..Gary Dretzka
..Noah Forrest
..Leonard Klady
..David Poland
..Douglas Pratt
..Ray Pride
..Kim Voynar
..Michael Wilmington

The Write Stuff…

James Braddock wasn't exactly an overnight sensation nor was he some pug that transformed magically into Prince Charming. Braddock, the subject of the new film Cinderella Man, had a pretty good career as a Golden Gloves fighter in the late 1920s. He won 21 fights before losing his first decision and that seemed to knock him for a loop that led to what he described as "some bad luck."

It didn't help matters that his reversal of fortune coincided with the Stock Market crash of 1929. But, after a couple of lousy years, his lucked turned around very quickly and in little more than a year he went from a bum to the heavyweight champion of the world in 1935.

If you squint real hard, there's something analogous to be found in Braddock's life and that of Cliff Hollingsworth, the guy who created the Cinderella Man story and shares screenplay credit on the movie. Hollingsworth moved to Los Angeles in the early 1980s to write for the movies. He wrote about 50 scripts and got a lot of encouragement. One was even optioned but the company that bought it let the contract lapse and got out of the movie business. Another script was bought and produced as an extremely low budget teen comedy that didn't get distribution and doesn't show up on late night cable.

And while Hollingsworth lost a lot of decisions, he never got knocked down to the canvas. He just soldiered on with the personal knowledge that he knew how to write and eventually one of his scripts would get made and his life would be changed forever.

While it's a bit soon to say that Cinderella Man is that turning point for Hollingsworth, it certainly has all the tell tale signs you find in Hollywood fairy tales. It's a big studio picture with a movie star, an Oscar-winning director and the kind of reviews it's difficult to buy with love or money.

But with all that said, let's not forget that this is a screenwriter's story. In a recent profile of Cinderella Man director Ron Howard in the Los Angeles Times there was not a single mention of a writer on the project. Howard talked a lot about doing research and one might jump to the wrong conclusion that he originated the idea or wrote the movie. He's talked about his father hearing the fight on radio, so you might imagine that the saga was some long gestating personal passion.

On the Charlie Rose show, Howard made a single backhand reference to an early screenplay. It sounded like a bad wallpapering job but you just know that there had to be something in it that conveyed the material's emotional potency. After all this isn't really a high concept suited for pitch meetings. It's the true story of a non-flamboyant pugilist that loved his wife, kids and country, served in the Second World War and worked hard all his life.

Hollingsworth came to the movie capitol, set up his typewriter and rather naively thought his work would speak for itself. He's not really a concept guy nor does he specialize in genre and because of his low key, good 'ole South Carolina boy manner and liquid drawl, you kind of suspect that he'd have a tough time finding an agent or manager.

In fact, he's never had either and only recently found an entertainment lawyer to handle his business affairs. Cinderella Man and all those other efforts somehow managed to find their way into the hands of readers through friends, favors and luck.

"It was my favorite project when I was at Miramax," says Jill Messick, a former development executive at that company presently working for producer Lorne Michaels. "It had enormous heart and the characters and writing just leapt off the page."

The Cinderella Man script was just part of her typical weekend reading regimen that might include a dozen screenplays. She walked into Harvey Weinstein's office on a Monday morning about five years ago, gave him a brief description and strongly urged that the company acquire the property.

Messick didn't know that the script had been optioned three years earlier by Universal for Penny Marshall. Hollingsworth got to do a rewrite before another scribe was hired by Marshall to take another stab at the material. But the project was stalled and, as with Shakespeare in Love, Miramax was confident it could take stewardship and quickly revive the project. Ben Affleck was mentioned as a possible star with Billy Bob Thornton directing.

Hollingsworth's seeming good fortune was hardly instantaneous. To make ends meet all those years his work wasn't being recognized, he initially found employment as a security guard. Ironically, his primary gig was graveyard shift duty on the Universal back lot. He says the job was like overseeing a ghost town and you just know none of his writing samples ever mysteriously appeared on an development exec's desk at daybreak. Later he worked as a substitute teacher in the Burbank school division.

