*For Introduction with submission guidelines go to April 4.
*Heywood Gould is the author of 9 screenplays including “Rolling Thunder,”Fort Apache, The Bronx,”Boys From Brazil”and “Cocktail.”
CONEY ISLAND BLUEFISH
By Heywood Gould
ACT TWO
IN BLACK…5;50.13 SHOUTS, CURSES, FLOPS.
RADIO
Units AC 1 and AC 2 report to
squad at 19:30 for special
assignment.
EXT. PLAYING FIELD. DAY.
Twilight on the muddy, rutted field. RADIOS squawk in jacket pockets and backpacks on the sideline. Cops run back and forth, checking the calls then running back onto the field where Putts is trying to get a practice in before nightfall. Third and Derek and other burly COPS practice patterns. Sloan, huffing and puffing, tries to keep up as Derek runs out of the back field. He staggers off the field, gasping toward Putts, who is yelling instructions to BAGELS on the line.
PUTTS
Gotta get off the line faster
than that, big guy.
(sees Sloan)
Gimme twenty for comin’ off
the field without permission.
SLOAN
Wait up, Jeff I just wanted
to ask you: Still runnin’
that T group for hate crime
kids?.
PUTTS
Every Sunday at Clearview
Baptist. It’s the kids who
vandalized cemeteries or
attacked minorities. It’s
part of their probation. You
got somebody you wanna put in?
SLOAN
My son.
PUTTS
It’s mostly black and
Hispanic. I don’t know how
a white kid would go in that
mix. What’d he do?
SLOAN
Nothin’ yet. He’s subscribing
to all these hate groups on
the Internet. Chat rooms,
weird ideas…
PUTTS
Does he have any contact with
minority kids?
SLOAN
There might be thirty or
forty in his school. But
they’re mostly on the teams
and they hang together. It’s
that Internet…
PUTTS
Internet’s just a tool. I’ll
go online tonight and find
you a great counseling group
right in your neck of the
woods. But I gotta tell you,
Donnie, it comes from you.
SLOAN
How can you say that?
PUTTS
Not every one of those thirty
or forty minority kids is on
the basketball team. And they
don’t all stick together. But
that’s your assumption and
that’s what he picks up.
SLOAN
You know me, Jim…
PUTTS
And I love you like a brother.
But it’s comin’ off you just
like them cigarettes you try
to hide. Kids smell it on you.
And then they run with it.
Take it places you don’t want
it to go.
SLOAN
So what do I do?
PUTTS
You gotta spend some quality
time with this boy. Let him
know the way you and Corinne
really feel about things.
Then, we’ll find him a group…
Now give me forty you racist
pig…
Sloan starts to protest, but sees Putts’s point. He drops in the mud and starts doing push ups…
INT.KEAT’S OFFICE.NIGHT
Keats is hanging upside down from a gravity belt. Conti enters.
CONTI
Made some calls. Looks like
Barry Weiner got caught in a
little mob war.
KEATS
Wiseguys! They can’t go a
month without killin’ each
other.
CONTI
This morning they found a
Bensonhurst shy named Peter
Cortina in a burning Catera
upstate in Brewster. The
whisper was that he was part
of the Scaduto crew tryin’
to move in on Coney Island.
KEATS
So Cortina killed Weiner and
Varese got him back right
away. Eddie Varese got this
neighborhood from Gambino
himself. He’ll dump bodies
all over before he gives it
up.
CONTI
So they wipe each other out?
Who cares?
KEATS
Me. For one thing I got a
bunch of homicides I can’t
clear. Screws up my stats.
And another: some little kids
on their way to school see a
stiff in a burning car? Not
in my precinct.
CONTI
(helping him down)
You wanna fix your back up?
Get yourself a nice lady.
Nice massage. Nice…
KEATS
Hey Doctor Feelgood. you’re
wanted in the diarrhea ward…
I feel like bustin’ chops on
this Weiner thing.
CONTI
Let’s bust ‘em.
INT.LOCKER ROOM. NIGHT.
Burke comes out of the shower wrapped in a towel. Sloan is getting dressed. He speaks in a casual undertone.
SLOAN
A word to the not so wise,
Jerry. IAD’S got film on you
and a fellow officer. And
there’s some talk about some
other extra curricular
activities…
BURKE
(stunned but controlled)
How do you know about it?
SLOAN
A friend of mine who’s also a
friend of your’s asked me to
pass it on.
BURKE
You ain’t spyin’ on me,
Donnie.
SLOAN
Yeah. And then tellin’ you all
about it. With all due respect,
you’re not too cool. But
you’re a tough kid and people
like you. You’re gettin’ a
play this time. Next time
you’re on your own. Say a
hundred Hail Marys and sin
no more.
Slams his locker shut and moves away.
INT.GOLDEN GATE LOUNGE. NIGHT.
SALSA blasts and COUPLES WHIRL on a strobed dance floor. The rest of the joint is dark as a cave. Conti finds his way to the bar where Sandra is waiting. He notices the low cut cocktail dress.
CONTI
Didn’t think you’d make it.
SANDRA
My friend Mimi brought me.
She’s a regular.
CONTI
You changed into something
less comfortable.
SANDRA
I got a closet full of
dresses I haven’t worn in
years.
CONTI
Where’s your friend?
Sandra points to a WOMAN in jeans and a halter top doing a wicked mambo on the dance floor.
SANDRA
She’s in a bad marriage. Her
husband beats her up.
CONTI
Maybe he’s pissed because she
hangs out here. In this joint
people meet to cheat.
SANDRA
And you wear your ring so
they’ll think you’re still
married.
CONTI
Some people only get off when
they’re gettin’ over. Why
spoil their fun? Not a
drinker, huh?
SANDRA
Hate the taste.
CONTI
Have a Velvet Hammer. Creme
de cocoa, Cointreau and heavy
cream, tastes like a smoothie.
SANDRA
God,the drinks, the line.
You’ve got this down to a
science.
CONTI
More like a ritual. But with
you it’s a little different.
SANDRA
Yeah, right
CONTI
Really. There’s this paradox.
I was happy to see you, but
surprised you came. I want to
seduce you, but I want it to
mean something. Don’t believe
me, do you?
SANDRA
Does it matter?
(to the bartender)
I’ll have a Velvet Hammer.
Next: Act 2 Con’t
CONEY ISLAND BLUEFISH By Heywood Gould
I pitched a show about how cops deal with the new ethnically diverse New York.
The executives looked up from their blackberries…
Thought Coney Island–home to refugees from the former Soviet Empire a burgeoning Mexican population, Indians, Pakistanis, Hasidim, not to mention retired garment workers, Mafia holdouts, yuppies, hipsters and health nuts who want to be by the sea–would be a good arena.
The executives leaned forward in their chairs—a good sign.
Police precincts field sports teams that play other city departments and go to a state championship every year.
The executives had never heard of that.
“Great hook,” someone said.
I wrote the script. Joy was unconfined. We were on our way.
Then it was bounced down from the “upstairs.”
The verdict:
“Is he kidding?”
Enjoy
Best,
Heywood
Our first script was EMPIRES OF CRIME. Seven years in development was a six part mini-series commissioned by a broadcast network and later reacquired by a cable station.
Click on EMPRIES OF CRIME link below for the entire script.
The story is about the founders of Organized Crime, Meyer Lansky, and “Lucky” Luciano, their fifty year partnership and the empire they created. Their friendships and families, lives and loves. It is also about their implacable enemy Thomas Dewey, a young Republican attorney who built a political career prosecuting the Mob that propelled him to the NY Governor’s Mansion and almost to the White House.
