A guy sent me a script this afternoon of Michael Cahill ‘s The King of California, a Michael Douglas-Evan Rachel Wood movie that Michael London and Alexander Payne are producing along with about ten others. The IMDB says it’s about “an unstable dad (Douglas) who after getting out of a mental institution tries to convince his daughter (Wood) that there’s Spanish gold buried somewhere under suburbia.” Under a Costco store, actually.

Michael Douglas

The guy who e-mailed it to me reads scripts all the time and claims “it’s one of the best I’ve have read in a while.” On top of the basic plot, which reminds me for some reason of Kurosawa’s Dodeska Den, it’s “a story about the history of California and the commercialism of the U.S…very quirky and sweet-natured with a lot to say. If the movie comes out as good as the script look for Douglas to get nominated for an Academy Award. He hasn’t had a role this great in years.” He says the film doesn’t have distribution because London and Payne didn’t want any interference from anyone while it was being shot. King wrapped a few weeks ago, and London-Payne, according to this guy, “are said to be so impressed with the assemblage that they might start start up with screenings for distributors as soon as possible so it might come out this year. If not, I assume it would go to Sundance.” I’ll read it tonight or tomorrow and render a verdict. I called London twice today and no callback yet. Has anyone else heard anything? Cahill has zip IMDB credits besides this one thing.