Black Evening

  But I had the feeling it wasn't a pose. His clothes didn't seem a deliberate imitation of Deacon. He wore them too comfortably. And his brooding silhouette didn't seem calculated, either. I've been in the business long enough to know. He dressed and leaned that way naturally. That's the word they use for a winner in this business. He was a natural.

  "Wes Crane?" I asked.

  He turned and looked down at me. At last, he grinned. "Why not?" He had a vague country-boy accent. Like Deacon.

  "I'm David Sloane."

  He nodded.

  "Then you recognize the name?"

  He shrugged. "Sounds awful familiar."

  "I'm a screenwriter. I did Broken Promises, the picture you just finished working on."

  "I remember the name now. On the script."

  "I'd like to talk to you."

  "About?"

  "Another script." I held it up. "There's a part in it that I think might interest you."

  "So you're a producer, too?"

  I shook my head no.

  "Then why come to me? Even if I like the part, it won't do us any good."

  I thought about how to explain. "I'll be honest. It's a big mistake as far as negotiating goes, but I'm tired of bullshit."

  "Cheers." He raised a beer can to his lips.

  "I saw you in the dailies this morning. I liked what I saw. A lot. What I want you to do is read this script and tell me if you want the part. With your commitment and me as director, I'd like to approach a studio for financing. But that's the package. You don't do it if I don't direct. And I don't do it unless you're the star."

  "So what makes you think they'd accept me?"

  "My wife's got a hunch."

  He laughed. "Hey, I'm out of work. Anybody offers me a job, I take it. Why should I care who directs? Who are you to me?"

  My heart sank.

  He opened another beer can. "Guess what, though? I don't like bullshit, either." His eyes looked mischievous. "Sure, what have I got to lose? Leave the script."

  ***

  My number was on the front of it. The next afternoon, he called.

  "This script of yours? I'll tell you the same thing you said to me about my acting. I liked it. A lot."

  "It still needs a polish."

  "Only where the guy's best friend gets killed. The hero wouldn't talk so much about what he feels. The fact is, he wouldn't say anything. No tears. No outburst. This is a guy who holds himself in. All you need is a closeup on his eyes. That says it all. He stares down at his buddy. He picks up his M-16. He turns toward the palace. The audience'll start to cheer. They'll know he's set to kick ass."

  Most times when an actor offers suggestions, my stomach cramps. They get so involved in their part they forget about the story's logic. They want more lines. They want to emphasize their role till everybody else in the picture looks weak. Now here was an actor who wanted his largest speech cut out. He was thinking story, not ego. And he was right. That speech had always bothered me. I'd written it ten different ways and still hadn't figured out what was wrong.

  Till now.

  "The speech is out," I said. "It won't take fifteen minutes to redo the scene."

  "And then?"

  "I'll go to the studio."

  "You're really not kidding me? You think there's a chance I can get the part?"

  "As much chance as I have to direct it. Remember the arrangement. We're a package. Both of us, or none."

  "And you don't want me to sign some kind of promise?"

  "It's called a binder. And you're right. You don't have to sign a thing."

  "Let me get this straight. If they don't want you to direct but they offer me the part, I'm supposed to turn them down. Because I promised you?"

  "Sounds crazy, doesn't it?" The truth was, even if I had his promise in writing, the studio's lawyers could have it nullified if Wes claimed he'd been misled. This town wouldn't function if people kept their word.

  "Yeah, crazy," Wes said. "You've got a deal."

  ***

  In the casting office at the studio, I asked a thirtyish thin-faced woman behind a counter, "Have you got any film on an actor named Crane? Wes Crane?"

  She looked at me strangely. Frowning, she opened a filing cabinet and sorted through some folders. She nodded, relieved. "I knew that name was familiar. Sure, we've got a screen test on him."

  "What? Who authorized it?"

  She studied a page. "Doesn't say."

  And I never found out, and that's one of many things that bother me. "Do you know who's seen the test?"

