HOLLYWOOD GAMBLER

EXT: PARKING LOT: NIGHT

KONSTANTINOS “GUS” BOULIS emerges from the rear entrance of a four-story office building & walks toward a sleek BMW in the parking lot. He is 51 years old, short & impish-looking. It’s dark outside & the lot is empty. He reaches into the pockets of his Christian Dior slacks & fishes for his keys.

BOULIS

Goddamn it.

BOULIS opens the BMW with a keyless remote, gets into the car, plays a Mikis Theodorakis CD “Canto Olmpico” on the car stereo & drives out of the parking lot. In the adjacent parking lot a man sits in a black Ford Mustang talking on a cell-phone, watching the BMW. The music dominates the soundtrack drowning out the phone conversation. The Ford Mustang pulls in front of the BMW as BOULIS makes a left-turn south onto Miami Road, a two-lane darkly lit street with industrial warehouses next to the Port Everglades oil terminals. Three blocks down the road two men in another car facing north talk on a cell-phone to the driver in the Ford Mustang, & on cue start to drive towards the oncoming BMW. The music builds. BOULIS doesn’t notice the Ford Mustang slowing down in front of him until he is almost on its bumper, & stomps on his brakes. He rolls down his window.

BOULIS

Move it buddy, my time is money.

There’s no stop sign, but the Mustang stops anyway.

BOULIS

Drive, dammit, drive.

BOULIS barely notices that the second vehicle has pulled along side his car, heading in the opposite direction. Then he realizes the second vehicle has stopped. In slow motion BOULIS turns his head to the left just as the driver’s window opens, revealing the barrel of a gun. Four shots are fired, hitting BOULIS in the neck & chest. BOULIS lets out a loud long scream. Both the Mustang & the second vehicle quickly drive off in opposite directions. BOULIS is bleeding but still alive. He drives, music blaring, making a right turn onto a side-street. Bleeding profusely, he then turns right onto busy Federal Highway swerving from lane to lane, until finally driving off the road & crashing into the sign of a Miami Subs fast-food restaurant.           

EXT: OUTSIDE MIAMI SUBS: NIGHT

A chaotic television news broadcast on Federal Highway with BOULIS’ BMW crashed into the Miami Subs logo-sign. Police vehicles with lights flashing & officers talking on radios are re-directing traffic around a yellow-taped cordoned off area next to television news-trucks. An ambulance & paramedics are working on BOULIS’ body while forensic technicians examine the crime scene. Crowds of onlookers watch television news-reporter BARBARA KAY. & the Channel 10 camera crew. BARBARA is medium height with an Irish accent. The scene cuts between a live television image, & stock footage of BOULIS’ life including; a young BOULIS as a Greek merchant marine, as a dishwasher in Toronto, as owner of Miami Subs fast-food-chain, hotels in Key West & his Sun Cruz Casino business.

 [Breaking News, TELEVISION SCREEN GRAPHIC]

BARBARA

This is Channel 10 news-reporter Barbara Kay at the Miami Subs on Federal Highway. Gus Boulis, the multi-millionaire gambling mogul who changed the landscape of South Florida, was shot & killed on Miami Road tonight in what police are calling a well-planned homicide. Rising from penniless beginnings in Greece to run a Florida empire of casino boats, hotels & the Miami Sub fast-food chain, the 51 years old Boulis spent his final minutes dying from gunshots fired into his BMW. At around 9:30 p.m. witnesses heard at least four gun shots & saw a dark colored Ford Mustang speed away.