Genre: Comedy
Premise: Based on a true story, we follow Dennis Rodman in 1998 on a 48 hour Vegas bender with a young reluctant Chicago Bulls assistant GM right before Game 6 of the NBA Finals.
About: This script just sold the other week. It’s got an interesting backstory. There were actually two competing “48 Hours in Vegas” Rodman projects being circulated around town. The other one was about to sell to Netflix but stalled. This one then sold at the end of August. The other one is now trying to use the buzz from this sale to sell to a competing company. Lord and Miller are producing. I found this quote from Miller about the project and Rodman: “That is what made him a target and it’s also what made him a star. His weekend in Las Vegas is full of fun and high jinks but it is also full of important questions about the way public figures, and workers are treated, especially when their individuality is expressed so vividly.” There is absolutely ZERO of that quote reflected in the script. Any attempt to say there is deeper thought put into this script is an outright falsehood. The writer, Jordan VanDina, wrote a movie called The Binge which was a comedic take on The Purge. One day a year, all drugs are legal.
Writer: Jordan VanDina
Details: 98 pages
Readability: Mostly fast
A little background here.
I grew up in Chicago. When I was a kid, the Chicago Bulls were everything. That group of athletes and the party they brought wherever they went was, I’d imagine, the closest thing to the Beatles there was at that time. And when Dennis Rodman joined the team, it somehow went up a level. I still remember him announcing one day that he was going to get married, then a couple of days later showing up to a press event in a wedding dress and claiming he was going to marry himself. I had no idea what was going on with this insane man but I absolutely loved it.
So I sort of understand this sale. Rodman is such a character that it was probably inevitable that someone would look at him and say, “Why don’t we make a movie about this guy?” But from a studio perspective (Lionsgate purchased 48 Hours), the sale is odd. I can’t think of any script sale in history quite like it – a real life sports comedy based around such a goofy scenario. I guess this is the new era of movie deals. Streaming has thrown such a curveball into the process that we’re seeing things we’ve never seen before. I’m curious to find out if the script is actually good.
Our story starts in 1998. The Chicago Bulls basketball team has won five championships and is one game away from winning a sixth in Utah against the Jazz. But the Bulls’ top rebounder, outsized personality Dennis Rodman, in addition to having a bad Game 5, broke his penis by trying an acrobatic move in his most recent sexual encounter. Rodman tells coach Phil Jackson he’ll be in Utah for Game 6 in 48 hours. But first he has to clear his head… by going to Vegas!
Jackson, a bit of a weirdo himself, understands this request and grants it on one condition. He must take 27 year old Chuck Reynolds, a sheepish nervous uptight weakling of a man who happens to be dating Phil’s daughter. Rodman says if that’s the only way he can go, then that’s the only way he can go!
When Chuck goes to pick Dennis up, he finds that Rodman is dead. He then sees a video that Rodman left him explaining that the police are coming and Chuck will be arrested for his murder. But then – ZOINKS! – a live Rodman appears, says he was just joking, and brings Chuck to his limo. It is at this point that THE MOVIE SHIFTS INTO ANIMATION. Guess we’ve got another Space Jam on our hands!
It doesn’t take long for Chuck and Rodman to get stopped by the cops and end up in jail. After Rodman gets them out, they hop on a plane to Reno, where Rodman adds another notch onto his mile high club membership. Why Reno and not Vegas? Because Rodman really likes a steak restaurant there. Rodman does everything in his power to loosen Chuck up in Reno, even forcing him onto a mechanical bull. But Chuck can’t seem to shake his uptight approach to life. He pleads for Rodman to end the adventure and get ready for Game 6.
Yeah, like that’s going to happen. Rodman, who seems to have no understanding of money whatsoever, rents a Ferrari for them to drive up to Vegas in. Along the way, they crash the thing over a cliff. Eventually, Rodman starts to doubt if he’s providing anything of value to the Bulls and decides not to play in the final game. It will be up to Chuck to convince him that he’s essential and get Rodman to the game on time!
I would love to say that today’s writer finally broke the spell of bad Hollywood comedy scripts that have been coming through the system in the past seven years. Is this FINALLY the hilarious comedy script we’ve all been waiting for that blows the town away? Let me think of how to answer that question. Uh…
No.
Hollywood comedies have become too standardized over the last 7-10 years: Force two opposites together and throw them on an adventure. It’s not a bad formula by any means. If you get the right combination of characters with the right amount of chemistry who riff off each other in just the right way, you’ve got gold.
