They made a movie...

Nick B said:
The SVB story would work....Deaf kid makes good. Pool would be backdrop to movie. Not the movie

Happy Gilmore was not about golf.
Talladega Nights was not about racing
Even the Godfather is not about the Mob
Click to expand...
And The Hustler was not about pool.
 
@Guy Manges - One example of a US billiards movie not focused on gambling is HeartBreak (2019). Kind of a mixed bag movie -- you can read my review here: https://www.billiardsmovies.com/heartbreak-2/

I agree it's unfortunate that the genre seems to over rely on the standard tropes of gambling, hustling, etc. I don't think that's a US phenomenon. Most -- though not all -- of the international billiards movies have a similar reliance. You can see my full list of billiards movies at: https://www.billiardsmovies.com/complete-list-of-movies-shorts-and-tv-shows/

My hope remains that the story of Cisero Murphy will be turned into a movie. The rights were secured by the Lagralane Group and United Film House back in 2019, but I've heard nothing further.

download.jpg
 
Fatboy said:
The SoA series about a bunch of dope dealing, money laundering pool players hanging out at a pool room owned by some seedy cigar guy might be cool. Kinda follow the Breaking Bad/SoA/Soprano’s ideas. A hybrid of those 3 shows and we might be on to something.

Guys in rehab,

Manufacturing dope, distributing dope, some cartel action

Gotta have the Feds in there and a CW pool player-living a double life.

Busting up the pool room with fights and FBI raids

Loan sharks, can’t forget the loan sharks. And money laundering operations

We should name it 5Ball and use a backwards “5” or a backwards “B”.

Road players coming through now and then. Some get whacked, a few move to town and pay their dues.

Other gambling, maybe a poker game in the back and a horse track.

And the obligatory “go to Vegas episodes”

This is the right idea, make pool players the lowest form of street criminals possible and we just might have something to sell…….


Sadly I’m not wrong 😟
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Shit I know of some true stories that would almost fit the bill.

I grew up in Redlands Ca and when I first started taking pool seriously there was a guy who was one of the local great pool players who's dad was in prison and was a Mexican mafia crime boss. He was in the business too and opened a club as a money laundering front.

It was a club that while seemed to be in a good location was NOT. I don't know what it was about that location but the only time it was successful was when that dude was using it for money laundering.

He got wind that the cops were going to raid the place and took off down to Mexico, left the place with everything inside. A friend of mine who had been a partial owner of ABC (Australian Beach Club) in San Bernardino decided to open the place because he got such a killer deal on the lease and a practically turn key establishment. Now you have to understand that this place had failed as a club 4 or 5 different times already.

I warned him against it but he didn't listen. I moved down to orange county and about 6 months later was back in town visiting my parents and he had hired Lisa Loeb (had her hit single at the time) to come and try to drum up business because it was failing. As soon as he saw me, he said, Shut up, no I told you so's. lol

It went under about 2 months later.

Jaden
 
Fatboy said:
SVB is a great guy, great story coming up in pool at his grand dads room. His road to success and to his first WC this past year.

However story lines like that just don’t sell. Drugs, murder, crime, super hero’s, sex, action scenes(cars, jets, space ships), chases are the primary elements of most successful non-comedy movies these days. Happy stories like Lassie or sad story’s like Old Yeller just don’t have much appeal.

SVB story is cool for a very narrow market that wouldn’t generate enough $ to hire a location scout to get the ball rolling or writers. There’s just no meat on the bone for broad market appeal. Which is sad. And also why most new movies suck and are similar to each other as they contain the type of content I described above.

Comedy is the exception. But SVB isn’t funny & pool isn’t either. Only Efren laughs when he misses.

Look at the last big pool movie COM, had nudity, cocaine, gambling, cheating people out of $ (2 brothers and a stranger), hustling drunks, dumping your backer(even tho the general public didn’t understand that). Oh yeah and a couple fist fights. And it was a Disney movie-distributed by Touchstone.

And they got Keith, now he could have been a movie-I mean that as a compliment. He was something else in the pool room. But again-narrow market problems.

So if Disney had to do all that in 86, what would a pool mobie need to be about now to draw a audience? God love SVB, but that’s just not strong enough.

