So I have an original story in the backburner, so I’ll toss this out for now. It’s paced like Forest Gump and The People Vs. Larry Flynt, in that it has some comedic bits, but is really a true story that feels like a tall tale.
I’m doing a biopic of that crazy guy who ran for office, Jimmy McMillan. He will be played by Samuel L. Jackson and the bulk of the story will be told as a flashback in a courtroom. We open on a prosecutor, played by Ed Norton who is trying to convince a jury that Jimmy McMillan deserves to spend the rest of his life in jail after he causes a near riot in NYC during an Occupy Wall Street demonstration. Jimmy, defending himself says everything he’s ever done, he’s done for the people and then the flashbacks start.
Vietnam Flashback. Typical music plays and we see Jimmy the hero, saving his entire platoon but falling in love with a vietnamese woman. Jimmy decides to stay there, but his captain kills the vietnamese woman. Jimmy then sees the true evil of war and demands to come home.
Flash to his life in Brooklyn. We see Jimmy struggles to integrate into society and even does a few enforcer type jobs for drug dealers. He knows its wrong, but the world has forgotten about Jimmy. He later becomes a professional wrestler, and reaches the heights of popularity, before a steroid scandal forces him into retirement.
(between each flash we go back to the courtroom and various other witnesses being examined by the prosecutor or Jimmy)
Flash to his life trying to get into politics. Jimmy is never taken seriously, especially when running for Gov, but during Occupy Wall Street, his rally “The Rent is 2 Damn High” finally gains traction and Jimmy becomes the voice of the OWS movement and the voice of the voiceless. The police, one of which is totally Michael Rapaport try and stop Jimmy’s rally, but the people are behind him and they fight the cops and two 20-something’s die in the process.
This is blamed on Jimmy, which brings us back to the courtroom. Jimmy delivers an empowering final speech about how his whole life he’s been kept down, people have been kept down, and even this lawsuit is a way to keep the people down, but THE RENT IS 2 DAMN HIGH! He keeps saying it as the judge slams the gavel. The people of the courtroom are saying it now, even the jury. They rule that he is not guilty, but the judge finds him in contempt and he spends a year in jail. In jail, we see that Jimmy is able to connect with younger criminals and help them turn their lives around. Jimmy is finally the hero we always thought he could be.