But whenever Hollywood only allows one formula in a genre, it’s inevitable that that formula will grow stale. Which is exactly what’s happened to the ‘mismatched duo’ genre. It’s officially stale. I didn’t love the Vacation Friends script, as you know, but at least they gave you a slightly different set up. Instead of two opposite people, you had two opposite married couples.
I mean look. All comedies come down to one thing – did they make you laugh? This script made me giggle twice. In 100 pages. Two giggles. I don’t even remember what I giggled about. In retrospect, I may have inadvertently tickled myself.
Here’s what I think the problem is. It’s a very nuanced discussion because the line between what 48 Hours in Vegas does and what it’s trying to do is very thin. The problem is that the writer is trying so so so so so so so so so hard to make Dennis Rodman funny. He wants you so badly to laugh at everything Rodman says or does. We feel that “try-hard” attempt at humor in every scene and it just cuts away at the humor.
The reason Alan in The Hangover works is because he’s not trying to make an audience laugh. That’s who he really is! That’s so important for comedy writers to understand so let me repeat it. A comedic character should never be trying to say something outrageously funny that would make an audience laugh. Why? Because THEY DON’T KNOW THERE IS AN AUDIENCE. They don’t know they’re in a movie. The only reality they know is the one in front of them. And so the only laughs that should come from them are when they’re trying to make someone else in the scene laugh or when they’re being themselves, and “themselves” just happen to be funny.
A movie character is not a standup comedian who purposely goes on stage to try to make people laugh. They’re just living their lives. So any humor should stem from them being themselves as they navigate through life.
Here are a few Dennis Rodman lines so you know what I’m talking about:
“Probably is the cousin of definitely and the great uncle of absolutely. I’m taking that as a yes.”
“Chuck, if all your friends jumped off a bridge into a fountain of fudge would you follow?”
“There is so much other stuff going in Vegas. I’m telling you, going 200 in a Ferrari doesn’t even crack the top 1,000 terrible things happening right now. One time I watched a baby sell weed to a bail bondsman.”
These are “please laugh” lines. There isn’t any authenticity to them. Which is the bigger problem I had with the script. It chooses the path of outrageous humor, and whenever you leave planet earth to do your comedy, there’s no baseline for why we should be laughing. It’s just who can say or do the most outrageous thing.
Take that Ferrari line above. A minute later, the two of them launch off of a cliff and go diving to a certain explosive death. But, what do you know, Rodman has a parachute with him – because of course he does – and grabs Chuck, leaps out, and parachutes to the ground.
Is that funny? Cause I would argue it’s too outrageous to be funny. In fact, I would say that this joke works a thousand times better in Space Jam because, at least, in that movie, you’ve established that a world where people fall off cliffs to their death is organic. Here isn’t just random and desperate.
Some would say that National Lampoon’s Vacation does not exist in any sort of reality. The family takes a Disney World guard at gunpoint and forces him to take them on all the rides. Would that ever happen? Not a chance. But National Lampoon’s Vacation is realistic ENOUGH that we buy into the world and laugh when the characters encounter these situations. 48 Hours in Vegas never even attempts to find reality.
And look, some of you are probably arguing that this is an animated comedy and therefore it shouldn’t be graded on whether it’s “realistic” enough. That’s a fair argument. But all I care about is funny. And the fact that this story doesn’t exist in any reality you or I know leaves all of the jokes feeling try-hard and, therefore, falling flat.
You’re probably asking the obvious question. So why did it sell? With comedies, it typically comes down to somebody wanting to make that kind of movie. They see the comedy in the concept, not the execution. Most executives at studios believe they can cast the funny into a script. That as long as the bones are there for lots of comedic scenarios, that once they get Melissa McCarthy and Kevin Hart in there, they’ll do the rest.
However, that does not mean you, the unknown screenwriter, shouldn’t execute the hell out of your premise. Focus first on coming up with a concept that multiple people who aren’t your mother think is funny. Or, at the very least, do what 48 Hours in Vegas does, which is to use a tried-and-true marketable comedy formula (mismatched buddies on an adventure). If you do that, you’re starting off with a major advantage. If you can then, also, execute a really funny story, you’ll be ahead of 99% of the writers out there.
[ ] What the hell did I just read?
[x] wasn’t for me
[ ] worth the read
[ ] impressive
[ ] genius
What I learned: Today’s sale would seem to signify that real life *comedic* stories in the sports world are now open to potential script sales. And since that’s a fairly untapped market, there are likely thousands of stories out there for the taking.
