The Army of Nine
Reclusive and extremely successful writer Jack Milbury
(Russell Crowe) has had a lot of bad things happen to him
recently; he has written three weak books in a row and he
made some improper choices when he invested in the stock
market (at the suggestion of his wife, played by Penelope
Cruz). He is desperate for something good to happen in his
life. He knows that he will be broke in a few months and
that he will lose the only woman that loves him if he goes
bankrupt.
One day when riding home on the train, he sees a book
that a mystery man (Kevin Spacey) has left on a passenger
seat. Jack could not find the man, so he brings it home.
Since he cannot come up with good ideas himself, he uses the
mystery man's ideas (with a few alterations) to try to turn
his life around. Will this desperate effort save Jack and
his structured upper-echelon lifestyle, or will he return to
the streets where he spent the majority of his dreaded
childhood? This story is a little bit like A Beautiful Mind
(Crowe as a recluse) and Secret Window (a writer is faced
with a dilemma of stealing a story). This story would mostly
take place in New York. The main theme is that bad people
are able to turn their lives around if they try hard enough.
-- Script Pitch III Host Commentary --
by Lee Tistaert and Stephen Lucas
Lee's Analysis:
An obvious comparison is going to be Secret Window,
which I thought was diverting mostly because the director
applied a silent, eerie tone. There were some mysterious
touches that worked in the writing, but the ending was
eventually obvious even for those who didn’t think that
much; the movie was basically saved by Johnny Depp and the
director’s mood.
Casting can be a big function of whether a story works
or not, as the actors either convey the characters’ mindsets
or they don’t; but then again, it all starts with a script.
And here, I like Crowe as a writer and Spacey is barely ever
anything but a good sign, but there’s also the caution of
playing off ideas that have already been written previously.
Stephen's Analysis:
At first glance, you’re planning on writing a script
to mimic Steven King’s "Four Past Midnight" (the novel that
was turned into the Johnny Depp film, "Secret Window"). What
seems like a fairly normal dilemma (a writer with writer’s
block) paired with another ordinary woe (financial
instability) may not really produce much excitement. Without
diving into the mystery of the book Jack finds on the train,
I don’t see this script taking off.
I think it would be interesting for him to try and
track down Spacey’s mystery-man character and discover where
the brilliant ideas came from. That’s just a suggestion, but
that’s the writer’s job now: to add excitement to this
pitch. Though I wouldn’t be totally against seeing a film
like this, I may not be altogether happy that I saw it. As a
side note, Crowe and Cruz seem like an extremely
incompatible and unappealing pair.
Rating: C