  "Oh, sure, we have to keep a record." She studied another page. "But I'm the only one who looked at it."

  "You?"

  "He came in one day to fill out some forms. We got to kidding around. It's hard to describe. There's something about him. So I thought I'd take a look at his test."

  "And?"

  "What can I say? I recommended him for that bit part in Broken Promises."

  "If I want to see that test, do you have to check with anybody?"

  She thought about it. "You're still on the payroll for Broken Promises, aren't you?"

  "Right."

  "And Crane's in the movie. It seems a legitimate request." She checked a schedule. "Use screening room four. In thirty minutes. I'll send down a projectionist with the reel."

  ***

  So I sat in the dark and watched the test and first felt the shiver that I'd soon know well. When the reel was over, I didn't move for quite a while.

  The projectionist came out. "Are you all right, Mr. Sloane? I mean, you're not sick or anything?"

  "No. Thanks. I'm…"

  "What?"

  "Just thinking."

  I took a deep breath and went back to the casting office.

  "There's been a mistake. That wasn't Crane's test."

  The thin-faced woman shook her head. "There's no mistake."

  "But that was a scene from The Prodigal Son. James Deacon's movie. There's been a switch."

  "No, that was Wes Crane. It's the scene he wanted to do. The set department used something that looked like the hayloft in the original."

  "Wes…"

  "Crane," she said. "Not Deacon."

  We stared.

  "And you liked it?" I asked.

  "Well, I thought he was ballsy to choose that scene — and pull it off. One wrong move, he'd have looked like an idiot. Yeah, I liked it."

  "You want to help the kid along?"

  "Depends. Will it get me in trouble?"

  "Exactly the opposite. You'll earn brownie points."

  "How?"

  "Just phone the studio VP. Tell him I was down here asking to watch a screen test. Tell him you didn't let me because I didn't have authorization. But I acted upset, so now you've had second thoughts, and you're calling him to make sure you did the right thing. You don't want to lose your job."

  "So what will that accomplish?"

  "He'll get curious. He'll ask whose test it was. Just tell him the truth. But use these words. 'The kid who looks like James Deacon.'"

  "I still don't see…"

  "You will." I grinned.

  ***

  I called my agent and told him to plant an item in Variety and Hollywood Reporter. "Oscar-winning scribe, David Sloane, currently prepping his first behind-the-lens chore on Mercenaries, toplining James Deacon lookalike, Wes Crane."

  "What's going on? Is somebody else representing you? I don't know from chicken livers about Mercenaries."

  "Lou, trust me."

  "Who's the studio?"

  "All in good time."

  "You sonofabitch, if you expect me to work for you when somebody else is getting the commission — "

  "Believe me, you'll get your ten percent. But if anybody calls, tell them they have to talk to me. You're not allowed to discuss the project."

  "Discuss it? How the hell can I discuss it when I don't know a thing about it?"

  "There. You see how easy it'll be?"

  Then I d
rove to a video store and bought a tape of The Prodigal Son.

  I hadn't seen the movie in years. That evening, Jill and I watched it fifteen times. Or at least a part of it that often. Every time the hayloft scene was over, I rewound the tape to the start of the scene.

  "For God's sake, what are you doing? Don't you want to see the whole movie?"

  "It's the same." I stared in astonishment.

  "What do you mean the same? Have you been drinking?"

  "The hayloft scene. It's the same as in Wes Crane's screen test."

  "Well, of course. You told me the set department tried to imitate the original scene."

  "I don't mean the hayloft." I tingled again. "See, here in The Prodigal Son, Deacon does most of the scene sprawled on the floor of the loft. He has the side of his face pressed against those bits of straw. I can almost smell the dust and the chaff. He's talking more to the floor than he is to his father behind him."

  "I see it. So what are you getting at?"

