24 March 2010
Posted in Writers - Andrew Colville
“Don't worry, don't worry. Look at the Astors and the Vanderbilts, all those big society people. They were the worst thieves - and now look at them. It's just a matter of time.” – Meyer Lansky
What: Fidel Castro is dead and Cuba is about to undergo a major re-transformation.
Who: Joe Avoca, 29, has major plans to move up in the mob despite his father Al’s interference. When Al suffers a heart attack in the office of big boss Bobby, it is revealed that he was wearing a wire and heads roll, or more specifically, Bobby and many of his “associates” land in prison. Joe, anxious to distance himself from his father, the rat, visits Bobby in prison to profess his loyalty. Bobby gives him an assignment – the mob has an interest in a liberated Cuba and is anxious to return to its Havana gambling roots, but in order to do that, they must obtain the deed to the old Colon Hotel and Casino previously placed in the name of Meyer Lansky’s accountant Saul Lerner, now living in a retirement village in Florida and unwilling to cooperate. But Saul has a weak spot, his grandson Ben; and Ben has a weak spot, a major gambling debt. Joe buys the paper on Ben and makes him an offer he can’t refuse. Terrified, it is up to Ben to convince his grandfather to go along with Joe’s plan and turn the deed over to the mob. Joe arranges passage for the three of them to Havana where Saul’s lawyer Rachel explains the new rules and regulations on the transfer of property back to the original owners. She takes them to inspect the property.
The faded façade of a five-story colonial building. Rusted wrought-iron balconies ring boarded-up windows. Columns lead down to a series of arches at street level, where the Thunderbird pulls up and parks. They exit the car.
Joe: Not as big as I thought.
Saul: We weren’t running a Howard Johnson’s. We only catered to the high rollers. Howard Hughes, Frank Sinatra, Vice President Nixon…
Joe steps in front of Saul and Ben and enters the building.
The spacious lobby is bereft of furniture. Paint is peeling from the moldy walls onto a red rug that’s threadbare in patches.
Joe: What a shithole.
Saul heads down the corridor toward an archway. Ben follows.
Ben: Pop-pop, you alright?
Saul doesn’t respond. He opens a latticed door into:
A massive, ornately carved bar dominates the wood-paneled room. Saul points toward a large marlin mounted behind the bar.
Saul: Know who caught that? Ernest Hemingway. Said it inspired him to write The Old Man and the Sea. Course there were five other marlins hanging above five other bars he said the same thing about.
Walking down the hallways, they discover that at least 50 people are living in the hotel and this may be the deal breaker. For although the lawyer is able to get the paperwork filed on Saul’s behalf, nothing can be done until the residents are paid off and relocated. Things also become much more complicated for Joe when he discovers that Bobby has sent down one of his henchmen, Tommy aka Golden Boy, to take over the operation from Joe. As soon as the deed is in their hands, Joe is to cut the Lerners loose, preferably on the high seas.
Saul, nostalgic, takes Ben on a sightseeing tour of the island, to all the places from his youth, including the beach he owned, the place where Ben’s father was conceived. Ben informs his grandfather that he wants to stay and work at the casino, something Saul points out as being akin to the fox watching the henhouse, given Ben’s gambling problem. Upon returning to their hotel, Saul is disturbed; someone has rifled his things. Joe, furious at their disappearance is even more upset to hear that not only does Ben plan on staying, but Saul will as well.
Ben: You don’t have to stay on my account.
Saul: You know I’d always be worrying. (to Joe) Assuming we can make a deal, I’m willing to keep my name on the casino.
Joe: We’ll see. Things have changed.
Saul: Since when?
Joe: We’re looking for another way to get a gaming license. A loophole.
Saul: Suit yourself. But Mr. Lansky used to say the only way you don’t make money in the casino business is by breaking the law. You need me… Who decided this?
Joe: Us guys from Chicago
Saul: I’ll bet. You’re not calling the shots anymore, are you?
Joe, not as smart as he thinks, is still smarter than most give him credit for. When he and Tommy decide to clear out the tenants, the payment is in bullets not dollars; but complications ensue and Joe is left standing and Tommy’s body finds its way into the trunk of Joe’s car. And Ben’s life has become more complicated when he’s seduced by an FBI agent who wants him to be their inside-man at the casino. The catch – he mustn’t tell his grandfather because, unbeknown to Ben, Saul was much more than Lansky’s accountant; and 300 million of Lansky’s assets are still missing with Saul the only lead as to their location.
