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Next Paxton Film Script with Tales
of AG Doing Life or Island Getaway
Indiana Jones and Barbie's Ken Could Rotate as Old and Middle-Age Dave P
as Top Dade P Enforcer Takes Franchise on Wild Fantasy Turn in Project #3
Capitol Inside
February 11, 2024
The same Texas lawmaker who considered banning the Pulitizer-winning novel Lonesome Dove before he'd read the book has given Hollywood a sensational hook for an new installment of the movie franchise that Capitol Inside proposed in the fall based on Attorney General Ken Paxton's impeachment.
GOP State Rep. Jared Patterson of Frisco share his vision for a script treatment in a far-reaching interview for the television station WFAA in Dallas. Patterson predicted that Paxton could go to prison until he's dead as the punishment for criminal charges in a securities fraud case that's been stuck in the judiciary for almost an entire decade.
"Paxton is facing life in prison," said in the appearance on the ABC affiliate for the Dallas-Fort Worth area. "These securities fraud charges, it's the real deal."
But Patterson predicted that the three-time elected attorney general would flee the country before a trial in April and disappear to avoid the possibility of spending the rest of his days in the joint. Patterson said Paxton could bankroll a life on the lam from the war chest that he amassed with money from contributors.
“The noose is getting tighter. It’s a matter of time. And look, I wouldn’t be surprised if by the end of this year that, you know, Ken Paxton’s on an island somewhere cashing out his campaign account and, you know, trying to skirt law enforcement.”
Patterson branded Paxton as a flight risk - a claim he apparently deduced from the AG's attempts to dodge a deposition in a whistleblower lawsuit that provided the springboard for the Texas House's failed bid to impeach him in 2023. Paxton faces charges that stem from an investment deal that soured and a separate count for failing to register as a security broker with the state.
Paxton could get 99 years behind bars in the worst case scenario. Anything less would be a slap on the wrist in the eyes of Patterson, who bragged at one point this week that he's a "law-and-order guy" on social media.
A rising star on Speaker Dade Phelan's team and head cheerleader for a primary fight against Mar-a-Lago back home, Patterson is the high sheriff when it comes to the confiscation of pornography in the Texas public schools. Patterson sponsored historic legislation that made it all but impossible to find a copy of Playboy or Hustler or Debbie Does Dallas on an old VHS tape in the school libraries across the Lone Star State. Patterson's biggest fear is that kids might read something about someone being gay or trans. No mas.
Patterson may not be the best choice to compose the original draft for another Paxton project about the life that the lawmaker envisions for the top state lawyer as a fugitive from justice. But Patterson demonstrated that he could have an open mind last spring when he decided to read the legendary Larry McMurtry story about a crew of aging Texas Rangers and a cattle drive they led from a border town with prostitutes to Montana with stops at brothels along the way. Patterson confessed as the school porn bill author that he hadn't read the all-time Texas classic in an embarrassing gaffe in a committee presentation. He fixed that in a jiffy.
Patterson is clearly one of the better scribes on X among the elected officials in Austin. He's shown that he has an imagination that knows no bounds with the prophesy on Paxton. Patterson will look like a genius the AG turns up missing before the trial date. If he's wrong, he will look more like a clown instead.
Patterson was a minor character in the initial Paxton movie project that centers on the Texas Senate impeachment trial and chain of events leading up to it. Paxton was acquitted on corruption and infidelity charges in September after Patterson and other House Republicans promised reluctant GOP colleagues that he was toast.
Patterson emerged in a sequel treatment for the role that he played in a war against racial hate in the GOP that served as an effective albeit temporary distraction from the cataclysmic backlash that 60 House Republicans have experienced with the impeachment spectacle that was doomed to fail unbeknownst to them from day one.
Patterson will need to fill in some details for the eventual producers of the film on Paxton's greatest escape. Paxton for example won't be chasing a one-arm man down the beach as the person who broke the law and set the AG up to take the fall. But Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones could reprise versions of the characters they played in the 1993 film The Fugitive in a third Paxton project despite differences in details nonetheless.
