Dear Josh,
After reading what (apparently) really happened in that shitkicker bar in Shreveport last weekend, I just want to say that you and Jeffrey Wright have earned the lifelong respect of blue-state men everywhere for kicking some redneck ass. I’ve been in two or three fights and know how stupid and humiliating they are, but they can also seem dopey-funny in retrospect and…well, kind of half-satisfying, depending on how many cuts and bruises you get and how you look in the mirror the next morning and how banged-up the other guy is, especially if he was an asshole.
In any event this fight, to judge by Bill Zwecker‘s Chicago Sun Times account, sounded very cool because (and tell me if I’ve gotten the wrong idea) you and your homies made those barroom crackers feel the pain.
I have a serious request to make about this. I’m asking you — begging you, really — on behalf of those who now regard you as man of newfound respect who fought the good fight against ignorance to please consider making a short film based on this incident. It would absolutely kill on the festival circuit, and all the suits who were too lazy to see X will run out to see it for sure. Please think about this because I’m not kidding.
It would be doubly great if you could get Wright and everyone involved in the brawl to take part. You already have the dialogue, you have the non-story, you have the actors, you have the action sequences all laid out — all in your head! Start with the cell-phone footage, or cut it into whatever you shoot. You could film it in two, three days, cut quickly, submit it to Sundance by October. It won’t affect the W marketing because it won’t be seen until early ’09.
Jeffrey Wells

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