No Meaner Place: Colville has written an unabashed gangster series, one relying on the inherent distrust between the Chicago mob and the old time Jewish mafia – no allegory, no post modern twists – just a juicy “Godfather” series with double and triple crosses predicated on the fantasy of a post-Castro Cuba returning to the “good old days” of Batista and the rule of the wealthy Cuban Americans from Miami. The image of Lansky deported from Israel back to Miami Beach is ever present with Saul as the heir apparent. Thanks to the greed of the Chicago element, Saul has been able to orchestrate all of the events and re-imagine a bright new future for himself and his favorite grandson.
Saul pays a visit to his lawyer Rachel to fill in some details on what brought him to Havana after all these years. Joe had paid him a visit in Florida and indicated that unless he cooperated with the Chicagoans he would use the best leverage he had – Ben and his debt. Saul still refused to cooperate.
Rachel: How could you do that? You had to know he’d go after Ben.
Saul: I was counting on it.
Saul begins moving bricks of cash from the suitcase to her desk.
Saul: Ben’s life was going nowhere. I figured he could use a change of scenery.
Rachel: Yeah, Joe could’ve put him in the hospital.
Saul: Joe’s not as dumb as he looks. He knows Ben’s the only leverage he’s got on me.
Rachel: why not just tell Ben how you felt?
Saul: Nobody listens to an old man. At this age, I can’t twist their arms either. I needed Ben to come to the decision on his own. If you let people think it’s their idea, they don’t notice you pulling the strings. (then) Just like I dropped hints so you’d figure out how to get the casino back.
Rachel sits back, sighs. Saul’s been playing them all.
Saul: Do you know what I lost here? If there’d never been a Castro we’d have made billions. Instead we got tossed out on our asses, and when we came home Bobby Kennedy made things miserable for us. My life in America was nothing like it could’ve been in Cuba. (beat) Now Castro dies and all of a sudden I’m back in the game. Only I don’t have a lot of years left, so I’m thinking of my legacy. Not just property, but my way of life. I sure as hell can’t pass it on to my son, the self-righteous prick. But Benjamin’s more like me. A Macher. He’s gonna be my heir. My successor.
Rachel: Why are you telling me this?
Saul: You’re my lawyer. I know you can’t tell anyone else. (beat) And in case something happens to me, I want Benjamin to know everything.
Rachel: I think you should tell him now.
Saul: He’s not ready. Not yet.
I don’t know about you, but I’ve always loved gangster films, loved the first few seasons of “The Sopranos,” and long for another show that pits old school against new school with a fight to the finish. And what could be better than youthful innocence corrupted or the triumph of good over evil (better yet, the triumph of evil over the so-called forces of good – much more interesting)? Turning this down was a big mistake and all I can say are three words: “Try Chris Albrecht.”
Life Lessons for Writers: Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.
Conversation with the Writer
Neely: Where did this come from?
Andrew: It's funny but in an earlier conversation you mentioned Eastern Europe and that's actually how this started. I had a friend in film school whose parents were from Serbia and they were trying to get back some property that was confiscated by the Yugoslavian communists. That got me to thinking. Where are some other places where this might happen and what would someone be trying to get back? So I went through that in my head and I came up with Cuba. I started thinking about the heyday in Cuba under Batista and, well, okay how about a casino? Who would have owned a casino, and the answer to that would be the American Mob. So, whose name would it have been in? You start from point A (Yugoslavia, now Serbia) and little by little you get to point E (a Cuban casino) - miles apart, but related.
So then I started researching that pre-Castro timeframe and discovered that Meyer Lansky really ran the show, something that fascinated me because the Jewish mob no longer exists.
Neely: Written from pitch or on spec?
Andrew: This was purely spec. It was written to be (and is) a staffing sample, which gave me more freedom to write what I wanted and go in my own direction.
Neely: Other than “The Sopranos,” the only mob-themed television series I can think of off hand was “Wise Guy” in the 80s. What were your influences?
Andrew: I had been kicking this idea around in my head since around 2002; then a few years later my wife suggested I read American Tabloid by James Ellroy. The novel takes place in the year before John F. Kennedy’s assassination. Cuba looms large even though almost none of it is set in Cuba. The mob, the refugees, the CIA – they all hate Castro. Ellroy makes a very convincing case that a combination of these groups killed Kennedy; Cuba was important enough for them to assassinate a president. I love the style and the heartlessness of the writing.
