PROJECT SUBMISSION PACK FILM: Finding Steve McQueen DATE: September 2015 1. Submission Form p2 2. Sales Estimates p3 3. Script Report p4 4. Script p8 FF II LL MM SS UU BB MM II SS SS II OO NN FF OO RR MM PROJECT TITLE: Finding Steve McQueen DATE: 9/3/2015 APPLICANT DETAILS APPLICANT CONTACT DETAILS NAME: Viki Marras ADDRESS: 9107 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 600 POSITION: Head of Development Beverly Hills, CA, 90210 COMPANY Paradox Studios TEL: (310) 271-1355 EMAIL: [email protected] PROJECT DETAILS PRODUCER/S Silvio Muraglia-All Roads Lead To Rome BUDGET: and CREDITS Anthony Mastromaouro -Louder than PRODUCTION Paradox Entertainment-US Words COMPANIES & Identity Films-US NATIONALITY: WRITER: Ken Hixon GENRE: Heist/ Thriller NAME CREDITS (1 or 2) Approached Confirmed DIRECTOR Mark Steven Johnson Daredevil, Ghost Rider CAST 1 Liam Hemsworth The Hunger Games CAST 2 SHOOTING SCHEDULE – Prep, Principal, Post, delivery SHORT SYNOPSIS / LOGLINE The true story of the largest bank heist in US History. In 1972, a Estimated: group of bank robbers in Youngstown, Ohio discovered that Richard Prep: January-February 2016 Nixon, along with other high-ranking government officials, had Shoot: March-April 2016 hidden assets in a Laguna Nigel safe deposit vault. Armed with this Post: Through December 2016 information and dissatisfied with the government policies that Delivery: January 2017 crippled the rust belt at the time, they took matters into their own hands. FINANCE DETAILS FINANCIER NATURE OF INVESTMENT AMOUNT £ % BUDGET Proposed Approached Confirmed Paradox Studios Debt 33% Ambi Distribution Debt 33% TBC Bank Banked tax credit 25% Premiere Picture Equity 9% % Premiere Stakeholder Proposed Corridor 1st TBC banked tax credit TBC recoupment BOND TBD schedule 2nd Paradox Studios/ Ambi Distribution for all 3rd Premiere Picture AUDITOR TBD financiers: 4th 5th SALES INFORMATION SALES AGENT: Ambi Distribution SALES ESTIMATES CONTACT: Julie Sultan LOW: $10,060,000 TEL: (310) 274-2000 MEDIUM: EMAIL: [email protected] HIGH: $16,460,000 TERRITORY DISTRIBUTOR MG RIGHTS TBC COPRODUCTIONS COUNTRY % SPEND DETAILS TITLE: Finding Steve McQueen GENRE: Action BUDGET: US$xxM PRODUCER: Andrea iervolino, Silvio Muraglia DATE: 08.06.2015 CAST: TBD TERRITORY ASK ACCEPT NORTH AMERICA 3,000,000 1,700,000 GERMAN SPEAKING EUROPE 1,500,000 1,350,000 UNITED KINGDOM 1,000,000 850,000 FRENCH SPEAKING EUROPE 1,200,000 950,000 AUSTRALIA & NEW ZEALAND 800,000 450,000 SPAIN 500,000 450,000 JAPAN 800,000 650,000 SOUTH KOREA 500,000 250,000 CHINA 800,000 550,000 ITALIAN SPEAKING EUROPE 800,000 500,000 SCANDINAVIA 500,000 350,000 C.I.S. 800,000 100,000 BENELUX 300,000 180,000 MIDDLE EAST 400,000 250,000 SOUTH AFRICA 300,000 120,000 TURKEY 140,000 70,000 SOUTH AMERICA 600,000 400,000 PAN EASTERN EUROPE 200,000 150,000 ISRAEL 100,000 50,000 GREECE 150,000 0 PORTUGAL 100,000 50,000 INDONESIA 200,000 50,000 SINGAPORE 200,000 50,000 TAIWAN 200,000 50,000 MALAYSIA 200,000 80,000 PHILIPPINES 150,000 50,000 INDIA 200,000 50,000 THAILAND 200,000 30,000 PAY TV - ASIA 200,000 100,000 HONG KONG 150,000 30,000 AIRLINE/SHIP/HOTEL 270,000 150,000 TOTAL WORLDWIDE 16,460,000 10,060,000 These projections are strictly confidential. PROJECT COVERAGE FORM TITLE: Finding Steve McQueen AUTHOR: Ken Hixon SUB TO: Nadia Naguib SUB BY: n/a FORM: Screenplay LENGTH: 117m BASED ON: n/a LANGUAGE/S: English BUDGET: n/a GENRE: Crime LOCATION: California/Pennsylvania PERIOD: 1970s READER: Thom Phipps DATE: 18th July 2015 ELEMENTS: n/a LOGLINE: 1972 - a criminal gang rob a bank that’s maybe connected to President Nixon COMMENT SUMMARY: A great premise and pace easily overcomes a few problems with structure and characterisation Excellent (4) Good (3) Fair (2) Poor (1) PREMISE X STORYLINE X CHARACTERISATION X DIALOGUE X STRUCTURE X PACE X ORIGINALITY X AUDIENCE APPEAL X 28 TOTAL OVERALL SCORE: [28]/32 = [88]% MAIN CHARACTERS: HARRY – a charming, hot-headed crook who styles himself on Steve McQueen MOLLY – a spunky and independent-minded widow HOWART LAMBERT – a smart and determined FBI agent AMIL – the head criminal, violent, charming, and a little unhinged RONNIE – Harry’s brother, a naïve, spaced-out innocent with a wounded disposition JIMMY – Harry’s uncle, level-headed W MARK FELT – deputy director of the FBI. Distinguished. PREMISE: The ‘true’ story of a gang of crooks who burgled a bank vault in Laguna Niguel and the FBI agent tasked with tracking them down. As the crooks fall out and the Watergate scandal begins, the agent discovers that the vault may be connected to president Richard Nixon. SYNOPSIS: The story takes place over four separate, intertwining timelines - · In