  "That's identical in Wes Crane's test. One continuous shot with the camera at the floor. Crane has his cheek against the wood. He sounds the same as Deacon. Every movement, every pause, even that choking noise right here as if the character's about to start sobbing — they're identical."

  "But what's the mystery about it? Crane must have studied this section before he decided to use it in his test."

  I rewound the tape.

  "No, not again," Jill said.

  ***

  The next afternoon, the studio VP phoned. "I'm disappointed in you, David."

  "Don't tell me you didn't like the rewrite on Broken Promises."

  "The rewrite? The… Oh, yes, the rewrite. Great, David, great. They're shooting it now. Of course, you understand I had to make a few extra changes. Don't worry, though. I won't ask to share the writing credit with you." He chuckled.

  I chuckled right back. "Well, that's a relief."

  "What I'm calling about are the trades today. Since when have you become a director?"

  "I was afraid of this. I'm not allowed to talk about it."

  "I asked your agent. He says he didn't handle the deal."

  "Well, yeah, it's something I set up on my own."

  "Where?"

  "Walt, really I can't talk about it. Those items in the trades surprised the hell out of me. They might screw up the deal. I haven't finished the negotiations yet."

  "With this kid who looks like James Deacon."

  "Honestly I've said as much as I can, Walt."

  "I'll tell you flat out. I don't think it's right for you to try to sneak him away from us. I'm the one who discovered him, remember. I had a look at his screen test yesterday. He's got the makings of a star."

  I knew when he'd screened that test. Right after the woman in the casting department phoned him to ask if I had a right to see the test. One thing you can count on in this business. Everybody's so paranoid they want to know what everybody else is doing. If they think a trend is developing, they'll stampede to follow it.

  "Walt, I'm not exactly trying to sneak him away from you. You don't have him under contract, do you?"

  He ignored the question. "And what's this project called Mercenaries? What's that all about?"

  "It's a script I did on spec. I got the idea when I heard about the ads at the back of Soldier of Fortune magazine."

  "Soldier of… David, I thought we had a good working relationship."

  "Sure. That's what I thought too."

  "Then why didn't you talk to me about this story? Hey, we're friends, after all. Chances are you wouldn't have had to write it on spec. I could have given you some development money."

  And after you'd finished mucking with it, you'd have turned it into a musical, I thought. "Well, I guess I figured it wasn't for you. Since I wanted to direct and use an unknown in the lead."

  Another thing you can count on in this business. Tell a producer that a project isn't for him, and he'll feel so left out he'll want to see it. That doesn't mean he'll buy it. But at least he'll have the satisfaction of knowing that he didn't miss out on a chance for a hit.

  "Directing, David? You're a writer. What do you know about directing? I'd have to draw the line on that. But using the kid as a lead. I considered that yesterday after I saw his test."

  Like hell you did, I thought. The test only made you curious. The items in the trades today are what gave you the idea.

  "You see what I mean?" I asked. "I figured you wouldn't like the package. That's why I didn't take it to you."

  "Well, the problem's hypothetical. I just sent the head of our legal department out to see him. We're offering the kid a long-term option."

  "In other words, you want to fix it so no one else can use him, but you're not committing yourself to star him in a picture, and you're paying him a fraction of what you think he might be worth."

  "Hey, ten thousand bucks isn't pickled herring. Not from his point of view. So maybe we'll go to fifteen."

  "Against?"

  "A hundred-and-fifty-thousand if we use him in a picture."

  "His agent won't go for it."

  "He doesn't have one."

  That explained why the Screen Actor's Guild had given me Wes's home address and phone number instead of an agent's.

  "I get it now," I said. "You're doing all this just to spite me."

  "There's nothing personal in this, David. It's business. I tell you what. Show me the script. Maybe we can put a deal together."

  "But you won't accept me as a director."

  "Hey, with budgets as high as they are, the only way I can justify our risk with an unknown actor is by paying him next to nothing. If the picture's a hit, he'll screw us next time anyhow. But I won't risk the money I'm saving by using an inexperienced director who'd probably run the budget into the stratosphere. I see this picture coming in at fifteen million tops."

