An Idea For A Pool Movie

[macguy]

I like the idea. I think it would work best if the movie started with a scene with the current owner of the cue and worked it's way back to the cue maker or forest, just to put an interesting spin on the plot.
It is also best to make the story about the people who have owned the cue and not about the cue itself. The cue is just the common thread tying each of it's interesting owners stories together. I would also suggest to use a fictitious cue maker and or brand name of the cue so you don't artificially raise the value of any specific line of cues, unless McDermott, Lucasi or Meucci etc....were going to fund the movie.

Actually the idea is a common one in literature and movies. One I remember, "Tales of Manhattan", follows an expensive tail coat from the first owner and how it changes the lives of the different people who own the coat till it finally ends up on a scarecrow out in a field at the end. I can think of a lot ways this idea could be done with a pool cue.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0035415/

 

[Lumocolor]

Interesting idea but how does the concept help pool in anyway? Did the violin movie make you go out and get a violin, take a lesson, want to learn or was it just a decent way to pass 90 minutes and then you moved on without giving it much thought?

 

[mnorwood]

Interesting idea but how does the concept help pool in anyway? Did the violin movie make you go out and get a violin, take a lesson, want to learn or was it just a decent way to pass 90 minutes and then you moved on without giving it much thought?

It didn't motivate me to play the violin but who to say it didn't spark interest in other people? I think this is a good vehicle to examine the lives of people who play pool who come from different walks of life and experiences. It would put pool in the mainstream people could relate to the different story lines without ever playing pool.

 

[macguy]

Interesting idea but how does the concept help pool in anyway? Did the violin movie make you go out and get a violin, take a lesson, want to learn or was it just a decent way to pass 90 minutes and then you moved on without giving it much thought?

It is more subliminal then anything else. Any time you can put pool in front of a main stream audience it is a good thing, especially if it is done in a good way.

 

[Lumocolor]

It didn't motivate me to play the violin but who to say it didn't spark interest in other people? I think this is a good vehicle to examine the lives of people who play pool who come from different walks of life and experiences. It would put pool in the mainstream people could relate to the different story lines without ever playing pool.

It is indeed something i would watch, but i always thought pool players wanted a new movie that would motivate regular people to pick up a cue and inject new life into the game as the hustler and TCOM did in their time. People came out thinking that if they played and practiced maybe they could be fast eddie or vincent and make money. I don't think a movie following the life of a cue passing through the hands of 12 different characters for 10-15 minute arcs would have people coming out of the movie saying i want to be that random cocky guy that was on the screen for 10 minutes at about the 50 minute mark and start playing pool.

 

[DallasHopps]

I agree with the fact that, while it might not be an in-your-face, go-play-pool type of movie, there would be no shortage of opportunity to show pool being played. The cue is in the background and can be witness to a Mosconi exhibition, pro tournament, league night, gambling (or to keep it positive, in the hands of a player who works for a living and practices and plays recreationally while the gamblers all trade money).
The Karate Kid made kids want to get Karate lessons. Fast and Furious probably made the neon-lights and big stupid mufflers factory double or triple their production. The movie doesn't have to be the best movie ever made, even the best ever made featuring pool. Something with a recurring pool theme will make people explore or rediscover the game... more so if they see something they haven't seen before. At this point in pool, that could be pretty much anything.

 

[mnorwood]

It is indeed something i would watch, but i always thought pool players wanted a new movie that would motivate regular people to pick up a cue and inject new life into the game as the hustler and TCOM did in their time. People came out thinking that if they played and practiced maybe they could be fast eddie or vincent and make money. I don't think a movie following the life of a cue passing through the hands of 12 different characters for 10-15 minute arcs would have people coming out of the movie saying i want to be that random cocky guy that was on the screen for 10 minutes at about the 50 minute mark and start playing pool.

I understand your point, but to me the Hustler and TCOM have become somewhat of a tired cliche when it comes to a plot. The last 3 movies that attempted to follow this model (Pool Hall Junkies, Shooting Gallery, Turn the River) all fell flat. Rounders which was a poker movie followed that story model so its even more recycled and tired. This movie would cast pool in multiple settings which, in my opinion, would give it wider appeal than the lets do a line of cocaine and shoot some pool at the worlds pool hall kind of feel that's in that movie "Ride the 9".

 

[DallasHopps]

It is indeed something i would watch, but i always thought pool players wanted a new movie that would motivate regular people to pick up a cue and inject new life into the game as the hustler and TCOM did in their time. People came out thinking that if they played and practiced maybe they could be fast eddie or vincent and make money. I don't think a movie following the life of a cue passing through the hands of 12 different characters for 10-15 minute arcs would have people coming out of the movie saying i want to be that random cocky guy that was on the screen for 10 minutes at about the 50 minute mark and start playing pool.