Fatboy <———-glad he’s not in the movie biz
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Hollywood would probably remake The Hustler because remakes always make money and they know it. And had they actually followed Walter Tevish's storyline with COM, I believe we would have two classic pool movies IMO. I wasn't a fan of the movie COM when I saw it. Years later when I actually read it I was well pleased.
 
Jaden said:
Shit I know of some true stories that would almost fit the bill.

I grew up in Redlands Ca and when I first started taking pool seriously there was a guy who was one of the local great pool players who's dad was in prison and was a Mexican mafia crime boss. He was in the business too and opened a club as a money laundering front.

It was a club that while seemed to be in a good location was NOT. I don't know what it was about that location but the only time it was successful was when that dude was using it for money laundering.

He got wind that the cops were going to raid the place and took off down to Mexico, left the place with everything inside. A friend of mine who had been a partial owner of ABC (Australian Beach Club) in San Bernardino decided to open the place because he got such a killer deal on the lease and a practically turn key establishment. Now you have to understand that this place had failed as a club 4 or 5 different times already.

I warned him against it but he didn't listen. I moved down to orange county and about 6 months later was back in town visiting my parents and he had hired Lisa Loeb (had her hit single at the time) to come and try to drum up business because it was failing. As soon as he saw me, he said, Shut up, no I told you so's. lol

It went under about 2 months later.

Jaden
Click to expand...
I saw lots of stuff in the mid 80’s that would be like what I mentioned, would be a cool movie. Don’t have to make it up. It happened. Now the world is full of risk averse milk drinkers. 🙁

Best
Fatboy
 
jasonamoss13 said:
@Guy Manges - One example of a US billiards movie not focused on gambling is HeartBreak (2019). Kind of a mixed bag movie -- you can read my review here: https://www.billiardsmovies.com/heartbreak-2/

I agree it's unfortunate that the genre seems to over rely on the standard tropes of gambling, hustling, etc. I don't think that's a US phenomenon. Most -- though not all -- of the international billiards movies have a similar reliance. You can see my full list of billiards movies at: https://www.billiardsmovies.com/complete-list-of-movies-shorts-and-tv-shows/

My hope remains that the story of Cisero Murphy will be turned into a movie. The rights were secured by the Lagralane Group and United Film House back in 2019, but I've heard nothing further.

View attachment 653556d
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I hope your wright, I subscribe to silver screen and have for many years don't know how I missed this , Cisero was a favorite many years ago... Jane Park Smith i just saw on TV just lately... The coach Catledge is also spelled Carledge i wonder which one is correct. ? Was it written from Cisero's life. I sure would like to see it completed... Guy , Sorry I misspelled Cisero... Guy,my bad...
 
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outrider1 said:
Hollywood would probably remake The Hustler because remakes always make money and they know it. And had they actually followed Walter Tevish's storyline with COM, I believe we would have two classic pool movies IMO. I wasn't a fan of the movie COM when I saw it. Years later when I actually read it I was well pleased.
Click to expand...
I to didn't like the movie at all and didn't watch all... Cam back fifty years later to finish, still not so much... Guy
 
Fatboy said:
I saw lots of stuff in the mid 80’s that would be like what I mentioned, would be a cool movie. Don’t have to make it up. It happened. Now the world is full of risk averse milk drinkers. 🙁

Best
Fatboy
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It takes lots of negative to make a positive, in pool games we all saw the bad and have strong memories, the good not so much... Guy I wonder...
 
Guy Manges said:
I to didn't like the movie at all and didn't watch all... Cam back fifty years later to finish, still not so much... Guy
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To me,I liked the Hustler. It came out the year I was born and it showed the style of those times, I felt. The COM however made me wonder if Tevish had even written it. It was a Hollywood version complete with Cruise, an actor with no business acting IMO. Please read the book, you will be glad you did and will wonder what if about it like I still do.
 
Jaden said:
Shit I know of some true stories that would almost fit the bill.

I grew up in Redlands Ca and when I first started taking pool seriously there was a guy who was one of the local great pool players who's dad was in prison and was a Mexican mafia crime boss. He was in the business too and opened a club as a money laundering front.

It was a club that while seemed to be in a good location was NOT. I don't know what it was about that location but the only time it was successful was when that dude was using it for money laundering.

He got wind that the cops were going to raid the place and took off down to Mexico, left the place with everything inside. A friend of mine who had been a partial owner of ABC (Australian Beach Club) in San Bernardino decided to open the place because he got such a killer deal on the lease and a practically turn key establishment. Now you have to understand that this place had failed as a club 4 or 5 different times already.

