Petition asks Bingbing Li to read prison screenplay

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

Bingbing Li – Talent Agents
– Actress, Producer, Visual Effects – Transformers: Age of Extinction (2014), The Meg (2018), Resident Evil: Retribution (2012), The Forbidden Kingdom (2008) – United Talent Agency (UTA), Darren Boghosian – Li Bingbing Studio, Shiyi Han

Dumbass, Realm

Bingbing Li & Adam Sandler’s film company targeted by Texas petition

Will Hollywood just rollover and let prisoner’s suffer?

EXCLUSIVE

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 Bingbing Li at United Talent Agency (UTA), Darren Boghosian last week.

In the open letter to Bingbing Li, 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 Bingbing Li 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.”

Actress, Producer, Visual Effects, Bingbing Li, has not responded to the petition. Nor has United Talent Agency (UTA), Darren Boghosian responded with a comment.

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.

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.”

Bingbing Li has not commented on the script, thusfar. 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.

Jana Sandler of Happy Madison Productions has also expressed interest in the screenplay.

Bingbing Li is a Actress, Producer, Visual Effects known for Transformers: Age of Extinction (2014), The Meg (2018), Resident Evil: Retribution (2012), The Forbidden Kingdom (2008) and is represented by United Talent Agency (UTA), Darren Boghosian.

——————- READ MORE ——————-

A GREAT SCREENPLAY

A one-sheet consists of the writer’s contact information, script’s title, genre, logline, synopsis and a closing request for the read. It look like this:

What is a One-Sheet?

Before the script’s written, the writer still has the ‘hot’ market qualities of the material fresh in his mind. The writer knows what makes the story original with a twist. Understands the irony. Appreciates one cool aspect of the character. Knows what piece of dialogue rocks. Knows what scene reversals are most shocking, etc. This is the time to write the one-sheet!

In the next chapters we’ll talk about how to plug various obligatory scenes into this overall structure to make the plotting go even more quickly: scenes that you’ll find in nearly all stories, like opening image, closing image, introduction of hero, inner and outer desire, stating the theme, call to adventure/inciting incident, introduction of allies, love interest, mentor, opponent, hero’s and opponent’s plans, plants and reveals, setpieces, training sequence, the all is lost/dark night of the soul scene, sex at sixty, hero’s arc, moral decision, etc. Many of these scenes tend to fit naturally into specific sequences or acts, so we’ll be talking about that, too.

I write books of about 350-400 pages (print pages), and I find my sequences are about 50 pages, getting shorter as I near the end. But I might also have three sequences of around 30 pages in an act that is 100 pages long. You have more leeway in a novel, but the structure remains pretty much the same.

This eight-sequence structure translates easily to novels. Now, if you’re structuring a novel this way, you may be doubling or tripling the scene count, but for me, the chapter count remains exactly the same: forty to sixty chapters to a book. And you might have an extra sequence or two per act, but I think that in most cases you’ll find that the number of sequences is not out of proportion to this formula. With a book, you can have anything from 250 pages to 1000 (well, you can go that long only if you’re a mega-bestseller!), so the length of a sequence and the number of sequences is more variable. But an average book these days is between 300 and 400 pages, and since the recession and the rise of e books, publishers are actually asking their authors to keep their books on the short side to save production costs, so why not shoot for that to begin with?

(And yes, I understand that there are software programs that simulate the index card method. But I very strongly encourage you to try this physical method in addition to brainstorming on the computer. Working with actual cards or Post-its is kinetic learning. It activates different parts of your brain and creative processes than typing does. Brainstorming with a software program is not the same as using your body as you work. You’ll be doing plenty of typing as it is, so why not try a different kind of creativity and see where it might take your story?)