Source: Pwinsider.com
UPDATE: Several individuals who have seen it recently commented on the script for Sony/Tristar Pictures’ Vince McMahon biopic titled Pandemonium and…yeah, it’s something for sure. The script for the film, which was first reported on on Tuesday, was originally written by Craig A. Williams back in 2015 and has gone through several drafts with Glenn Ficarra and John Requa (This Is Us) attached to direct.
McMahon and WWE Studios, who are attached to the project, will obviously have full approval over the script and that, as is standard among projects in development, the script will be going through several changes including at least one page one rewrite. That being said, even complete rewrites tend to include some elements of the story and the current script includes several utter fictions regarding the WWE CEO’s life.
According to sources, the script starts with Vince McMahon, Jr. in the 1970s married to Linda McMahon, who is working as a waitress in a strip clup. Vince is frustrated, as his different jobs aren’t going anywhere and when he visits his father Vince Sr., he is further frustrated by the fact that the WWWF is struggling. He tells Vince Sr. — who is presented as a profanity-heavy old-time wrestling promoter who talks down to Vince — that his audience isn’t interested in wrestling and wants theatrics and drama. Vince Sr. demands that Vince not get involved in wrestling; in a later draft Vince is banished to Bangor, Maine to do local promoter work and is, in the site’s words, “blown away” when he sees Led Zeppelin perform.
There is also a scene in the strip club where Linda tells Vince she is pregnant (this would be with Shane) and Vince says the mother of his child won’t work in such a place. They leave and when the manager tries to stop Linda he ends up getting beat up by Vince. The script makes it evident that Linda is turned on by the incident. Linda also tells Vince at one point in what is described as a “wink-wink line” that she and Vince would never be political types but that maybe their kids will be at some point.
Vince is eventually brought on as an announcer when Vince Sr. gets on WWOR TV and doesn’t want to give his announcer a union wage. Vince eventually negotiates a $1 million buyout of Vince Sr. and keeps Gorilla Monsoon on, who is a much bigger character in earlier drafts and described as being more along the lines of what Pat Patterson actually did in the company. Monsoon ends up on the stand during the steroid trial and plays the role Hulk Hogan did in real life as the former Vince ally pitted against him. A later draft puts Hogan back in that role, with both versions described as being “just like Ray Liotta as Henry Hill in Goodfellas facing down his former mob pals when he testifies against them.”
Among the fictional parts of the script are:
* All drafts of the script include Vince Sr. passing away during the steroid trial when he actually died before WrestleMania I. In both versions of the script, Vince makes amends with his father in a scene before Vince Sr.’s passing which leads to a dramatic monologue of Vince on the stand talking about how “the government shouldn’t be in the business of his and other blue collar people.” This makes the jury sympathetic to him and he is cleared of all charges.
* After Vince is found not guilty, he is in a limo with his family. After all his infidelities have been exposed during the trial, they go off on him in the limo for being a terrible person and then tell him that’s the making of their next great heel. This, of course, supplants the Montreal Screwjob as the reason why the Mr. McMahon comes to exist.
* Eric Bischoff is not found in the script, although Ted Turner’s rivalry is touched on including the “I’m in the ‘rassling business” phone call. The second draft included more on the Monday Night War.
* One sequence shows Vince discovering Junkyard Dog as a construction worker, Roddy Piper in jail, Jimmy Snuka as a porn actor and so in, turning them into wrestlers. It also features Vince discovering Andre the Giant as the owner of a French restaurant in Montreal and bringing him into the business, and a later draft shows Vince stealing Hogan from the AWA and training him.
There are also scenes that include:
* Shane and Stephanie McMahon being taunted by classmates in high school over the steroid trials and beating their tormentors in a school hallway, “a scene right out of a pro wrestling battle.”
* Several sexual and other provocative elements including a brawl between Randy Savage and Roddy Piper on a plane that is depicted as brought on by roid rage, Hogan dealing with steroid use hurting his sex drive and genital size and a scene where a female wrestler propositions Vince. Vince then tells Linda in front of the wrestler instead of taking her up on the offer, which leads to Linda taking Vince into the stands at Madison Square Garden and doing it herself.
* The infamous Randy Savage/Stephanie McMahon rumor is touched on in a scene where Savage and Vince have a conversation about how the former is popular with women the same age as Stephanie. Savage then tells Vince he would never think of touching her.
* The script notes in the opening that the story is “as true as anything in professional wrestling” and closes with a text blurb about how successful WWE has has been in recent years.
The Iron Sheik, Nikolai Volkoff, Bob Backlund, Bruno Sammartino, Jay Strongbow, Baron Mikel Scicluna and many others feature in the script. As of now, the process is in early development and new writers will likely be brought on. There isn’t currently a timetable for a production start date.
ORIGINAL: According to The Hollywood Reporter, TriStar Pictures is producing a biopic about WWE chairman and CEO Vince McMahon titled Pandemonium. Craig A. Williams wrote the script, and Andrew Lazar, who produced American Sniper, is producing the project along with Michael Luisi, president of WWE Studios, and Adam Goldworm of Aperture Entertainment.
The project was being shopped around last summer, but WWE and McMahon had not given their blessing to it and companies didn’t want to antagonize the WWE or Vince McMahon. TriStar reportedly went all out in their pitch, even decorating their offices with WWE regalia).
