Tequila& Phonebooks
Crime is what happens to you when you are
busy robbing someone else.
A story of a partnership that’s destined to be told
Back to that in a bit … let’s get to a beginning.
Everyone is a criminal, some better than others, some likable, some not.
A script about grifters. A story surrounded with criminals. Everyone out for themselves, but no one really knowing who is in charge.
No one realizes, a completely different crime going on, a crime that involves them all, but no one sees coming.
At the heart of it, three women, three characters with strong stories to be told. Substantial. Necessary. They are strong and powerful women.
They are the siren and the ship.
TexasA place that embodies all that is both real and cinematic.
A project that was looking for a final character
has a re-birth.
Never finding a financial foothold in Hollywood's deep waters, we set it aside to focus on other projects and life journeys.
Then Texas happened - and the idea came back with a new accent.
- THEN
The working title
The Pick Up, a script about grifters. Three women at the heartbeat of the film. A story that stands apart because its power doesn't just come from the heist. It comes from the women who drive it.
With financing seemingly on the horizon, we never closed the deal.
- 2020
The World Stops
Covid ends a long LA chapter. The writer and his family moves to the Great State of Texas. New adventures were on the horizon but this story won't let go.
It lingers.
- 2023
New Eyes
The story restaged for a place that already lives in cinema - landscape, sky, culture, rhythm. The independence, freedom and romance of a place that is unlike anywhere else in the United States. Texas is the missing character.
Script re-titled to Tequila & Phonebooks.
- 2026
The Text
A text with a simple question, 'Do you still want to make your movie?' A finance group looking for projects. A producer with a room full of scripts could not forget our story and these women! Present the script with a deck that tells the same story but with new life.
The foundation does not change. The plot remains strong. The engine remains tight. And the women remain the heartbeat of the film.
- NOW
Green Light
Many projects submitted and tossed aside. Months of cuts. We survive them all. 'We love it. The script is different, fun, and led by women.'
The money is real. Cameras are on the Texas horizon.
The location isn't a backdrop.It's a character. It's Texas.
Everything here is bigger.
The land, the skies, the culture, the energy. Texas is raw, it's real, it's legendary. It has a distinct way of living and it moves to its own rhythm.
Once upon a time cities like Memphis, St. Louis, Toledo, Buffalo were in the mix - they faded - they weren't the character we were looking for.
BBQ, bourbon, tequila, longhorn, sports, desert, hills. Freedom and romance in one breath.
The city needed to feel like an element of the story, with a real sense of place that could shape the narrative and the characters. We envisioned a mid-sized American city, just large enough to support the story, with enough personality and life that lives in these characters. All that delivered with the power of Texas.
tap to explore
Flat horizons, cotton dust, honky-tonk grit. A town where a grifter can disappear between the streetlights.
Green light.
After surviving every meeting, projects tossed, projects cut, we survived. Months of talking, waiting, hoping and praying and we stayed and kept staying. We were in the game.
Then the call came. Tequila & Phonebooks landed! "It's different. Fun. Original. Great characters - especially the women. This a genre we hadn't seen presented to us this way. We love it."
In short, we got the green light and the magic word … funded!
Tequilameet Tequila.
In our opinion, Matthew McConaughey is Mr. Texas. A man who lives and breathes the state, understands story and character, and - loves, understands, and created - tequila.
A Texas film with tequila as the first word in its title of course needs an official tequila. We would be thrilled to have Pantalones as the official on- (and off-) camera tequila of Tequila & Phonebooks. Whatever thoughts and ideas about Texas, tequila and our story that he would like to bring in addition are more than welcome.
- 01 Pantalones as official on- (and off-) camera tequila.
- 02 Discuss marketing ideas combining film and tequila.
- 03 Discuss with Matthew any additional thoughts he may have on insight, context, and perspective on our project and the Great State of Texas.
Independent film.Independent thought.
This is a passion project from a lifetime in entertainment.
Actor to producer to director.
Every scene, every insert, every establishing shot will exude Texas.
In the moments the story takes a breath,
and in the moments it runs full speed.
Having Matthew, Camila, and their equally independent, free-spirited tequila be part of this journey would be an amazing connection to this story.