I warned him against it but he didn't listen. I moved down to orange county and about 6 months later was back in town visiting my parents and he had hired Lisa Loeb (had her hit single at the time) to come and try to drum up business because it was failing. As soon as he saw me, he said, Shut up, no I told you so's. lol

It went under about 2 months later.

Jaden
Click to expand...
Lived in Highland many years ago... Guy, small world...
 
jasonamoss13 said:
@Guy Manges - One example of a US billiards movie not focused on gambling is HeartBreak (2019). Kind of a mixed bag movie -- you can read my review here: https://www.billiardsmovies.com/heartbreak-2/

I agree it's unfortunate that the genre seems to over rely on the standard tropes of gambling, hustling, etc. I don't think that's a US phenomenon. Most -- though not all -- of the international billiards movies have a similar reliance. You can see my full list of billiards movies at: https://www.billiardsmovies.com/complete-list-of-movies-shorts-and-tv-shows/

My hope remains that the story of Cisero Murphy will be turned into a movie. The rights were secured by the Lagralane Group and United Film House back in 2019, but I've heard nothing further.

View attachment 653556
Click to expand...
Heart Break, Sad and down, Black man's life Up not down... Guy
 
Fatboy said:
I saw lots of stuff in the mid 80’s that would be like what I mentioned, would be a cool movie. Don’t have to make it up. It happened. Now the world is full of risk averse milk drinkers. 🙁

Best
Fatboy
Click to expand...
For now and to come the milk drinkers will sell, I think the film makers know this... Different... Thinking to get away from egos and except the cares, love of the games, People that play the tables as much as the competition, People that love pool... They don't have to use pool game as an excuse to break someone's face... To not have to use the Muppets to show people that there is a good side of our life... All our lives we are programed through radio, TV and all formes of media to have drama, revenge and violence and this is what we know, what we are taught... Guy
 
outrider1 said:
To me,I liked the Hustler. It came out the year I was born and it showed the style of those times, I felt. The COM however made me wonder if Tevish had even written it. It was a Hollywood version complete with Cruise, an actor with no business acting IMO. Please read the book, you will be glad you did and will wonder what if about it like I still do.
Click to expand...
Thank you for that... Guy
 
sjm said:
That's about how I see it. Kingpin features bowling but doesn't have much bowling in it.

As others have suggested, a movie about pool probably wouldn't sell unless pool is the backdrop for an otherwise compelling story, not the centerpiece. The Hustler had pool in it, but it wasn't about pool. It was about the rigors of trying to make money as a roving gambler, the soul selling that is sometimes inherent in doing so, the sacrifices and compromises along the way, and the highs and lows of such a lifestyle.

The Queen's Gambit features chess but isn't about chess. It is about the many demons and obstacles that the main character had to overcome to find her way toward success at chess.

Each of Kingpin, The Hustler and The Queen's Gambit had enough to generate additional interest in the sport that served as the backdrop for the main story.
Click to expand...

sjm said:
A pool movie could do the same as long as pool remains in the background.
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Don’t I know it!

When I started filming, I naively said,
“How long could it take to make movie?
I’ll have this knocked out in a few months”🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆
After my first 7 years of filming, my capturing of the old ones teaching the young ones at Chris’s Billiards- FOR FREE, the collapse of the IPT, my chasing Kevin Trudeau, years of Derby, Expo, Turning Stone, every Matchroom event, traveling America, traveling Europe, going to the Philippines, the storyline still was left kinda flat.

I had to change tack 😉
 
Nick B said:
The SVB story would work....Deaf kid makes good. Pool would be backdrop to movie. Not the movie

Happy Gilmore was not about golf.
Talladega Nights was not about racing
Even the Godfather is not about the Mob
Click to expand...
This is superlative reasoning on your part, Nick.

Your point is instructive and so well made via perfect examples.

Arnaldo ~ The amount of talent, advice and wisdom on this Main forum is dazzling if you're openminded and receptive to its regular gems.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Can Fedor ask Putin to make a movie about him?

The strength of Russian pool is almost at its peak if not for Germany's Joshua Filler.
 
Maybe Tom can remake COM, Top Gun killed it. Except this time make like the Book! That is a great story. He coul play the Eddie role
 
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