Petition asks Meredith MacNeill to read prison screenplay
More than 2000 women sign petition demanding a firm commitment from Meredith MacNeill (film producer) to read screenplay addressing Texas judicial system
Meredith MacNeill – Talent Agents
– Writer, Actress, Producer – Baroness Von Sketch Show (2016), Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel (2009), Your Money or Your Wife (2015), Blackball (2003) – Edna Talent Management, Paul Hemrend – Insight, Matthew Lesher
Meredith MacNeill & Adam Sandler’s film company targeted by Texas petition
Will Hollywood just rollover and let prisoner’s suffer?
EXCLUSIVE
More than 2000 women have signed an open letter to Adam Sandler calling on Meredith MacNeill and Hollywood to take “movie action” to tackle injustice against men and women in the wake of revelations that Texas has more prisoners incarcerated than the Soviet Union’s gulag system had. Texas currently has over 290,000 inmates housed at 580 facilities.
The signatories, including state senators, professors of criminal justice, social workers, family, and inmates, call for a “firm commitment” to tackle the unjust prisons in Texas. The petition has also been signed by Beto O’Rourke, and Matthew McConaughey. These two signatories might face each other in the 2022 Texas governors election. Both have expressed interest in the job. The petitions arrived for Meredith MacNeill at Edna Talent Management, Paul Hemrend last week.
In the open letter to Meredith MacNeill, the 2080 women write that they are “heartbroken for first-time drug offenders many times addicts who have received extremely harsh sentences in Texas when rehabilitation has proven a cheaper and more effective solution.” The petition goes on to say their family and friends are often heartbroken for and looking for redemption and rehabilitation for the victimless drug crimes.”
The signatories, including attorneys, professors, politicians, family members, and inmates, call on Meredith MacNeill for a ‘firm film commitment’ to tackle the issue of operating the Texas prison system for profit.
The petition came to light when women discovered the screenplay, a copy which was dontated to all 580 of the state’s prison and jail libraries. The existence of the petition surfaced on International Women’s Day. Women in Texas face extreme prejudice in Texas and often receive extremely harsh penalties for even a small amount of drugs, including marijuana. Marijuana is legal now in 21 states.
Inside prisons, the women are faced with such horrendous conditions… the petition demands that “filmmakers begin to take the issue seriously.” Also, the petition reminds that “even here in the USA in the 21st century citizens are not safe from government oppression.”
Writer, Actress, Producer, Meredith MacNeill, has not responded to the petition. Nor has Edna Talent Management, Paul Hemrend responded with a comment.
Alan Nafzger/caption]
The screenplay “Dumbass” was penned by writer and retired professor of political science Alan Nafzger.
The premise of the story is that, “Adam Sandler writes letters and saves numerous women from the monotony of prison life, and later when he gets into trouble with a drug cartel they return the favor by rescuing him.”
The film would be set in contemporary, Gatesville Texas. There are four women’s prisons located in Gatesville. And of course, Texas is famous for putting everyone in prison for a long sentences for little or no reason. The number of women in Texas prisons has tripled in the last ten years, as mass incarcerations have proven profitable to not only the state but also profitable for an array of business interests.
Writer Alan Nafzger has called on Governor Greg Abbott to, “end the prison industry.”
Recently, “Wheel of Fortune” host Pat Sajak spoke out against the Texas system and put a good word in for mercy and forgiveness out on social media. “How nice for those who have lived such exemplary lives that they can express glee when others have their lives ruined by a mistake, real or perceived,” Sajak tweeted last month.
During the winter’s deep freeze, the The Marshall Project, exposed the horrible prison conditions, “Inside Frigid Texas Prisons: Broken Toilets, Disgusting Food, Few Blankets.”
The petition states, “Why don’t we have the ‘Adam Sandler’ character… sending letters to women in prison and being their friend and trying to help them adjust, giving them hope… and when they get out of prison he picks them up so they don’t have to ride the smelly bus back home… but his pickup truck is a junker, smoking and sputtering … worse than the bus. But his heart is in the right place… He’s the last “chivalrous” man on earth.”
Meredith MacNeill has not commented on the script, thus far. A statement is expected soon.
Professor Nafzger has made a short treatment of the project available online.
He has made the finished script available at for select filmmakers.
Adam Sandler of Happy Madison Productions has expressed interest in the screenplay.
Meredith MacNeill is a Writer, Actress, Producer known for Baroness Von Sketch Show (2016), Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel (2009), Your Money or Your Wife (2015), Blackball (2003) and is represented by Edna Talent Management, Paul Hemrend.
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What is a holiday script? There are many holidays in a calendar year, like Easter, Fourth of July, Yom Kippur, Memorial Day, etc. However, if a producer indicates he’s seeking a holiday script, he’s referring to the period that falls from Thanksgiving to New Years. This includes Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas Eve, Christmas, New Year’s Eve and even New Year’s Day. Almost all holiday films open during this time and involve characters in a story that takes place during the holidays. Producers like these stories because they have a built-in audience for two years; the first year the audience views the release in the theater and the second year they give the DVD as a gift.
HOW TO WRITE A HOLIDAY SCRIPT
Writers are always advised to outline, but it’s especially important when tackling a RomCom because there are so many factors that must be in the script before it’ll get serious attention from Hollywood.
The reader (audience) should be swept away at the end. This story is about romance, destiny and we should be swept away in how great it feels to be in love! If the story ends with a couple that do NOT get together, then it’s a comedy, not a RomCom!
No matter what genre you’re looking at, together these two scenes, ALL IS LOST and a NEW REVELATION, are almost always the climax of the second act because it’s such an exhilarating reversal to go from losing everything to gaining that key piece of knowledge that will power the hero/ine through the final confrontation to the end.
And the NEW REVELATION in romance is, of course, the newly dumped Loved One realizing that a life with the Lover is the most important thing in their world.
(I write much more about this Lover/Loved One dynamic in love stories in Writing Love: Screenwriting Tricks for Authors, II.)
Also in romance, the All Is Lost moment is often the scene in which the WRONG PERSON PROPOSES (or the hero/ine proposes to the wrong person!), and All Is Lost because the hero/ine, for whatever reason, foolishly accepts.