The producers could interject more comedy into an already-hilarious tale by having the Paxton character searching the tropics for some guy that got his hand bitten off by a seal with a yellow bow tie while splashing in the surf like youngest brother Buster on Arrested Development.
Paxton ended December with almost $1.9 million in cash on hand in his campaign account. That might sound like a lot to normal working people. But it would be gone in no time if Paxton vanished to that island and lulled the days away sipping pina coladas on the beach.
Would Paxton take his wife to the jungle hideout when he flees? This is a significant question in light of the fact the AG is married to Republican State Senator Angela Paxton of McKinney. They could be the next Bonnie and Clyde on a never quest to elude the long arm of the law.
Ryan Gosling was the perfect choice for the casting of Paxton and would probably be game for a third. But Ford would make a credible one-armed man in the new project with Jones ripe for the part of the lawman who trying to track Paxton down in some exotic setting like Hawaii, or Bora Bora or some tiny private island that Donald Trump buys for his favorite person in Texas. Ford could play the older Paxton while Gosling tackles the middle ages in some scenes.
Whistleblower David Maxwell could be the top cop in the new film as a former Texas Ranger who's suing Paxton along with three fellow former assistants who say he fired them simply because they accused him of bribery in a meeting with the FBI. Jones could portray the Maxwell character who hopes to drag the state lawyer back to face his due. Jones won an Oscar for best supporting actor for his part as Samuel Gerard in The Fugitive. Jones has played countless law enforcement roles in a legendary career that featured him as a cop in No Country for Old Man, which won the Academy Award for best film in 1994.
Jim Carrey would be a plum as the loquacious Patterson as a lawmaker who always seems to be having fun - especially when he's angry.
Paxton the Fugitive Flick Could Be
Homecoming for Quaid Brothers
You couldn't have a Ken Paxton film without at least one scene that shows GOP State Rep. Andrew Murr reeling off the words that Sam Houston used to keep his men from deserting before the final battle of the Texas Revolution. Murr served as the Paxton impeachment field general as the chairman of the General Investigating Committee.
"Do right and suffer consequences," Murr reminded lawmakers repeatedly throughout the ordeal.
Paxton the Movie: On the Lam could open with Houston guzzling down some brandy, climbing on his horse and almost falling off before he bellows the quote that Murr would parrot proudly some day. Houston native Dennis Quaid played the legendary general who'd been known as the Big Drunk in The Alamo remake 20 years ago.
With older brother Randy Quaid the choice here for the part of GOP State Senator Drew Springer, the Paxton fugitive movie could reunite the Quaids if Dennis signs on for the Sam Houston part. Maybe they could put their heads together and come up with some way that the revolution and an impeachment of a state AG 187 years have something in common besides the place. |
The rest of the cast for Paxton III would contain Phelan and Paxton the senator who could have a starring role if she heads for the tropical oasis somewhere far away with her Ken. Courtney Cox could be back as the older Angela while Alison handles scenes again as the younger Mrs. Paxton.
Scott Caan could return as the House speaker who's a self-made lightning rod that the lieutenant governor refers to as California Dade and wants to defeat at the polls next month. John Krasinski and Paul Rudd could have some scenes with reprisals of roles as GOP State Reps. Jeff Leach of Allen and Andrew Murr of Junction. Murr vowed to suffer consequences as the price of a courageous impeachment before deciding to call it quits instead. The great Gary Cole could take a turn as State Senator Drew Springer - a retiring Muenster Republican who's leading a crusade to have the Senate reopen the impeachment.
But the Patterson part will be significant as the inspiration for the new Paxton conspiracy that could take the cameras to placed the moviemakers had never imagined until now. Patterson assured the TV commentators that he really does believe that Paxton is an international flight risk.
"I absolutely do," Patterson said. "I mean, look, he's gone all over the world. He went to China whenever everyone said, “do not go on this trip to China.” He's been all over Europe. He's never disclosed how those European trips were paid for. It's now come to light that he's got multiple homes and investment properties all over the United States, that he somehow bought $150,000 a year salary. And, you know, he's got all this stuff that's never been reported."
Somebody better get Dave P on the phone.
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