Petition asks Trevor Noah to read prison screenplay

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

Trevor Noah – Talent Agents
– Producer, Writer, Actor – The Daily Show (1996), Black Panther (2018), Coming 2 America (2021), Trevor Noah: Afraid of the Dark (2017) – Creative Artists Agency (CAA), Matt Blake – Mainstay Entertainment, Norman Aladjem

Dumbass, Born a Crime, The President’s Analyst, Untitled Adewumi Family Project

Trevor Noah & 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 Trevor Noah 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 Trevor Noah at Creative Artists Agency (CAA), Matt Blake last week.

In the open letter to Trevor Noah, 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 Trevor Noah 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.”

Producer, Writer, Actor, Trevor Noah, has not responded to the petition. Nor has Creative Artists Agency (CAA), Matt Blake 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.”

Trevor Noah 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.

Trevor Noah is a Producer, Writer, Actor known for The Daily Show (1996), Black Panther (2018), Coming 2 America (2021), Trevor Noah: Afraid of the Dark (2017) and is represented by Creative Artists Agency (CAA), Matt Blake.

——————- READ MORE ——————-

THE FALSE ENDING

I hate to tell you this, but 9 out of 10 writers still don’t get this! Before you start writing a screenplay, I want the writer to ask, “What’s the worst possible thing that could happen to the hero?” The answer should happen to the hero in Act II! If not, you’ve done him a disservice and probably have a story that doesn’t work. The writer’s job isn’t to be nice to the hero. It’s to slam dunk the bastard! If the worst thing that could happen to him is he loses custody of his kids, then he should lose his kids. Shoot his dog, kill his wife, burn down his house, fire him from his dream job, make his dream girl love someone else, etc. This is vital because it tugs at the audience’s heart strings by helping them identify and have sympathy for the hero.

WORSE CASE SCENARIO

Oh no, more arc stuff! Yep – more arc stuff. I want a producer to be able to point out the arc scene in the writer’s screenplay. A reader (or producer) should be able to identify the arc by a specific scene and the writer should be able to pick it out too. Yes, the hero will have obstacles along the way (external conflict) that contributes to his arc, but he also needs one, big defining moment. Maybe we meet a frumpy heroine who later comes out dressed to kill in a power suit, briefcase, carrying a latte and ready to take on Wall Street…we hear her address people differently, with more confidence, etc. All done in one pivotal arc scene! This scene should happen at the end or close to the end of Act II. The key to this scene is it should be visual. Don’t have the hero tell us he’s changed, show us.

Generally, PLAN and CENTRAL STORY ACTION are really the same thing: the Central Action of the story is the carrying out of the specific Plan. And the CENTRAL QUESTION of the story can be summed up in general: “Will the Plan succeed?”

(In case you’re wondering, the new plan becomes for the Sean Connery character to find another Capone accountant, and it’s when Capone’s men are trying to hustle that second accountant out of town that the big chase/baby carriage scene in the train station goes down.)

So the plan is totally foiled; the team has no witness and no more case. It’s a great midpoint reversal, because we — and Ness himself — have no idea what the team is going to be able to do next (and also Ness is so emotionally devastated by the loss of his teammate that he begins to do reckless things).

Ness and his other teammate (a criminally hot Andy Garcia) realize that something’s wrong and race up (down?) the stairs to catch the elevator, but arrive to find a bloodbath — both accountants brutally murdered and the word TOUCHABLE painted on the elevator wall in blood.