"Notes" for THE LUBYANKAN CANDIDATE, Motivation for Don Jr. E-Mail Leak

Memo

THE LUBYANKAN CANDIDATE

A SiliconCorp/MouseFilm Co-Production

From: Script Analyst Division

To: Suit #435

Date: 17 July 2017  3 August 2017

Subject: Your memo on our Notes on script draft 12

      re: Motivating Leaking of Trump Jr.'s e-mails on meeting with Russian agents OR
           "Payback is a Mother*cker"

Solly, Sweetheart!

We've suggested conflating several Intelligence big-wigs into a composite character we're calling Alan Foster and picturing, say, Willem Dafoe for the role. For the small-scale version of the film, he could be in one location: a spartan, windowless office through whose door we get glimpses of a 21st-c., high-tech version of a bureaucracy out of Kafka. 

We've recommended cutting much of the dialog on Foster's motivation and replacing it with visuals in the office and with a repeated — repeated within reason — intercut with historical footage. 

Visuals: On Foster's desk is a photo of him in combat gear as a young man in Vietnam; depending on what rank we want him at that time we have either on his helmet or the helmet of someone else visible the slogan "Payback is a motherfucker." Posted on his office walls, increasing as the film goes on, are printouts of news stories of Donald Trump Sr. dissing the Intelligence services. 

Intercut in LUBYANKAN CANDIDATE we'd like historical footage of Trump at the CIA, before their commemorative wall with the words clearly visible, "In Honor of Those Members of the Central Intelligence Agency Who Gave Their Lives in the Service of Their Country." Audio here would make it clear that Trump is winging the speech and digressing to gripe about media coverage of his inauguration. No big chunks, but sound-bite by sound-bite selections from such as this:

And the reason you’re my first stop is that, as you know, I have a running war with the media.  They are among the most dishonest human beings on Earth.  (Laughter and applause.)  And they sort of made it sound like I had a feud with the intelligence community.  And I just want to let you know, the reason you’re the number-one stop is exactly the opposite -- exactly.  And they understand that, too. 

We did a thing yesterday at the speech.  Did everybody like the speech?  (Applause.)  I’ve been given good reviews.  But we had a massive field of people.  You saw them.  Packed.  I get up this morning, I turn on one of the networks, and they show an empty field.  I say, wait a minute, I made a speech.  I looked out, the field was -- it looked like a million, million and a half people.  They showed a field where there were practically nobody standing there.  And they said, Donald Trump did not draw well.  I said, it was almost raining, the rain should have scared them away, but God looked down and he said, we’re not going to let it rain on your speech. 

In fact, when I first started, I said, oh, no.  The first line, I got hit by a couple of drops.  And I said, oh, this is too bad, but we’ll go right through it.  But the truth is that it stopped immediately.  It was amazing.  And then it became really sunny.  And then I walked off and it poured right after I left.  It poured.  But, you know, we have something that’s amazing because we had -- it looked -- honestly, it looked like a million and a half people.  Whatever it was, it was.  But it went all the way back to the Washington Monument.  And I turn on -- and by mistake I get this network, and it showed an empty field.  And it said we drew 250,000 people.  Now, that’s not bad, but it’s a lie.  We had 250,000 people literally around -- you know, in the little bowl that we constructed.  That was 250,000 people.  The rest of the 20-block area, all the way back to the Washington Monument, was packed.  So we caught them, and we caught them in a beauty.  And I think they’re going to pay a big price. 

Some of the sound-bites could be coming through a speaker in Foster's office, with him listening very carefully while doing other work. He shows very little emotion, but is getting increasingly pissed off. 

So: When Foster finally passes along the e-mail intercepts to be leaked to the press (New York Times as it turned out historically), there's no problem whatever with his motivation and no need for extended dialog. This guy is of the school, "Don't get mad, get even," and he's going to be infuriated by Trump's being oblivious not only to his immediate audience but to their dead, commemorated behind him.

It's "Show, don't tell," and we stand by our recommendation to cut the invented dialog here to a minimum and let the visuals and Trump's own words do the work.

I hope this will answer the concerns of The Powers That Be. We in my Division are all very excited about THE LUBYANKAN CANDIDATE and thrilled to be working with so fine an operation (and if you can get Dafoe for a small but crucial role, we'll be ecstatic).

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Addendum: We're working in Trump's Tweet on Trans-sexuals in the military — leading from the rear by Twitter! — and the release of the transcripts of conversations with Mexican and Australian leaders. I'm thinking a darkly comic montage of action/reaction, with the Trump character totally oblivious of how much he's pissing off the intelligence services and military brass with his casual contempt.