Petition asks Brittany Allen to read prison screenplay
More than 2000 women sign petition demanding a firm commitment from Brittany Allen (film producer) to read screenplay addressing Texas judicial system
Brittany Allen – Talent Agents
– Actress, Composer, Producer – What Keeps You Alive (2018), It Stains the Sands Red (2016), The Boys (2019), Falling Water (2016) – GGA, Adam Stutt – Fortress Talent Management, Randy Gerston
Brittany Allen & 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 Brittany Allen 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 Brittany Allen at GGA, Adam Stutt last week.
In the open letter to Brittany Allen, 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 Brittany Allen 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, Composer, Producer, Brittany Allen, has not responded to the petition. Nor has GGA, Adam Stutt 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.”
Brittany Allen 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.
Brittany Allen is a Actress, Composer, Producer known for What Keeps You Alive (2018), It Stains the Sands Red (2016), The Boys (2019), Falling Water (2016) and is represented by GGA, Adam Stutt.
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The problem with extreme characters is many aspiring screenwriters attempt to write them without understanding how their presence works in a commercial realm. They simply introduce the character and their extreme behavior then get back reviews with comments like, “the protagonist isn’t believable” or is “over-the-top.”
They’re our Personal Heroes
Extreme characters can give a script extra commercial edge because they’re characters who do things we all wish we could muster the courage to do.
#NAME?
– The culmination of the allies’ subplots in the ensemble film Four Weddings and a Funeral. In the closing credits, we get a series of wedding photos of all the supporting characters on their future wedding days, with lots of fun visual jokes and payoffs throughout. Lesson here: it’s a total joy to see secondary characters and allies get their desires at the end too. This film made us love each one of the ensemble and want them to be happy; the photos of the wedding days of each are a rapturous payoff. Of course being able to enhance that feel-good feeling with Elton John singing “Going to the Chapel” really helps, but the point is, you as a writer need to be able to create that emotion on the page. Why not start collecting book endings that achieve it for inspiration? Stick them in your notebook so you’ll always have them to refer to.
I know, I know, a lot of dark examples. Okay, here are a few lighter ones:
And I’ve already gone into this, but the intricacy of detail about the killer’s lair and the fairy tale resonance of this evil troll keeping a girl in a pit gives that third act a lot of its primal power.
– Think of The Silence of the Lambs, one of the very few thrillers out there that creates a victim we truly care for and truly don’t want to die. In a very few strokes, Harris in the book and Demme and Tally and actress Brooke Smith in the film, create a ballsy, feisty fighter who is engineering her own escape, even at the bottom of a killing pit. In a two-second shot, a few sentences on a page, Catherine’s loving relationship with her cat is set up before she is kidnapped. Then on the brink of a horrible death, Catherine uses that facility with animals to capture “Precious,” the killer’s little dog, to buy her escape (thus driving the killer into a bigger frenzy). It’s a breathtaking line of suspense because we know how unwilling Catherine is to hurt that little dog, which has become a character in its own right. (Lesson: infuse every character, every moment, with all the life you can cram into it.) And of course the payoff makes Catherine’s survival even more sweet; once she is rescued, she won’t let anyone take the dog away from her when she is being taken off to the hospital.