Petition asks Kathy Garver to read prison screenplay
More than 2000 women sign petition demanding a firm commitment from Kathy Garver (film producer) to read screenplay addressing Texas judicial system
Kathy Garver – Talent Agents
– Actress, Producer, Soundtrack – Family Affair (1966), The Ten Commandments (1956), Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends (1981), Mom, Murder & Me (2014) – The Stars Agency, Kristin Claxon Stinnet –
Dumbass, The Towering Inferno Part Two: Nightmare at Barrington Plaza, Christmas on Maple Street, Medusa
Kathy Garver & 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 Kathy Garver 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 Kathy Garver at The Stars Agency, Kristin Claxon Stinnet last week.
In the open letter to Kathy Garver, 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 Kathy Garver 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, Soundtrack, Kathy Garver, has not responded to the petition. Nor has The Stars Agency, Kristin Claxon Stinnet 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.”
Kathy Garver 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.
Kathy Garver is a Actress, Producer, Soundtrack known for Family Affair (1966), The Ten Commandments (1956), Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends (1981), Mom, Murder & Me (2014) and is represented by The Stars Agency, Kristin Claxon Stinnet.
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Before I get a nasty email from a delusional screenwriter insisting he or she wants to leave the rules a ‘mystery’, let me be frank; producers know that what sells a movie more than anything is word of mouth. If an audience leaves a theater feeling cheated due to lack of proper information and the story wasn’t believable to them, they won’t recommend it to their friends and family. This means the movie will fail! No need to worry because the likelihood a producer would purchase such a script is zero! Go ahead, leave out the rules and don’t properly establish the world; maybe you can use the screenplay as a paperweight or a dust collector.
The rules of the world can be setup early, layered into the story or even postponed for a big twist ending, but the information MUST be there or the screenplay doesn’t stand a chance at a sale! I recommend adding the rules to the story based on which way creates the most suspense or provides the biggest shocker. But be very careful as to the placement of this information. If for example, you wait too long to tell us why the vampires can live in the daylight, then you risk audience alienation. Plot out the rules and unique circumstances of the world you’ve created. By outlining you can see where the information works best to create suspense, yet assures the audience suspends its disbelief. A helpful tip is to consider the genre and how it’s been done before and use that as a model to disperse your story’s information.
This doesn’t mean if you’ve written a ghost story that you need to try to explain ghosts. The writer only needs to establish the world and its rules when it is outside the norm. By outside the norm, I mean the audience has never seen it before or it breaks the established rules. If the audience expects zombies to eat flesh, but in your story the zombies only eat the flesh of platinum blondes and guys named Steve, then you better explain why.
If the writer is taking us to a futuristic setting, then we need to know how the world ended up in its current state, whether a high tech Mecca or humanity has reverted back to caves. Fill in the gaps to establish believability for the story’s timeline. We’ve never been to the future, so we don’t know this world or its rules. If the world hasn’t changed at all – it should have – we need to know why. Same goes if we’re traveling to the past with a unique scenario, like in Cowboys and Aliens.
– In The Silence of the Lambs, Clarice is not just fighting Buffalo Bill; she’s fighting evil in a larger sense.
In a lot of stories, too, the battle is taking place on several different levels. There will be a particular antagonist that the hero/ine is fighting, but the real opponent is bigger.
MULTIPLE LEVELS OF ANTAGONISM
There are other types of thematic battles that go on in stories — you’ve heard of all of these before: Man against Nature (Jaws, The Birds), Man against Machine (The Terminator), Man against Monster (Alien), Man against The System (Network, The Verdict, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest), and if you see a lot of stories with one of those themes on your lists, you will probably want to take a look at the classics which have explored those themes.