It occurs to me that a house cue might be preferable for that reason as well; at least for the first 1/3 or 1/2 of the movie, it wouldn't be following one character but more giving an overview of the entertaining aspects of the pool world. Think Morgan Freeman narrating from the perspective of the cue.

 

[West Point 1987]

It occurs to me that a house cue might be preferable for that reason as well; at least for the first 1/3 or 1/2 of the movie, it wouldn't be following one character but more giving an overview of the entertaining aspects of the pool world. Think Morgan Freeman narrating from the perspective of the cue.

Morgan Freeman narrating from ANY perspective is a money maker...I like the idea very much. It could start as a house cue through the 40s and 50s, road players, jack up players with back stories, whatever...then as a conversion cue tracking across the country, each player knowing nothing of the history behind the cue and the other players it touched. From pool room players to road players to league players to big time tournaments and back. Maybe even ending back in the hands of a washed up road player who had it during better times--maybe he played with it when it was a house cue as a kid and didn't even know it was the same cue...You could take this vehicle in virtually ANY direction. Probably the best idea for a pool world movie I've ever heard.

 

[Bill Yerd]

Should have been called "8 BALL"

I understand your point, but to me the Hustler and TCOM have become somewhat of a tired cliche when it comes to a plot. The last 3 movies that attempted to follow this model (Pool Hall Junkies, Shooting Gallery, Turn the River) all fell flat. Rounders which was a poker movie followed that story model so its even more recycled and tired. This movie would cast pool in multiple settings which, in my opinion, would give it wider appeal than the lets do a line of cocaine and shoot some pool at the worlds pool hall kind of feel that's in that movie "Ride the 9".[/QUOTE
Subject LINE says it all!

 

[Blue Hog ridr]

Actually, your premise and further comments made are excellent.
There already has been two movies that I've seen with basically the same theme. Certain events that happened that caught different people up and how their lives became intertwined because of one small event.

Both movies were fantastic and I can't remember the names just because I want to now.

One involved a taxi driver and the other revolved around the movie industry in LA if I remember a bit.

This is a very good idea and wish you could sell it to the right people in the industry. The possibilities are almost endless.

 

[Snapshot9]

Movie

I like the idea, and besides it's time for a different kind of Pool movie. As the cue passes from one person to another, there would be thousands of players, spouses, families that would identify with one or more of the characters in the movie. The Human Interest in the movie would hook people.

I can not, for the life of me, remember the horse movie that did the same, but it was a great movie.

It needs to be done as a regular movie and not a low budget hand held camera thing with some good actors in it. A lot of good character actors would make it a credible film.

A movie that has always stuck in my mind, and I think it was well done, and by far the best role that Leonardo Di Caprio ever had was the Gangs of New York. Daniel Day Lewis was terrific in that movie too.

 

[Palmetto cue]

I am a movie buff and someone who likes a good story. Occasionally I have an idea for a story but never take the time to write it. Off and on there is talk on this board about the next great pool movie. Today I started thinking about the movie the Red Violin. If you have never watched it you should. Its the story of a violin from the time that it was made through the time that is auctioned off in modern times. The movie chronicles what happens to the different people that possessed it. I think it would be interesting to have a movie that chronicles the life of a pool cue. Start the movie by showing a tree being cut dow and the cue being made and then the rest of the story could be a summary of the pool world for the last 70 years. It could examine the lives of very different people who own the cue with it having some roll in important aspects of these people's lives. It would be a nice switch from the attempts to equal the Walter Tevis movies.

I think this is such an excellent idea! The possibilities for storylines are endless. I hope it get written! :thumbup:

 

[BarneyCalip]

I like the Idea...but....

I'm not so sure that this will really work.

First the script will be re-written by the director with the directors name as the writer?
The director will change the dialog to his way of thinking.

Mike Massey (a good friend of mine) who was the technical director for Poolhall Junkies was frustrated by the director.
He kept telling the director that is not how we say it or do it !!!
Well he lost you don't argue with the director.

My son just finished work as 2nd director on the New Star Trek movie, I will run this thought through him?
Bottom line it is all about money $$$$$.
Star Trek cost over 200 million to make.

They would have to have a top actor agree to it and he would want lot's of money, i.e. Tom Cruise.
I'm not sure the Color of Money made any real money?
The money men do their homework and will see if Pool will make them money by looking at past films.

Now who would be the director?