaron Camp?

- What time?

- I made it for 1:00.

- Bad day?

- He's having writer's block.

You have a meeting with Hutter and

Frank South this afternoon at 3:00.

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