THERE IS a simple solution for the people who are still hoping to get the life story of Phil Hellmuth, the poker celebrity and Madison native, filmed in Madison.
In the true spirit of Hollywood, I should probably ask for a percentage of the gross - or at least a consulting fee - for my advice, which in all modesty is as brilliant as it is simple.
I came up with my idea after hearing this week from Hellmuth, who had good news and bad news about the movie of his life that is about to be filmed.
Hellmuth, of course, is the Madison kid who came out of nowhere to win the World Series of Poker (and nearly $1 million) in 1989. He was 24. Since then, Phil has relocated to the West Coast, married, started a family and become a star. His mercurial personality at the poker table and talent for winning have made him one of the game’s most recognizable faces.
A few years ago, Bob Soderstrom, a friend of Hellmuth’s and an aspiring writer, wrote a screenplay based on Phil’s “Rocky”-like ascendance in the poker world. Soderstrom titled his script “The Madison Kid.” It includes scenes at the Memorial Union and around the State Capitol. The script won a screenwriter’s contest and has been in various stages of development ever since.
Recently, elements have come together that indicate filming will begin in the spring (perhaps under a new title, “Poker Brat”). Beacon Pictures (chaired by UW-Madison grad Armyan Bernstein) is producing, with a budget in the $6 million to $8 million range, and a hot young actor named Hayden Christensen will play Hellmuth.
“He’s officially committed,” Phil said this week.
That’s the good news. The bad news, as Hellmuth sees it, is that when the cameras start rolling in April or May, the 100-plus members of the cast and crew are currently scheduled to be in Winnipeg, Canada, where presumably they will build some kind of set to resemble the Union’s Rathskeller and other Madison locales.
Movie companies expect tax incentives when they go on location, and - in poker parlance - they are playing a strong hand when it comes to asking for them. Movie productions can have a highly positive impact on a local economy. They provide jobs, hire caterers, eat in restaurants, stay in hotels and essentially advertise a locale on movie screens around the world.
A report on the “NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams” Tuesday centered on Shreveport, La., which last year was host to some $300 million in film production, with a dozen more location shoots scheduled for Shreveport in 2007.
The Louisiana Legislature recently passed a tax incentive package that was attractive enough that when Hurricane Katrina made filming in New Orleans difficult, filmmakers stayed in the state and discovered Shreveport.
“It’s certainly been good for us,” Shreveport Mayor Keith Hightower told NBC.
To its credit, the Wisconsin Legislature recognized the potential value of bringing movie productions to the state. Earlier this year, the Legislature passed and Gov. Jim Doyle signed a bill that will make Wisconsin highly competitive in luring filmmakers.
But for some reason, the final language in the bill pushed its start date forward to Jan. 1, 2008. Which is why a script that was originally titled “The Madison Kid,” and is about a Madison kid, is in imminent danger of being made in Winnipeg.
But as the well-known philosopher Yogi Berra famously observed, “It ain’t over till it’s over.”
Those who want to see “The Madison Kid” filmed in Madison have mobilized one last push to see if they can get state government to change the date of implementation of the tax incentives to Jan. 1, 2007. As part of that effort, Hellmuth has written an op-ed piece that will be offered to numerous papers in the state.
In his piece, Hellmuth makes both a logical and passionate case for moving the date so “The Madison Kid” can be filmed here. He stresses the economic benefits, as well as the karmic importance of having it shot in Madison.
It may work. But I have an idea that will work even better.
It’s this: Promise them all a role in the movie! Everyone wants to be in the movies, especially legislators. Not for nothing did someone once call politics “show business for ugly people.”
The climactic scene in the movie is when Phil beats the great Johnny Chan, one against one, for the world championship in Las Vegas. Phil’s father, who had serious reservations about his son’s decision to be a professional poker player, rushes out of the audience and embraces Phil.
The “audience” could be made up of members of the Wisconsin Legislature. Gov. Doyle (like Phil, a Madison West grad) could also be given a role. Maybe he could deal the final hand to Hellmuth and Chan.
I might add that a movie appearance can have a positive impact on a legislator’s career. In 1996, a state representative from Madison appeared briefly in the Keanu Reeves-Morgan Freeman movie “Chain Reaction.” And nobody has to ask whatever happened to Tammy Baldwin.