Recently someone in the movie business expressed interest in my book The Devil’s Triangle. The book tells the story of the 2018 Supreme Court nomination of Brett Kavanaugh. The left tried to destroy Kavanaugh and me and prevent his nomination. The Devil’s Triangle would work perfectly as a film. There’s suspense, government intrigue, dramatic—and comedic—Capitol Hill hearing scenes, and flashbacks to the 1980s when we were teenagers, and the alleged setting of a sexual assault that a woman claimed she suffered under Kavanaugh.
I told the movie guy I have the perfect two people to produce The Devil’s Triangle: Tom Cruise and David Mamet.
Cruise is the world’s biggest movie star. His properties like Mission Impossible and Top Gun make more money than the GDP of a lot of small countries. Cruise is also a respected representative of more independent movies. He appeared in Magnolia, and was an executive producer on Shattered Glass. Shattered Glass is the great 2004 film that tells the story of Stephen Glass, the liberal journalist for The New Republic who made stories up. It’s a story that foreshadowed the media frenzy around Kavanaugh and me.
Mamet’s one of America’s great playwrights and screenwriters. Mamet’s known for his sharp, minimalistic, profane and masculine dialogue.
He’s also a conservative. In his new book The Disenlightenment: Politics, Horror, and Entertainment, he writes: “The totalitarian suppression and brutality of the fascists and communists—everything for the state, nothing except the state, nothing outside the state (Mussolini)—describes today’s Democratic Party. Its enforcers in media and education conspire to ensure there will be no deviation from the party line, and that when the line changes, its recipients will change or suffer.”
Put Cruise and Mamet together and you’ve got dynamite. Cruise likes to start his Mission Impossible movies off with some action, and could do the same with The Devil’s Triangle.
My nightmare began on a hot September night in 2018. I got a call from Ronan Farrow at The New Yorker. I’d been named in a letter accusing SCOTUS nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct. Farrow couldn’t tell me the accuser's name, where it allegedly happened, or even the date. This is the second sequence to start the movie. The first is a montage of media taking heads announcing that Kavanaugh had been nominated and giving his bio. Think of the opening of Iron Man. You the media give the backstory, and then we’re off. The opening credits sequence would be close-ups on a 1980s yearbook accompanied by “I’m Not Scared” by the Pet Shop Boys.
The flashbacks to the 80s would be amazing—you could feature a shot of some guys hanging out and watching Risky Business! Parties, eccentric and brilliant Jesuits in a Catholic high school, and some cool and fun action sequences. I remember this one guy from high school who had balls of steel and a foolproof fake ID. I’ll call him Mad Dog. Mad Dog got an older dropout to go with him to the MVA and claim that he, the dropout, had lost his license. Dropout filled out all the paperwork, presented his over-21 booth certificate, every step taken. At the last minute, in the waiting area to get his picture taken, Mad Dog would change places with Dropout. Mad Dog went up and got his picture taken and was issued the ID. A flawless masterpiece. That sequence alone is as good as Cruise hanging off of a plane.
Then there would be the dialogue. David Mamet knows how to write dialogue for men, and he could capture the milieu of a 1980s all-boys Catholic school. In an homage to the famous Alec Baldwin scene in Glengarry Glen Ross, he could echo that film’s energy in The Devil’s Triangle. I envision a scene in the yearbook office where a student leader, I’ll call him Fletch, fires up his brothers to go and throw some parties.
Fletch: I’m here from English class, and I’m here on a mission. Because none of you are going to be able to party unless you can convince people you’re 18. I spent time getting you your IDs. Go out there and use them. The kids want to party! You think they show up at your house just to get out of the rain? Your job is to collect $3 at the door and sell them on a good time.
Dude #1: The IDs are fake.
Fletch: The IDs are fake? You’re fake. If you can’t sit here and convince me your ID is real, how are you gonna do at a party? They’re sitting out there waiting to give you their money. Are you going to take it? Are you man enough to take it?
Dude #1: Okay, Mr. Cool, what’s your name?
Fletch: Screw You—that’s my name.
When the nightmare of 2018 finally ended, I got a call from a successful actor in Hollywood. He couldn’t believe no one had bought the rights to my story yet. “It’s got everything,” he said. “Politics, danger, sex, the 1980s, action.” Then he announced the budget and platform: $10 million, two nights on Netflix. $10 million is a rounding error to Netflix. To Tom Cruise it's bubblegum money. If they want to make a great film that may even have important cultural and historical impact, these guys will close.