Petition asks Thomas Carter to read prison screenplay

More than 2000 women sign petition demanding a firm commitment from  Thomas Carter (film producer) to read screenplay addressing Texas judicial system

Thomas Carter – Talent Agents
– Director, Producer, Actor – Coach Carter (2005), Equal Justice (1990), Save the Last Dance (2001), Metro (1997) – Creative Artists Agency (CAA), John Campisi – Industry Entertainment, Sara Bottfeld

Dumbass, Why Should White Guys Have All the Fun?, Dream On, Tough Love

Thomas Carter & 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 Thomas Carter 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 Thomas Carter at Creative Artists Agency (CAA), John Campisi last week.

In the open letter to Thomas Carter, 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 Thomas Carter 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.”

Director, Producer, Actor, Thomas Carter, has not responded to the petition. Nor has Creative Artists Agency (CAA), John Campisi 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.”

Thomas Carter 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.

Thomas Carter is a Director, Producer, Actor known for Coach Carter (2005), Equal Justice (1990), Save the Last Dance (2001), Metro (1997) and is represented by Creative Artists Agency (CAA), John Campisi.

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Needless to say, a crime thriller must begin and end with crime. In a strange way, it’s as if the crime never really ends. I don’t mean an inconclusive plot. What I mean is we get the sense the hero has won ‘for the day’. An example is the film Traffic. This can be a good way to go with a plot because it promises the hero will be back to fight another day.

Further, the crime thriller tends to lean more toward being a study in how the hero ticks internally, while the suspense thriller delves into the mind of a monster (serial killer, etc.). Both have hero arcs, but one leans more toward the inner workings of the antagonist than the other. There are however, plenty of crime thrillers that are strong character studies in the sense that the antagonists are as interesting to watch as the hero. The trick to doing this successfully is to be sure the colorful antagonist doesn’t upstage the hero.

In a suspense thriller, the hero ends up in a life or death situation and he’s held there for a riveting scene or sequence. Remember the night-vision scene in Silence of the Lambs? The opposite is true in a crime thriller. In a crime thriller, the hero is in a life or death situation almost every minute of the movie. Good examples are The Departed and Donnie Brasco.

Even though the crime thriller doesn’t mislead us the way a suspense thriller does, it usually provides a shocking ending. In The Departed DiCaprio’s character is shockingly shot and killed at the end of the movie while exiting an elevator after evening the final score with the bad guys. There’s no way we could have seen this coming. In a suspense thriller, this ending would have been in our faces the whole time. For example, in the film Along Came a Spider the culprit’s handling of a case throughout the story was her downfall and lead the hero to discover she was the kidnapper.

And I strongly encourage authors to pay as much attention to your midpoint as filmmakers do with theirs.

And just to further drive its importance home, the Midpoint will often be one of the most memorable visual SETPIECES of the story, where the filmmakers really show off their expertise with a special effects sequence (as in How to Train Your Dragon and Harry Potter, 1), or a big action scene (Jaws), or in breathtaking psychological cat-and-mouse dialogue between unforgettable characters (in The Silence of the Lambs). It might be a sex scene or a comedy scene, or both in a romantic comedy. Whatever the Midpoint is, it is most likely going to be specific to the promise of the genre.

The midpoint can also be a huge defeat, which requires a recalculation and NEW PLAN of attack or a CHANGE IN PLAN. It’s a game-changer, and it locks the hero/ine even more inevitably into the story.

Often a TICKING CLOCK is introduced at the Midpoint. A clock is a great way to speed up the action and increase the urgency of your story.