Petition asks Liam O’Donnell to read prison screenplay
More than 2000 women sign petition demanding a firm commitment from Liam O’Donnell (film producer) to read screenplay addressing Texas judicial system
Liam O’Donnell – Talent Agents
– Producer, Writer, Director – Skylines (2020), Beyond Skyline (2017), Skyline (2010), Iron Man 2 (2010) – –
Dumbass, The Last Savage, Blackened, Jason and the Astronauts
Liam O’Donnell & 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 Liam O’Donnell 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 Liam O’Donnell at last week.
In the open letter to Liam O’Donnell, 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 Liam O’Donnell 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, Director, Liam O’Donnell, has not responded to the petition. Nor has 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.”
Liam O’Donnell 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.
Liam O’Donnell is a Producer, Writer, Director known for Skylines (2020), Beyond Skyline (2017), Skyline (2010), Iron Man 2 (2010) and is represented by .
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Don’t write writer stories! Every writer has a story about a writer. Okay, go ahead and write the damn thing, but don’t expect to sell it because all 2.5 million writers out there have one just like it! It’s extremely rare to get this made. You’d have better odds at winning the lotto.
It’s tough to give advice in this area, but I’ll try my best. First, don’t follow current trends. If vampire movies are hot, don’t rush out and decide you have a better vampire story. Why not? For several reasons: 1) by the time you finish your screenplay, the trend will probably be dead (no pun intended) 2) movies coming out in theaters today were probably filmed 2-3 years ago and Hollywood already has the next hot trend in pre-production and will be ready to shoot it before you finish your vampire flick 3) a million other writers will be doing the same thing as you! The ‘trend’ only works in your favor if you have a completed screenplay the moment it becomes hot and your screenplay is so damn original that everyone who reads it goes ‘WOW!’ If not, you’re screwed.
It’s weird how people think alike, but it’s true because they do. Maybe we’re somehow psychologically linked and just don’t know it. Maybe it’s because we share the same media sources, which often becomes the source material for screenplay.biz/top-screenplays/" 786 target="_blank">screenplays. Maybe it’s because we share common life experiences. I don’t know, but what I do know is that it’s easy to spend a lot of time writing exactly the same type of screenplay as hundreds, if not thousands of other writers, with little chance of a successful sale because the market becomes saturated with the same types of stories.
A writer recently mentioned his script was getting good response from agents, but comments were made about how the agents felt like they’d read the same story 5-6 times in the past few months. The agents were correct because the subject matter of the writer’s screenplay has been hitting the market lately in droves.
I’m not going to lie to you. Many people struggle mightily with premise. In those initial stages of writing, when your story seems like a hurricane of characters, scene ideas, visual images, and snippets of dialogue, it is so hard to nail precisely what it is that is going to bind the whole wonderful mess together. Believe me, I know. To learn how to write a good premise line, you need to practice. I encourage you to take the list of films and books you’ve made and for each story, write a one-sentence premise that contains all these story elements: protagonist, antagonist, conflict, stakes, setting, atmosphere, and genre.
· And there are clues to the genre: there may be something supernatural going on, but that’s only what she believes, so there’s a mystery there: not just who the killer is, but what the killer is. There’s a sense of danger, too, possibly on several levels.
· What are the stakes? Life and death, and something possibly supernatural as well, if there really is a demon involved.
· What’s the conflict? It’s both interpersonal and external: it will be the cop and the witch against each other, and the two of them against the killer.