Another influence was the film “Pickup on South Street” directed by Sam Fuller. I love the Richard Widmark character. He’s a petty thief who has unwittingly stolen a piece of microfilm, so everyone is after him – the police, the FBI, the mob, the spies. He’s a cocky loner; I like him as a model for Joe. I’m a big soccer fan, so I also modeled Joe after this soccer player named Cristiano Ronaldo who works hard and is the best but he’s clearly only out for himself. The mob is a social organization that punishes people who stick their heads up. Despite that, Joe will survive and even excel for them, especially because his Chicago mob is so diminished; but he’ll become more and more isolated and become harder to deal with.
“The Sopranos” was an obvious influence. It casts a huge shadow; but consciously or not “Cuba Libre” is different in a lot of ways. Joe and Ben are younger than Tony while Saul is much older than him. Even though the theme of conflict between generations is present in “The Sopranos,” it’s much more integral to “Cuba Libre”. And perhaps the biggest difference is that in “The Sopranos” the mob is in decline, struggling to hold on to what it has; whereas “Cuba Libre” is about the mob’s rebirth.
Neely: And where did this Cuban fantasy come from? I loved the originality of the “what if” scenario, especially with the sly references to the bad old days under Batista and the improvements to gender equality, education and health care made by the evil regime of Castro. As you already pointed out about the imaginative segue from Serbia to Cuba, the rapacious return of capitalism and repatriation isn’t that much of a long shot when you consider what has happened in the various Eastern bloc countries after the fall of the Iron Curtain.
Andrew: I think what will happen when Castro and his regime are finally out is that the Miami Cuban exiles will return and hold elections that they will buy, and turn it into a right wing crony capitalist state with a veneer of democracy. And the U.S. government won’t be able to criticize them because it will have gotten what it said it always wanted – no more Castro. I think we could end up with a criminal haven 90 miles off shore – something that will be more dangerous than Castro was (with the obvious exception of the Cuban missile crisis). I envision a society there where everyone is on their own – the perfect incubator for criminals.
Neely: What struck you about old Havana and the mob?
Andrew: Again, it all leads back to Meyer Lansky. He had Batista in his pocket and kept the Mob bosses in relative peace with each other in Cuba; he knew that was necessary if they were all going to continue making money. I was struck by Lansky’s reputation as a business man. They said at the time that if he’d been legit he’d have been running General Motors. Lansky had a superior intelligence but just wasn’t cut from moral cloth, though he never thought of himself as a thug. As his protégée, I see my character of Saul as having been groomed for something he could never become because of the fall of Havana. But Saul sees his own future in Ben.
Neely: I love the first two “Godfathers,” of course, and “Casino,” especially because I had a too close for comfort encounter with Anthony “the ant” Spilotro, and “Good Fellas,” but I’m especially fond of the Warner Brothers gangster films of the 30s with Cagney and Bogart and Eddie G and Muni – the original “Scarface,” “Little Cesar,” “Roaring Twenties,” “Public Enemy,” “Dead End;” I could go on and on. Like the Western and jazz, the Gangster film was a purely American invention, although we didn’t exactly invent the “mafia.”
Andrew: You know, although I’ve heard of those Warner Brothers films I haven’t seen all of them, just “Scarface” and “The Public Enemy”, and I can’t say I retained as much as I’d like. You’ve really got me motivated and I’m going to see if they’re on Netflix Streaming – I think they might have a lot of them there.
I deliberately stayed away from “The Godfather Part II” because part of it is set in Havana, but “The Godfather” is a big influence on my character of Ben. My favorite scene in “The Godfather” is when Michael decides that he’s going to avenge his father’s shooting. Previously he’s been a ‘civilian’, now he’s going to kill Sollozzo. He doesn’t think this decision is going to change the rest of his life but it does. In the same way, I see Ben telling the FBI he’s not going to help them as being very fateful He doesn’t realize this will push him toward becoming what his grandfather wants him to become.
Neely: Retracing our steps a bit, what other writers have inspired you?
Andrew: Nabokov. I did my undergraduate thesis on him. He was exiled from Russia by the Soviet revolution when he was 19, when he was just becoming a man, and he was never able to go back. All of his work expresses nostalgia in some form, for a lost homeland or for earlier times or a younger self. My thesis was on Lolita. Humbert Humbert was around 13 when his first sexual experience was interrupted and he continually longed to return to that moment – a nostalgia theme. My character of Saul had his heyday in Cuba and has been nostalgic for Cuba his whole life, thinking he’d never get to go back, that he’d die before Castro. Even though he’s American, America is actually his place of exile. Ben, on the other hand, he’s in his 30’s but he can’t really be nostalgic for his teens since he’s never grown up. In order to become a man Ben feels like he has to do something radical that will cut ties with his previous self. Joe is a completely different case because he has no nostalgia at all. Everything in his way gets swept aside – no yesterday, just today, and what anyone did before him doesn’t matter. Rachel, the lawyer, remembers life as a former beauty queen, newly married and just out of law school; the reality is that she’s now a divorced mob lawyer.
