Monday, May 01, 2017

Avery Duff's "Beach Lawyer," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: Beach Lawyer by Avery Duff.

The entry begins:
Something about Beach Lawyer—compressed time, place, a specific problem—sets up okay for a movie. Or a series for that matter. Whether by intent or accident or years of screenwriting habits, good and bad, having a character in mind always helped me.

More and more these days, though, I think about an actor’s vibe rather the actor him/her/self. I mean, Cliff, the associate who takes Robert’s job, reminds me a lot of young Peter Gallagher—handsome beyond what most men like to hang out with, and The Player smarmy.

But I digress at the outset—usually I wait until later. Starting with the two female leads, Gia Marquez and Leslie DeRider.

Gia should come off like Rosario Dawson, part Latina, part Chinese or part anything else as long as it’s sultry, sexual, smart—and cool. Someone who materializes inside a room instead of entering it. If Ms. Dawson and Gong Li had a female child—forget the mechanics for a moment—you’d get Gia Marquez. Ms. Li: no one ever broke my heart in an action movie, unless you count Lassie and Old Yeller, but Gong Li broke mine twice in Miami Vice.

Leslie DeRider, the banker. With all that OC in her DNA, Leslie’s going to need whatever inheres in...[read on]
Learn more about Beach Lawyer.

My Book, The Movie: Beach Lawyer.

--Marshal Zeringue