Make it a Movie: Blacktop Wasteland by S.A. Cosby

In our Making it a Movie section we play the role of movie producers and map out the movie production.  Blacktop Wasteland is a gritty page-turning thriller set in rural impoverished Virginia. It has a great formula for a movie = gritty, fast paced, car chases, and con man elements. It would also help rectify the name ‘Beauregard’, after Violet Beauregarde absolutely trashed it in Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory.

Production Notes:

According to the last Variety article in 2020, Erik Feig’s Picturestart (Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Sicario) and John Legend’s production company, Get Lifted Fil Co., are working to produce Blacktop Wasteland. Screen writer Virgil Williams (Mudbound, 24) will be writing the screenplay. Doesn’t look like any casting decisions have been finalized, that’s where we come in.

Based on: Blacktop Wasteland by S.A. Cosby

Genre: Heist/Thriller/Noir

Logline: Hell or High Water meets Drive

Beauregard Montage, once a getaway driver for criminal enterprises, has given up his former life to focus on his family and his auto repair shop. Unfortunately, living honestly does not provide an honest living. Beauregard reluctantly (or not so reluctantly) must once again put his driving skills to the test. He agrees to one last heist that pulls him deeper back into the life of crime than he could possibly imagine. Beauregard must do everything he can to protect his family, and most importantly The Duster:

No, not that Duster, this Duster:

Blacktop Wasteland Casting

Beauregard – Beauregard hasn’t had the easiest upbringing or life in general, spending 5 years in juvey, and living a life of crime for many years after that. He wants to be a family man, but just like Al Pacino, the criminal life keeps pulling him back in. Beauregard is very smart, talented and exacting, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty, especially if anyone gets between him and his family (or the Duster). This character isn’t your typical action lead, he is not some perfectly moral, unflawed super hero. We need a gritty character who is believable as Beauregard. We went with Jamie Foxx who can do just about anything and has shown he can easily pull off gritty characters (Django Unchained, Collateral, Baby Driver). A younger back up is Corey Hawkins who was great as Dr. Dre in Straight Outta Compton.

Kelvin – Beauregard’s cousin and right hand man, likely someone that would take on a bigger role in the movie. For the movie I would make Kelvin younger and make Beauregard more of a father figure to him. He was our favorite character in the book, and his death (sorry spoilers) was pretty shocking. I think it would hit audiences even harder if he were a younger version of Beauregard, and someone Beauregard never wanted to involve but was forced to (which is pretty accurate to the book). For this we went with another, singer/comedian/actor, with southern ties: Donald Glover. Hard not to like Donald Glover, which again would make his death even more impactful. Also, these two should collab and make a soundtrack for the movie (we’re just printing money at this point).

Ronnie – He brings the heist details to Beauregard and effectively gets him back in the game. Trashy, untrustworthy, and a penchant for prostitutes are just a few of the traits that Ronnie and I both share… I mean what? Ronnie was never the most likeable character but he quickly became enemy #1 after killing Kelvin (sorry spoilers again). We went with James Franco, who is an underrated dramatic actor and gives off some redneck vibes when he wants to, this image is kind of what I was picturing (but with Elvis tats):

Lazy – Gang leader that Beauregard unknowingly robbed from. Lazy is a pretty evil character and certainly does not follow the Italian Mob mantra of never hurting family members. For some reason I just kept picturing Gary Oldman from The Book of Eli, maybe all the bible quoting and southern accents. He’ll have no issue reprising a similar role and rounding out an all-star cast.

There are a lot of other characters we could cast but for now we’ll stick with these. Let us know what we got wrong and who we’re missing!

Check out our full episode on the book and our book club questions as well.