An unbelieva-bull story
Back in L.A. in 1988, I met a young screenwriter named Jerry Rapp. We have stayed in touch ever since as he carved out a career making independent movies.
I spoke with Jerry recently and he told me an unbelievable story about his latest script project… that just happens to be true. I asked him to summarize it. Here it is:
OLE SAGA: What to do if art imitates life?
How many times have you heard about a screenplay being written, or a movie coming out, and someone beat you to a premise you had already come up with long ago? A lot, right? It’s the Zeitgeist. It happens. Well, how many times has it happened that you wrote a fiction piece about a character who consequently came to exist in your universe?
In January of 2009, my not-yet screenplay collaborator, Jonathan Price began kicking around an idea of a comic take on bullfighting after witnessing the real thing while traveling in Colombia. A month later, he began to flesh out some story and dialogue, and workshopped scenes in a writer’s group. He re-worked the idea in a few forms but it was not quite gelling and he eventually put the project on pause. His life took a turn from the writing world, became more and more interested in spiritual psychology and eventually enrolled in a university in Boulder. But he still knew he had a good concept and imagined a leading comic actor in the role, such as Andy Samberg. He turned to me with the offer of helping him flesh out a story and finish a script. I was interested in the concept and hook (and frankly he had me at Andy Samberg), and agreed to take it on — but only if Jon would give me a wide liberties with the story and characters. I told him it would be like sending his kid off to college and when he returned he might not look or act the same. Jon agreed, and we went off to pursue our respective courses.
I retained the basic concept but restructured the story to be about a young Jewish man, Zel, who has an aversion to being touched. This led naturally into a draw toward the world of bullfighting, where the object is to naturally avoid. Unfortunately this also included most other humans and specifically love interests, which is particularly challenging. Since childhood, Zel has been writing letters to a legendary matador named Juan Jose, whose photo he finds among his mother’s sentiments, and requests to be trained at his famous academy. But for years Juan Jose doesn’t respond and Zel’s dream dilutes. Until one day a letter comes with foreign postage… this propels Zel into an odyssey through Spain, seeking out the legend, even though he is informed that Juan Jose is now washed up and possibly dead.
When he finally locates the wreck of a man, Juan Jose is bedraggled, drunk and blind in one eye, having undergone an unspeakable and humiliating defeat from a much-feared bull. This role was imagined for a Cheech Marin or Benicio del Toro. Though a supporting character, Juan Jose is a critical centerpiece and impetus for the mission. He must ultimately face his deepest fear to protect Zel and redeem himself.
It is, understandably, a bit of a slippery slope to take on the subject of bullfighting, which is traditionally associated with cruelty and death. But this script skates more within the tone of the Farrelly Brothers meets ‘How To Train Your Dragon.’ Just as the Vikings wage war against the dragons and talk of exterminating them and a character shows them a new way to tolerate the beasts, so does ‘Ole’ re-imagine the bloodsport as ultimately a non-violent pastime.
Approximately a week or so after finishing the first full draft of “Ole”, I was randomly flipping through some on-line news items and almost fell out of my chair when I saw a photograph of a bullfighter with an eyepatch being hoisted aloft by a throng of fans. This matador was apparently gored months before in the face by a bull which left him paralyzed in half of his face and blinded in one eye. He now wore an eyepatch and was dubbed ‘The Pirate Matador.’ He had just returned to the ring after months of absence, due to the accident, and had triumphantly defeated a bull. The most striking thing about this man was his name: Juan Jose Padilla.
It was one thing to see a visual representation of a character I’d imagined, down to his very name. Though I had researched bullfighting, I had not looked up that much on-line, but instead through old library books. Part of me didn’t want to see an actual bullfight, even on YouTube, due to my personal feelings about the treatment of the animals. The “gore seen ‘round the world’ somehow escaped my radar.
Here was this figure, part of the very real world, now with this circumstance that reformed him into someone altogether. It at once confirms the acceptance of such a reality and rouses the questions of tapping into a zeitgeist wave that orbits our culture and arts. It is simultaneously a moment of magic, the paranormal and our often shocking reality.
Maybe it is a confirmation that this is a project to pursue. Maybe there are now two stories to tell. One of an imagined comic Jedi figure that brings attention to the world of bullfighting. The other a story of a real-life namesake who I hadn’t heard about or met, a side of which was currently being personified in a fictional comic screenplay.
The ultimate poetry to the odyssey? If Juan Jose Padilla should become the script consultant for the film and advise on the accuracy of the bullfight. I think he and Andy Samberg would get along wonderfully.
Okay, so are you getting this? Jerry and Jon come up with specific story elements — matador, blinded by a run-in with a bull, Juan Jose Padilla — which actually turn out to be replicated in real life. When Jerry told me this story about his story, my virtual jaw hit the virtual floor.
You can go here to see a video of the real Padilla getting gored by a bull [Warning: It’s graphic].
You can go here to read a Daily Mail article on Padilla’s return to the ring.
Almost invariably as writers, we will come up with a story, then discover someone else has already sold something like it. But here is a case of a writer creating a fictional set of characters only to discover those characters actually exist!
As I say… unbelieva-bull.
Jerry’s bio:
The passion for Rapp’s pursuit began early, impacted by indelible images and stories, then fortified at a drive-in theater, when he snuck from a Disney film to sit, riveted, for the remainder of ‘Rosemary’s Baby.’ Cinema was to be Rapp’s first language.
After high school and undergrad studies in Missouri, Rapp entered the USC School of Cinema-TV program. Since graduation, he has been working as a professional screenwriter, director and producer. As a writer he has worked with such companies as Imagine, Paramount, Universal, and MGM. His feature and short films have played several festivals and garnered multiple awards. He currently works as a script doctor and ghost writer, while continuing to produce and write original screenplays.
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