Any news on the movie about kid delicious?

[NYC cue dude]

Whatever happened to the movie that Lions Gate was going to make about Kid Delicious. If I remember correctly, the studio had already paid some serious money to Danny for the rights to his life story. But those rights expired after 5 years. Has it been 5 years already? Danny even said Jack Black had been in consideration to play him in the movie. Sure, its another hustler themed movie, but done with a good cast, could be the shot in the arm pool needs. Or, perhaps its dead and I missed the news?

 

[JAM]

Whatever happened to the movie that Lions Gate was going to make about Kid Delicious. If I remember correctly, the studio had already paid some serious money to Danny for the rights to his life story. But those rights expired after 5 years. Has it been 5 years already? Danny even said Jack Black had been in consideration to play him in the movie. Sure, its another hustler themed movie, but done with a good cast, could be the shot in the arm pool needs. Or, perhaps its dead and I missed the news?

I think I recall reading somewhere that the production company -- was it Lions Gate? -- ran out of funds at the time Kid Delicious' book was out.

With movie people, things like this happen all the time. No funds. In order to get something going, they need somebody, some entity to give them money to get started.

I remember this was all the talk in 2004 when Danny was on his winning streak.

With Danny not active in pool as much as he used to be, that could be another reason it's dead in the water. Nobody is pushing forward to make something happen.

Pool players need a PR person or an agent to become mainstream. To date, not many pool players are afforded this resource.

 

[ctyhntr]

Hollywood is run by bean counters, who are not willing to invest in any genre that doesn't have a proven track record. Which is why all we been seeing are sequels and super hero movies.

If you really want to see a pool movie get made by a major studio, then consider supporting existing movies such as Poolhall Junkies, or 9-Ball the movie. If we continue to pan pool movies, especially those made by pool enthusiasts (Mars Callahan plays pool) because they're low budget (only afford Christopher Walken instead of Tom Cruise), then we'll never see another pool movie made by Hollywood.

 

[Ken_4fun]

Movies are made rarely that are not from studios and they need someone to "champion" or push them through the channels.

Ken

 

[ctyhntr]

50 Shades of Grey is a current example of a movie concept that did not originate from the studios.

50 Shades of Grey started out as online fan fiction for Twilight (romantic vampire genre). All the major publishing houses originally rejected it, the author went to the self publishing route and hit jackpot. When I went to check out a friend's inventory of Southwest cues, I've notice his wife was reading it. It's this generation's Harlequin romance. Now it's in development as a movie, and all the publishing houses that missed out are trying to get their own version out to cash in.

Excuse me, I need to go back to writing my romantic vampire pool league genre 50 Shades of Blue. An unbeatable level 7 takes an innocent sweet SL2 into the dark world of league pool, and train for Scotch Doubles.:grin:

Movies are made rarely that are not from studios and they need someone to "champion" or push them through the channels.

Ken

 

[classiccues]

No offense.. but a period movie about Mosconi might be a little better advised. I like Danny, BUT really, his story. Does it end driving a cab? A shot in the arm for pool? How about lower rent, higher employment and more disposable income?

We could go on about how any movie involving pool would be good, so then do an Efren movie, or a SVB movie.

JV

 

[scottycoyote]

I think I recall reading somewhere that the production company -- was it Lions Gate? -- ran out of funds at the time Kid Delicious' book was out.

With movie people, things like this happen all the time. No funds. In order to get something going, they need somebody, some entity to give them money to get started.

I remember this was all the talk in 2004 when Danny was on his winning streak.

With Danny not active in pool as much as he used to be, that could be another reason it's dead in the water. Nobody is pushing forward to make something happen.

Pool players need a PR person or an agent to become mainstream. To date, not many pool players are afforded this resource.

i wouldnt think it was lack of funds, i just say this b/c lionsgate has been on fire recently as a stock pick. Usually when a company runs out of funds its doors shut soon thereafter.

 

[The Saw]

Lions Gate sold their rights to another company, can't recall the name of it but IIRC Tom Hanks has a fairly large stake in the company. What initially held it back is that Lions Gate had Wirtheim, that wrote the book, draft the screenplay but they didn't like it because it was too PG and read like an after school special. The studio wanted more of the "real" story, the no holds barred, unedited version and were looking for someone to do a new script or rewrite of the original... But that was about the time the economy collapsed and money was thin, pretty sure it just got shelved so they could do remakes of 80's movies (sarcasm face)....

 

[mantis99]

I read the book and thought it was a great story. The underdog fat kid with a loveable personality who overcomes depression by playing pool and become the worlds number one ranked player sounds like a great hollywood storyline to me.

 

[The Saw]

I read the book and thought it was a great story. The underdog fat kid with a loveable personality who overcomes depression by playing pool and become the worlds number one ranked player sounds like a great hollywood storyline to me.

The book was good, but this is one case where there should have been the PG book Wirtheim wrote, and a PG-17/R rated book written by someone else.... Trust me, the latter would have sold much better.

 

[NYC cue dude]

Lions Gate sold their rights to another company, can't recall the name of it but IIRC Tom Hanks has a fairly large stake in the company. What initially held it back is that Lions Gate had Wirtheim, that wrote the book, draft the screenplay but they didn't like it because it was too PG and read like an after school special. The studio wanted more of the "real" story, the no holds barred, unedited version and were looking for someone to do a new script or rewrite of the original... But that was about the time the economy collapsed and money was thin, pretty sure it just got shelved so they could do remakes of 80's movies (sarcasm face)....

Lions gate is a billion dollar studio, so the idea that the money was an impediment is silly (as proposed by another poster). Danny was also paid 7 figures for those rights, so obviously the studio was very serious at that time. Lions gate only had 5 years to sh!t or get off the pot. Clearly, that time has expired, without some sort of extension being executed.

Had no idea that the studio didn't like the original screenplay. I'm sure Danny's allegiance to the SI writer had a hand in the studio deciding to eat the invested money, and pass. The have no shortages of material to produce.

I was really hoping to read that someone had an inside track and would say that their were delays but that it was still going to be made.