I also greatly admire Saul Bellow’s writing (my character is named in honor of him), it’s full of detail and brimming with life. I remember he wrote this line pointing out that even the bad guys in Chicago sit down and have lunch just like everyone else does. That rang true for me – bad guys do bad things but they don’t think of themselves as bad. They have to get through the day just like the rest of us and have a lot of the same emotions and reactions as other people.
Neely: Who was this taken to and what was the reaction?
Andrew: Hmmmm. I don’t know. I should know but I don’t. I think it was only taken out as a writing sample.
Neely: You know, Andrew, this is your career – not your agent’s, not your manager’s. You can always cast blame but at the end of the day it’s still your responsibility to make sure that your business is taken care of. You need to take control of this and ask the right questions. This is a very viable pilot.
Andrew: You’re right and I will have to take care of that. But strictly as a writing sample, it’s gotten me a lot of meetings and I also got a freelance “Mad Men” script from it. Matthew Weiner was very complimentary; he said it would’ve gotten me hired on “The Sopranos,” and it was fabulous to work with him.
The good news is that since it hasn’t really gone out as a pilot it hasn’t exhausted those outlets. But I really do need to get it made soon. I can’t wait the 7 years Matt Weiner did on “Mad Men” because then Saul would be too old.
Neely: You’re a writer, Andrew. You’ll be able to come up with a creative solution. So what notes have you gotten on the sample?
Andrew: There’s nothing that’s been so specific. Mostly that it’s expensive; that “The Sopranos” hasn’t been off the air that long; that it’s a foreign location.
Neely: I would sense a lack of imagination on their parts. Expensive is relative; it’s not like “The Sopranos” at all; and it could be filmed in a state that gives lots of film credits like Louisiana or Florida. You can’t tell me there aren’t parts of Miami that don’t look like 1959 Havana (or more to the point, slums that look like Havana today).
Andrew: All good thoughts. Even though it would be compared to “The Sopranos”, they take place in very different milieus; and Tony Soprano was the end of an era while Ben and Joe are the beginning of a new one. And yes, Havana is a foreign setting, but the characters are almost all Americans. The show isn’t about Cuba; it’s about these Americans in Cuba, who are willfully ignorant of the people and country around them for the most part. Not that I’m comparing this to “Mad Men” or “The Shield”, but I’m hoping that some executive out there eventually sees this as the kind of ambitious show that could put their network on the map like those shows did for AMC and FX.
Neely: Your previous work was written with a partner, Amy Berg. How long were you writing partners and why are you no longer writing together?
Andrew: Amy is a very talented writer. We worked together for over 3 years but ultimately had separate interests and went separate ways. She’s on “Eureka” now and doing well.
Neely: Your previous work was in Sci/Fi with “The 4400” and “Threshold.” And then there was “North Shore.” This pilot is quite a switch – any back story?
Andrew: Actually the first show I worked on was “Boomtown”, which was a really innovative way to do a crime show that Graham Yost came up with, structuring the action by character and going back and forth chronologically. Having that as your first show is a real inspiration in terms of what’s possible in any genre. And it always amused me that Graham worked on “Full House” prior to selling “Speed,” talk about a switch. Then “North Shore” was a soap opera for young people, but it had a better writing staff than most shows; those writers subsequently produced a lot more pilots in fact. People like Liz Heldens can write anything, Gretchen Berg and Aaron Harberts, Kevin Falls, Brancato & Salke, Karyn Usher, Amy Berg – talented people who’ve written on all kinds of shows. Here’s another good example – Matt Weiner was working on the Ted Danson sitcom “Becker” when he wrote “Mad Men.”
Neely: Ordinarily I’m full of ideas to re-purpose material, but in this case, television is the only realistic place for a series that envisions an imaginary Cuban scenario with already built in character and story arcs. How were you going to sustain the premise?
