The Disputed Jaime Sandwich

I breathe a heavy sigh of something as I begin this section. Not a sigh of relief, that’s for sure. I’m still worn out from this production. Oh, where to begin? Let’s try the summer prior, for it was after the premiere of "The Delicious Jaime Sandwich" that planning began for "The Disputed Jaime Sandwich." Jonathan asked me to create a script for it based upon the premise that the Baxter and Village suddenly develop an antagonistic relationship, and somehow Jaime is stuck in the middle. By Christmas, I had an ungodly fifty pages or so written, and it was merely the abridged version. Ian Huff and Jaime puzzle over how they can strike back at Beau and the Baxter for the death of Jaime's wife, Molly.
If I could go back in time and tell the me of 2003 to trim it down I would. However, I cannot and so our reality continues to exist where the Jonathan of 2003 and the Beau of 2003 both thought the gargantuan screenplay was a great idea.  Ah, the fools.
To sum things up, here’s what the script entailed. The story begins with Molly being shot. I was hired to do it by the mysterious Mr. Z. I did it because I work for Apex and look for any opportunity to get extra cash. Jaime is tipped off that I killed his wife and so he and Ian plan to take on the Baxter. Turns out that Mr. Z is, in actuality, Garrett McGill who now works for Showcase. He wants both theatres to destroy one another so Showcase will rule the city. In the course of two hours, Jaime and I learn this and Jaime ultimately destroys Showcase and Garrett to protect both of Apex’s theatres. The audience gets pissed, beats the shit out of Jonathan and me and goes home. Mr. Z was represented by a mysterious silhouette that spoke in a voice so distorted, it required subtitles.
Joe Hatfield dons his Seabiscuit prop hat as the hero detective. As I said, that’s the simple version.  I had waaaayy too many subplots going on for the movie's own good. First of all, Joe Hatfield is a private detective hired by Jaime to solve the murder of his wife. The beginning of the film was intended to be a film noir spoof. We are given two red herrings to the crime (Matt Adams as Craig Miller, and Melanie Scott as his lover), but Joe uncovers the truth that it was I who killed Molly and tells Jaime. Joe also becomes an on-again-off-again sidekick to Ian and Jaime. I have to admit that Joe really did a good job with the part and I’m glad he went for the role.
Steven Simpson prepares to interrogate Ian Huff about Molly's murder. I find myself questioned too, but only under the guise of Abraham Lincoln.  And God bless her, Fran Steves makes a third cameo, clueless as ever.
Another subplot involved my recruiting Jonathan as my assistant manger trainee. This aspect of the story line was to introduce training and operations at the Baxter, since day-to-day business of the Village had been covered in the previous two films. I scripted it to where Josh McGraff was being trained by Robert Boston at the Village simultaneous to Jonathan at Baxter. This allowed the camera to cut back and forth between the Baxter and the Village, providing the audience with some funny comparisons. This not only worked well in filming, but both Baxter and Village employees found this segment to be quite amusing. So a mild pat on the back for myself there.  Jonathan finds himself my unwitting assistant as I recruit him to get back at Jaime.
Bennett Duckworth serves as my loyal slave. Here he inoculates Jonathan against projectionist bite.  I must admit now that it was Jonathan’s and my goal to unify the employees of the two theatres through this film. Give the staff of both theatres a shared experience to bond through. Yeah, I know it sounds hokey and a little bold, but we had this goal in mind the entire time we were shooting. That’s why we struggled to get as many employees from both theatres to be involved. The film introduced Josh McGraff, Margie Richmond, Marat Gray and Chris Whitcombe at the Village (while still utilizing prior cast members), and Bennett Duckworth, Jay Burke, Bryan Senteney, Tobin Fields, Lauren Nunn and Ginny Coakley at the Baxter. This way, those who viewed the film became familiar with many of Apex’s employees and not just those of one theatre.
That’s one of the pros from the filming. Now, the cons. First of all, the script was a tremendous undertaking as I stated before. This film was both the joy and bane of the summer for Jonathan and me. Almost every spare moment we had was taken up in shooting. I found myself struggling to arrange shoots at the Baxter or rewrite scenes while Jonathan spent many a laborious hour bent over his laptop editing the film. That brings me to a second con and that is, despite the fact that this was the first of the Jaime films to be officially "edited," the final product was just under two hours, making it too long for most audience members. Even Jonathan and I found it a tad tedious upon repeat viewings. This brings me to the third con of the film. The ending became heavily excised due to time constraints. As a result, many of the resolutions at the end became a tad fuzzy and incoherent for those who weren’t paying close attention. Al Staff (top) and Jewstapha (bottom on right) were two characters mostly lost to editing.
On the final day of filming, the cast listens as Jonathan goes over a scene. "What would Les do?" Joe asks into the camera during the climax. Jonathan rides atop the hood of Jaime's moving car as he executes a foolish stunt.
Still, perhaps I’m being too hard on the film. Objectively, it is the best of the three films and a decided improvement in style and substance over the other two. The entire soundtrack for the film was an original score, along with three original songs (two of which I wrote). The first musical number we had, where Garrett burst into song about his Apex betrayal, got one of the biggest laughs of the film. I still love the ballad even though none of those involved in the musical number (including myself) could sing worth a lick. Even though a few segments could have been chopped out, the editing Jonathan toiled over did enhance the presentation of the film. Plus, Jaime and Ian’s usual improvisations were great. So the film isn’t without its moments. "The Village Betrayal Song," as sung by Garrett was definitely one of the sillier moments of the film, which works just fine in my book.
Overall, I’m satisfied with the end product. I don’t think it’s the masterpiece Jonathan or I envisioned, but it did accomplish a couple of things. First and foremost, Baxter and Village employees were brought together. The premiere was a grand event. A good sixty to seventy people were present and everyone got along in an amiable fashion. I was really pleased to see this, for there had never been a mutual gathering of Apex employees like that in the past and there hasn’t been one since.
Steven Simpson, overcome with love, anal raped Jaime during the premiere Here we see vintage shots of people tolerating Willie Cravens, plus Jay Burke,... ...Sean Seivers and Marat Gray all before descending into the depths of alcoholism.
A nice ensemble shot of Jonathan and me being interrogated. Second, it gave the original cast of the first film one last summer of fun together. Jonathan went on to other summer jobs after 2003. I remained at the Baxter but my contacts at the Village lessened as Ian, Robert and Joe all went their separate ways from Apex (that’s a nice way of saying that they were fired for peculiar reasons). Jaime, Ian and Jonathan would all experience friction over an incident I won’t recount here and so now, none of us see each other that often. So, there’s a great deal of sentimentality attached to the last film of the trilogy. It was that last summer when everybody still hung out and got along before we "grew up and apart." So no matter how much grief the film gave me that summer, I still can’t judge it too harshly for this reason. And so ends the Jaime trilogy.

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