Is it possible we’ve dusted off a forgotten screenplay that deserves to be made? Read on to find out!
Genre: Drama
Premise: A down on his luck U.S.-Mexican border agent enlists in a scheme to help illegal aliens cross into America. But when he tries to pull out, he puts himself and his family in danger.
About: Southbound originally made the 2006 Black List. However, this is an updated draft of the script from a couple of years later that eventually snagged Matthew McCaughnehy and Eva Mendes in the lead roles. Those two have since fallen off the project, though, and Southbound is stuck in limbo. Peter Craig, the writer, wrote the original draft of The Town (which Affleck then rewrote), and has written drafts for both Top Gun 2 and Bad Boys 3. Outside of The Town, however, he has no produced credits.
Writer: Peter Craig
Details: 120 pages – July 31, 2008 draft
Edward Norton for Jack?
There was this period about 5-6 years ago where everyone and their neighbor was writing a spec about the U.S. – Mexican border. A few of these scripts made it through the production pipeline, such as Babel (in one of its stories) and Crossing Over (that dreadful thing with Harrison Ford), but nothing that really lit the world on fire.
Which is strange. On the surface, it seems like the border would be a subject matter ripe for conflict and drama. But let’s face it. Every script written about this subject matter has sucked. Why is that? I think because everyone approaches the subject from a boring angle. They don’t put enough thought into it. It’s usually a cop patrolling the border running down illegals. Throw in some drugs and they think they’ve got themselves a script. Snore.
Southbound is a little different. It looks at the border through the eyes of a man who lets cars into our country. Every time you cross, there’s a chance you’ll run into Jack Sullivan. Jack’s taken a beating in life. He’s had three tours in Iraq. He’s got a wife, a daughter. And he’s taken this job because it’s the only job he could get. He barely makes enough money to pay the bills, and the draining nature of the job is killing him.
For example, early on, Jack is presented with a mother and two children trying to get into the U.S. She claims they’re Americans. When he speaks English to the kids though, it’s clear they don’t understand him. He informs the woman she’ll have to go back. She begs him to reconsider, telling him the kids’ parents are in America. If he sends them back, they’ll be homeless, living out on the streets. He looks the kids over, knows she’s telling the truth. But Jack plays by the rules. He tells the woman tough luck and back they go.
Eventually, Jack starts seeing a beautiful Mexican woman by the name of Amanda Martinez repeatedly come through. There’s something about the way she looks at him that makes him think she wants something. And she does. Amanda approaches Jack about working with her. Those two kids he didn’t let through the other day? Deserving kids like that are trying to cross the border all the time. She has a business that specializes in this. No drugs. No gangs. Just good people in need. The proposition is simple. A grand for every one of her people he lets through. Jack is reluctant at first. But money is getting tight back at home and his relationship with his wife is dissolving as a result. He needs the dough, so he agrees.
At first everything goes swimmingly. She makes a call. Speaks code. He knows who’s coming and what they look like. He lets them through. But soon Amanda starts introducing him to the family business, and one person in particular, Ben. Ben doesn’t like Amanda, doesn’t trust her, and has different ideas for how things should work. Why stop at needy children when they could be making a lot more money on drugs?
Within weeks, Ben inserts himself as the point man in place of Amanda, and now Jack has to let in people he never agreed on. Since this wasn’t the plan, Jack tells Ben he wants out. But Ben says that’s not an option. He knows too much about the operation now. He’s in it for life. Not only that, but a huge shipment is coming through soon. Jack HAS to approve it. And that becomes the impetus for the final act. Will Jack relent and let them through? Or will he do his job? And if he does, is he willing to deal with the consequences of one of the biggest coyotes on the border putting a price on his head?
As this script pushed through its first half, I kept saying to myself, “This is pretty good.” It wasn’t great, but it was entertaining enough and the characters were deep enough and the conflict thick enough that I was turning the pages. However, I kept thinking something I figured out a long time ago. Nobody’s going to buy a drama spec unless they think they can win an Oscar with it. Because dramas that aren’t up for Oscars make ZERO MONEY. That means when you write a drama spec, you’re basically saying, “I believe I’m an Oscar-worthy screenwriter.” And while the first half of Southbound was good, I didn’t think it was Oscar-worthy.
Then came the second half. I don’t know. Something just clicked. The stakes ramped up a thousand-fold. (spoiler) When that big shipment came through and Jack decided to turn the bus in instead of let them through? That caught me off guard. I thought he’d take the easy route, let them by, and we’d get a familiar storyline where his bosses started to get suspicious. Blah blah blah.
Instead, Jack does the “right thing,” turns the bus in, and becomes a marked man as a result. All of a sudden, he can’t trust anyone. There’s a half-million dollar price tag on his head. Everyone in Mexico (and some in America) want to take him down. And I found myself thinking, “How the hell is he going to get out of this??” Before I knew it, I was in that rare script-reading department – where I no longer knew I was reading a script. I was inside a world, hoping beyond hope that this guy I knew was going to find a way out of this impossible situation.
And the good writing didn’t stop there. The relationships in Southbound were really complex. I love relationships where it isn’t clear who’s right and who’s wrong. Here, Jack and Amanda had grown distant. He was lost in his work and she had started drinking. It wasn’t either of their faults, but things had just gotten bad due to deteriorating circumstances. That grey area forces the reader to participate. They instinctively want to take sides, find out who’s right so they can avoid the same mistakes in their own lives. It keeps the reader active and thinking. That’s huge.
My only issue with the script was Jack, and it may be why this movie hasn’t been made yet. Jack is kind of wimpy most of the time. There’s a lack of confidence that’s needed for his character development, sure, but it bordered too much on weakness. I felt this character needed to be stronger. Instead of backing down to Ben, he needed to stand up to him. Don’t get me wrong. He can’t be Jason Bourne. But just make him less of a wuss. I don’t know many A-list stars who want to play wusses. And I don’t know many readers who like their protagonists to be pushovers.
Besides that though, I thought Southbound was really good. The plotting was great. Almost all of the characters were strong and memorable. The second half was awesome. Is it Oscar worthy? Not yet. But maybe with a rewrite it could be. This was definitely a surprising find.
[ ] what the hell did I just read?
[ ] wasn’t for me
[xx] worth the read
[ ] impressive
[ ] genius
What I learned: Your main character needs to either be the first or second most memorable character in your story. If not, he’s not big enough to carry the film. Obviously, you’d like him to be the MOST interesting character, but I find that in films like Pirates Of The Caribbean and Star Wars, there are characters more memorable than the protagonists (Jack Sparrow and Han Solo). So there’s a precedent for good movies with secondary characters bigger than the hero. Here, I thought there were two characters more memorable than Jack (Amanda and Ben) and that can’t be the case. Especially if you’re trying to snag an A-list star. Making Jack bigger, flashier, and less of a wimp would solve this problem, in my opinion.
