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Who said that there was no deep thinking in Hollywood studio films? Disney has hired Malcolm Gladwell to smarten up Hexum, a drama script from David Arata, whose credits include Spy Games and Children of Men. The Hexum protagonist is a CIA threat-assessment analyst, an alternative-thinking brainiac who is relegated to a distant corner of the CIA where he assembles theories nobody pays attention to. By connecting a series of seemingly random occurrences, he uncovers a sinister adversary planning an imminent global threat. And of course, his biggest challenge is to get anybody to believe him. Gladwell, the New Yorker writer best known for writing the books The Tipping Point: How Little Things Make a Big Difference and Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, will inject some real logic into the wiz kid’s theories, and will get credit as executive producer.
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For what it’s worth, our government did this for real following 9/11 by funding a think tank of action-adventure screenwriters here in LA to spitball how they would plot terrorist attacks on America. From what I heard (from one of the writers who quit), most of the tax dollars went to office furniture.
It probably went down like this:
INT. DISNEY DEVELOPMENT OFFICES–DAY
D PEEP #1: Man, this Arata script…it’s kind of dumb. What can we do to make it better?
D PEEP #2: Hmm, dunno. Maybe we can work with the writer or something?
D PEEP #1: Are you insane?!?!? That will never work! How can we help a writer make something better?
D PEEP #2: Wait…I’ve got it! Let’s hire a smart person to do it instead! And then the SMART PERSON works with the annoying writer.
D PEEP #1: But what if the smart person knows NOTHING about screenwriting? Won’t that just confuse things? I mean, we’re supposed to know about screenwriting, that’s why we’re in this job. To help the writer end up with a script that will make a good movie?
D PEEP #2: (sigh) We’re not trying to make good movies, we’re trying to keep our jobs as long as possible.
D PEEP #1: Oh, right.
D PEEP #2: If we do this, we can publicize that we have an actual, smart person working on the script–
D PEEP #1: –AND we cover our asses if the movie flops–
D PEEP #2: –you’re finally getting it. Because we TOTALLY hired a smart person to help! Wasn’t our fault!
D PEEP #1: –and to top it all off, we don’t have to do the work! The smart person does it for us!
D PEEP #2: I’ll go email Finke…
High fives traded.
Nice. And I love the name.
“an actual, smart person” – LOL
Winning.
Sheldrake – Do you work in the movie biz? Because that’s exactly how it went down.
Yes!! They should totally make this, but release it on AMC like 2 years ago and call it RUBICON!! That would be righteous, (sound of cocking gun pointed at my face).
@Santayana — you’re right on the money about the thinktank. From Spike Lee to James Cameron, a lot of people were involved. One of my profs in grad school was present. He said it was a surreal experience. But yes, the ideas became cliche.
“Day of The Condor: Part Duex.”
“This is going to go down as one of the worst eras in the history of Disney…” — Corporate Disney Executive (overheard this morning at a team meeting from actual Disney Executive)
Sounds suspiciously like the underrated AMC series “RUBICON”…which should be brought back.
Yup. Rubicon indeed…. but with a bigger budget. And Rubicon was Day of the Condor with less attractive people… I still sigh with I think of Redford and Dunaway gettin’ it on.
It’s nice to see someone is remaking “3 Days of the Condor”. But can they just admit it and move on?
Sounds like Fox Mulder meets “Numbers.”
Takes a genius exec to come up with this one… I will bet they pay this guy all kinds of money and his contribution ON SCREEN will be ONE FUCKING LINE or less. You can get the same info Einstien is going to bring to the table from this little thing called “the internet”. The execs who make this called are Dumber and Dumber.
And what’s with so called smart people and their bushy hair? brainwaves firing so intense it fucks up their hair folicles?
How smart can he be with that ‘do?
You’re pathetic.
As opposed to having straight, greasy, limp hair? Malcolm hair is energy!
“alternative thinker”
Alternative to what?
Exactly! Sometimes the need to sound smart make news reporters sound dumb as crap.
I’ve read some of Gladwell’s work and find it to be a lot of “no duh” self-help. He’s very overrated.
They should put Gladwell on every movie in development if he’s such a genius surely his superior brainpower would make every script a million times better and much smarter. Why limit his brilliance to just one script? Let the man speed read every script and tell the Disney dopes what to do with each one.
It seems sadly apparent that none of the commanders here have actually read Gladwell. He is an amazing writer and great storyteller. I hope Disney gives him the freedom to be a strong influence. He is great at seeing the world through new eyes and finding connections unnoticed by others, which is exactly the kind of thing a script like this must deliver.
Yes, I have to agree “Captain Mofo,” Gladwell’s books are great. I hope his talents translate well into the story!
it’s 3 Days of the Condor…. they should just call it ’5 Days of the Crow’
Gladwell’s a very talented popularizer but I can’t help but think that Disney missed the boat on this one. Just look at Gladwell’s picture. He should be in the movie not writing it. He’s got a unique look that I’m sure would go over well with audiences. Hope they at least throw him a cameo.
Disney probably didn’t realize Malcolm’s Jamaican. Rastafari!
The quips about his hair are uncalled for. That’s what Black and biracial hair does when it’s left natural. Because it doesn’t look like yours doesn’t make it bad.
Gladwell is extremely intelligent. He will allow you to make an observation, then he’ll take you up the hill and around the corner and ask you how your observation looks from that angle.
Not sure if he can help the Disney show – all I can say is I’d love to have him EP my supernatural thriller. I admire the guy’s awesome mind.
And his awesome hair.