early 1972, a gang of criminals, featuring our protagonist HARRY, plans a heist on a bank in Laguna. · In late 1972, after the heist, the FBI, lead by LAMBERT, investigate the robbery and track down the criminals. · In the years after 1973, Harry - on the run - meets and falls in loves with MOLLY in a small town. · In 1980, Harry tells Molly the truth about his criminal past and gets into more trouble. In chronological order: We meet the gang, including HARRY (29, a young, car-racing hot-head), AMIL (60s, his uncle, the leader, a vicious hot-head), JIMMY (Amil’s brother, level-headed) and RONNIE (Harry’s sweet and spaced-out brother), amongst others. Harry works for Amil in a legitimate capacity but has aspirations to join Amil’s criminal gang. He steals a truck of TVs to prove his worth, sparking his uncle’s ire. Amil and Jimmy are tipped off by Bobby Lohman, a union boss, that President Nixon has $30 million of illegal campaign donations in a bank in Laguna Niguel. Amil, who hates Nixon, is eager to rob the place, while Jimmy’s a little less eager. They set about preparing for the heist, inviting Harry to join the crew after he proves his worth and driving skill. After some preparation, they rent a condo overlooking the bank and begin the three-evening heist - they freeze the alarm, cut a hole in the roof of the vault, and start breaking open safety deposit boxes (they use a mirror to guard their location from night to night). In the first two nights, they fail to find Nixon’s promised $30m, and an already unstable Amil becomes increasingly manic and dangerous, threatening to shoot a cop who nearly stumbles in on them. Harry begins to worry that he’s in over his head and wants to get his brother out of the gang. In the third night, they - again - fail to find the cash and finish the heist. They split their winnings and go their separate ways. On a plane ride away, Ronnie examines some rare baseball cards he’d taken from one of the safety deposit boxes and sees a printed number for a Cayman Islands Account in Nixon’s name, which he throws away. The robbery’s investigated by Howard Lambert (a decent, smart man). He’s told by his superiors that solving it is very important to “highers up” - going all the way to the Oval office. During his investigations, he finds several connections between one safety deposit box and one of Nixon’s senior staffers, and begins to wonder if he’s stumbled into a conspiracy (meanwhile, the Watergate Scandal is beginning to roll into action in the background). But when he asks questions, he’s stonewalled by the administration. Lambert eventually discovers the mirror the crooks had used to guard the crime scene, uses it to lead him to their condo, their fingerprints, and eventually the entire gang (except Harry, who slips away). They’re all arrested and Harry goes on the run. Lambert is offered a job in DC on the Watergate investigation. In 1973, Harry - working in a dive bar - meets MOLLY (early 20s, sparky and smart). He uses a fake name - John Baker. Even though she’s the daughter of the town sheriff, thus putting him at risk of discovery, he falls in love with her, and the town, and settles down over the years, even getting a job working as a handyman for the Sheriff’s office and a local bank. In 1980, Harry’s working as a handyman for the bank when Amil and the gang return, having been released from prison. Amil, who thinks Harry ratted them out for the Laguna heist, threatens Molly’s life unless Harry helps him to rob the bank the next week. Harry confesses his criminal past to Molly. Although she’s upset, she decides to leave town with him. When Amil (and the rest of the gang) show up to rob the bank, Harry escapes and activates a hidden alarm, trapping them in the bank. He flees with Molly, before revealing that he’s already contacted the FBI to give himself up - he’s sick of living a lie. He’s arrested by Lambert and goes to prison. COMMENTS AND SUGGESTIONS: I really enjoyed this script. The premise - the nominal ‘true story’ fictionalized to intertwine with real-world events (Nixon, Watergate, and so on) was compelling and interesting, offering a fantastic ‘behind the scenes’ of the end of the Nixon administration. While the storyline is fairly simple when laid out chronologically (as in the synopsis above), the intertwining multiple-timeline structure means that the script is constantly setting up and resolving mysteries as it goes along, which kept me eagerly reading. Various items - the box of matches, the baseball cards, the dishwasher - pay off in unexpected ways, turning a straightforward heist film into a series of dramatic setups and punchlines, which I really enjoyed.