  "But you haven't even read the script. It's got several big action scenes. Explosions. Helicopters. Expensive special effects. Twenty-five million minimum."

  "That's just my point. You're so close to the concept that you wouldn't want to compromise on the special effects. You're not directing."

  "Well, as you said before, it's hypothetical. I've taken the package to somebody else."

  "Not if we put him under option. David, don't fight me on this. Remember, we're friends."

  ***

  Paramount phoned an hour later. Trade gossip travels fast. They'd heard I was having troubles with my studio and wondered if we could take a meeting to discuss the project they'd been reading about.

  I said I'd get back to them. But now I had what I wanted — I could truthfully say that Paramount had been in touch with me. I could play the studios off against each other.

  Walt phoned back that evening. "What did you do with the kid? Hide him in your closet?"

  "Couldn't find him, huh?"

  "The head of our legal department says the kid lives with a bunch of freaks way the hell out in the middle of nowhere. The freaks don't communicate too well. The kid isn't there, and they don't know where he went."

  "I'm meeting him tomorrow."

  "Where?"

  "Can't say, Walt. Paramount's been in touch."

  ***

  Wes met me at a taco stand he liked in Burbank. He'd been racing his motorcycle in a meet, and when he pulled up in his boots and jeans, his T-shirt and leather jacket, I shivered from déjà vu. He looked exactly as Deacon had looked in Revolt on Thirty-Second Street.

  "Did you win?"

  He grinned and raised his thumb. "Yourself?"

  "Some interesting developments."

  He barely had time to park his bike before two men in suits came over. I wondered if they were cops, but their suits were too expensive. Then I realized. The studio. I'd been followed from my house.

  "Mr. Hepner would like you to look at this," the blue suit told Wes. He set a document on the roadside table.

  "What is it?"

  "An option for your services. M
r. Hepner feels that the figure will interest you."

  Wes shoved it over to me. "What's it mean?"

  I read it quickly. The studio had raised the fee. They were offering fifty thousand now against a quarter million.

  I told him the truth. "In your position, it's a lot of cash. I think that at this point you need an agent."

  "You know a good one?"

  "My own. But that might be too chummy."

  "So what do you think I should do?"

  "The truth? How much did you make last year? Fifty grand's a serious offer."

  "Is there a catch?"

  I nodded. "Chances are you'll be put in Mercs."

  "And?"

  "I don't direct."

  Wes squinted at me. This would be the moment I'd always cherish. "You're willing to let me do it?" he asked.

  "I told you I can't hold you to our bargain. In your place, I'd be tempted. It's a good career move."

  "Listen to him," the gray suit said.

  "But do you want to direct?"

  I nodded. Until now, all the moves had been predictable. But Wes himself was not. Most unknown actors would grab at the chance for stardom. They wouldn't care what private agreements they ignored. Everything depended on whether Wes had a character similar to Deacon.

  "And no hard feelings if I go with the studio?" he asked.

  I shrugged. "What we talked about was fantasy. This is real."

  He kept squinting at me. All at once, he turned to the suits and slid the option toward them. "Tell Mr. Hepner my friend here has to direct."

  "You're making a big mistake," the blue suit said.

  "Yeah, well, here today, gone tomorrow. Tell Mr. Hepner I trust my friend to make me look good."

  I exhaled slowly. The suits looked grim.

  ***

  I'll skip the month of negotiations. There were times when I sensed that Wes and I had both thrown away our careers. The key was that Walt had taken a stand, and pride wouldn't let him budge. But when I offered to direct for union scale (and let the studio have the screenplay for the minimum the Writers' Guild would allow, and Wes agreed to the Actors' Guild minimum), Walt had a deal that he couldn't refuse. Greed budged him in our favor. He bragged about how he'd outmaneuvered us.