Back in the 1990s family matters had a palpable effect on his writing routine. Hollingsworth's mother became an invalid and he and his brother agreed to split up the supervision of her health needs. That meant spending half his year in South Carolina.

"I wasn't really able to write back home," says Hollingsworth. "There just wasn't the time or concentration to focus on a screenplay. But I could work on treatments and I wound doing quite a few."

Every six months he'd return to Los Angeles to his typewriter (he's thinking about getting his first computer at the urging of his brother) and teaching assignments. It was during one of those split years that he wrote Cinderella Man and through a friend representing musical artists got it submitted to several production companies. It was then back to South Carolina while through something resembling osmosis the script found it's way to Marshall who tracked down the writer shortly after he'd done his family stint.

Marshall had an 18-month option on the property that she would subsequently renew. The situation must have seemed like manna from heaven to the writer because he made two decisive moves that, in retrospect, slowed down the seeming momentum he suddenly had in his career. He chose to move back to South Carolina permanently and decided to wait until the film's release before putting other material into the marketplace.

Matters might have evolved differently had Hollingsworth had representation. But even after his high profile sale and the efforts of a friend and production executive, talent agents remained indifferent to signing him up.

As he describes the twists in the development of the Braddock story, you can't help but feel Hollingsworth doesn't quite fit in with the mainstream film industry. He appears to have only the most vague sense of the people who fell in and out of the production. Miramax signed Lasse Halstrom to direct Cinderella Man and he brought in Russell Crowe to play the titular role. It appeared to be headed for the cameras in 2002 but Crowe decided to put it off in favor of working with Peter Weir on Master and Commander. The delay resulted in Halstrom's departing for another film.

Though it's likely a bit of an exaggeration, some recent reports have stated that Crowe mentioned the Braddock script to Ron Howard during the filming of A Beautiful Mind. Akiva Goldsman, who rewrote Hollingsworth's screenplay, says Crowe invited him and Howard down to Mexico where he was shooting Master and Commander to discuss a possible future collaboration. Braddock's story was the one all could agree upon.

Shortly after Imagine Entertainment took stewardship of Cinderella Man, Hollingsworth found himself once again involved, albeit briefly and obliquely. When Universal optioned the script it also hired on the boxer's sons as consultants. They had the right to sit down with the film's director prior to filming and voice concerns, errors, omissions or whatever. The Braddock sons designated Hollingsworth to speak for them because he'd always been direct and honest and was certainly, comparatively speaking, savvier about the film biz.

It just so happened that there were several inventions in the Marshall rewrite that put the family's collective nose out of joint. Hollingsworth says Howard listened, appeared attentive and responsive to what he had to say. Still, one senses from the description that the two-hour session was a courtesy and that the director would ultimately follow his own conscience about how to tell the story.

Hollingsworth says casually and diplomatically that, "I would have told it slightly different" when he talks of the finished film. He doesn't appear to have serious complaints about what's on screen but he drops subtle clues that indicate a squeamishness about fictional elements that had been added to the script.

Ironically, his subsequent interaction with Howard and Goldsman almost entirely related to corroborating factual incidents. According to the writer, Howard wanted to be absolutely certain that press coverage of the era expressed fears that Baer might kill Braddock in the ring. Goldsman says Hollingsworth's script was impeccably researched and "allowed me to work in developing the fringes."

It's not quite clear whether Hollingsworth was asked to participate in promoting the film's opening. He admitted to being press shy and even refused to talk to the local newspaper back in South Carolina. He nonetheless seems to understand that he better at least do some publicity or face being the forgotten man in the creative team.

Since his mother's death almost three years ago, he says he's been able to at last devote all his time to writing screenplays and has completed five already. He's even had inquiries about talent representation and is considering taking a few meetings next time he visits Los Angeles. Hollingsworth's also been encouraged by friend's in production to consider producing and set up a company named Palmetto Films to that end.

They say you can't make a good movie from a bad script and seasoned filmmakers and producers truly believe it as a result of personal experience. It may be a little tougher to convince them not to tamper with a good thing. There is after all a long standing tradition of thanking the writer and then closing the door and sealing it.

June 11, 2005

- by Leonard Klady