the Prostitutes' Ball (2010) Read Online Free PDF Page B

the same time we colonize Mars."
    He took a moment, grimaced, then said, "You're being very shortsighted."
    "This case is not going to end up in a theater near you. It's gonna end up in court."
    After a minute where he raced through another S-turn, causing me to grab the door pull, he said, "You need to relax on this, Scully, because a case like Mosquito doesn't come along very often.
    "Granted, when it does, the Hollywood gantseh machers will drop trou and grab for the K-Y 'cause most studio execs have business degrees from Princeton or Yale, but they got no story imagination. What they do know is, they've got a much better chance of getting a picture greenlit if it's been a big national news story first, making it what we in the biz call a presold title.' Right now this Skyline Drive case is just an interesting springboard with no ending." He turned and focused the Hollywood Hitch persona at me. "Lemme give you some Screen - writing 101 here."
    "That's okay."
    "No, you should hear me out 'cause I can tell you're needlessly freaked. On this Scott Berman thing we're only at the top of Act One. The central job of Act One is to define the problem. Admittedly this inciting event has a high-value player and two hot-looking dead chicks floating in a pool, but while all that is mildly interesting, it won't carry a picture. There's gotta be something much more menacing hiding under the surface that drives the action forward. Something nobody sees that will rise up and grab the audience by the throat in Act Two. So far we ain't got that. Not even close. Meaning we got a ninety percent chance this story dies right here at the top of Act One."
    "I think when you get to Lindacrest you want to go left," I said.
    "Got it." A moment later he turned on Lindacrest but the writing lesson continued. "Like, suppose it turns out Scott Berman was cheating on his old lady and she got fed up, hired some guy with a harelip to put Scott on the ark. Bing, bang, boom, end of story. Provocative start, no ending. See what I'm saying?
    "For a movie to have legs, you need a great first act with a sharp attack on the story, then a complication in Act Two with some hellacious moves where the antagonist is rippin' up the landscape.
    "Next comes your second act curtain where the hero ends up on the balls of his ass, completely destroyed, or, alternately, where something so big happens it puts the screenplay in a whole different place. In Mosquito, by the way, it was when I almost became victim number six. Then Act Three needs a firestorm ending where you blow the shit outta something big.
    "On a true-crime story its okay to embellish a few flat spots slightly to keep it interesting because as Albert Einstein once said, 'imagination is more important than knowledge/ But that's it. Believe me, we're a long way from having something we can sell for megabucks like Mosquito."
    I was getting a headache.
    A car full of girls in UCLA sweatshirts pulled up next to us and started honking and waving. Hitch honked and waved back.
    We left them as they turned on Sunset Boulevard, heading to the UCLA campus while we continued on down Lindacrest Drive, navigating the narrow curving streets, finally arriving at 236 Schuyler Road five minutes later.
    It was another huge house located behind closed gates. Another Christmas party was in progress. My third in one night and I don't like them much to begin with.
    We pulled up in the Carrera with the top down and Hitch smiled at the gate guard, a black guy with shoulders like a bookcase and a CIA-style earpiece jammed in one ear.
    "Sumner Hitchens," he said. "I'm sure I'm on the list. My office at Paramount phoned my acceptance in late this afternoon." All this before I could stop him.
    "Just show him your fucking badge," I growled under my breath.
    I pulled my creds out and held them across his chest for the guard to see. "Police. We're here to talk to Brooks Dunbar."
    "Okay," he said. "But I have to announce you."
    "Fine, just open