Andrew: Well there are going to be tons of obstacles for the characters. Okay, they own the casino now, but it’s a dump, and getting that in order will be difficult. Then there’s Joe having to explain how Tommy died, threats from his own people in Chicago. And Saul having to bring Ben along and Ben moving into this life but not fully trusting his grandfather and knowing the FBI is onto them but not telling anyone that. I imagine that Havana would become like Casablanca, all sorts of character types where anything is possible, especially in the world of crime; but there are going to be rivals. This is the Wild West; it’s a boomtown not just for the criminals but also the lawmen. I imagine that Al Capone’s Chicago during Prohibition was an exciting place for Eliot Ness, too. So this is a great place for Elena (note: the woman who seduced Ben) to make her name in the FBI.
Neely: What brought you out here and how did you get started?
Andrew: I came out to go to the film school at USC. I did the directing program and I loved USC. You get to make the movies you want and it's fabulous. but then you get out and you're an assistant again. In my third year I worked at the Gersh Agency in the lit department for John Bauman. John played tennis with Chris Brancato, and because of that connection I got a job as an assistant for Chris and Bert Salke on "Boomtown," which led to getting a first script, though unfortunately just as the show was being cancelled. They're amazing about promoting their assistants to writers, probably the most generous in the business; so when "North Shore" came up, they hired Amy and me.
Neely: What are your long term goals?
Andrew: You mean besides getting this made? I’d like to run a show – one of my own or something I’d really believe in. I’d like to learn how to get something made that’s a little different and keep it on the air. I want to get shows on the air and sustain them – tell interesting stories.
Neely: Ideally, who would you like to work for, and if it’s not the same answer, what show would you like to work on?
Andrew: Well, I got to work for Matt Weiner. He’s amazing. He is so freaking talented; he’s much more talented than even shows up on the screen; by that I mean there’s a lot of great material he generates that doesn’t even make it into a “Mad Men” episode. As a showrunner he is so dedicated – a great model. Another one would be Ryan Murphy. After the WGA Awards we ran into him. I imagined I could read his mind and learn what’s coming up on “Glee.” I was a choir geek in high school. I was even in madrigals where we dressed up in renaissance costumes at Christmas and sang at shopping malls. I so know that world. Also, I just wrote a “True Blood” spec, the characters have such distinct voices that it’s easy to hear them talking in your head; and I would have killed to be on “The Shield
Neely: You should read “Ride Along;” it’s terrific.
Andrew: I know. I’ve heard it’s great. I’d love to work with Shawn Ryan. Who wouldn’t?
Neely: I’m really pulling for you. You have great imagination and someone really needs to take a second (or third or fourth or, you get the idea) look at this script – it’s original, it’s fresh, it’s premium cable. Good luck.
To the Readers of No Meaner Place: David Mamet’s internal memo to the writing staff of “The Unit” on dramatic writing (with a capital D) has been posted to Movieline and it’s definitely worth a view. I would put it in the category of Writing 101. The memo begins:
“TO THE WRITERS OF THE UNIT
GREETINGS.
AS WE LEARN HOW TO WRITE THIS SHOW, A RECURRING PROBLEM BECOMES CLEAR.
THE PROBLEM IS THIS: TO DIFFERENTIATE BETWEEN DRAMA AND NON-DRAMA. LET ME BREAK-IT-DOWN-NOW.
EVERYONE IN CREATION IS SCREAMING AT US TO MAKE THE SHOW CLEAR. WE ARE TASKED WITH, IT SEEMS, CRAMMING A SHITLOAD OF INFORMATION INTO A LITTLE BIT OF TIME.
OUR FRIENDS. THE PENGUINS, THINK THAT WE, THEREFORE, ARE EMPLOYED TO COMMUNICATE INFORMATION — AND, SO, AT TIMES, IT SEEMS TO US.
BUT NOTE:THE AUDIENCE WILL NOT TUNE IN TO WATCH INFORMATION. YOU WOULDN’T, I WOULDN’T. NO ONE WOULD OR WILL. THE AUDIENCE WILL ONLY TUNE IN AND STAY TUNED TO WATCH DRAMA.
QUESTION:WHAT IS DRAMA? DRAMA, AGAIN, IS THE QUEST OF THE HERO TO OVERCOME THOSE THINGS WHICH PREVENT HIM FROM ACHIEVING A SPECIFIC, ACUTE GOAL.”
Read the complete memo at:
URL: http://www.movieline.com/2010/03/david-mamets-memo-to-the-writers-of-the-unit.php
Many thanks to David Freeman (screenwriter, playwright, novelist, and good friend) for bringing this to my attention.
