When Researching a Screenplay Becomes Dangerous

I worked as a night desk clerk in a seedy San Francisco hotel.

In the early ’90s, I eked out a living as a screenwriter. Those were the days of spec script bidding wars and thrillers were at the top of the list. I lived with Shane Black when he began writing Lethal Weapon. (The script sold for $250,000 in 1986.) Shane’s next script The Last Boy Scout sold for $1.75 million before it was topped by Joe Eszterhas’ sale of Basic Instinct for $3 million.

I had an idea for an original thriller based in San Francisco. I moved to the Bay Area in 1990 and began writing the script. The working title was In the Belly of the Knife. The story involved a 25-year old man named Hondo whose wife is murdered during a failed robbery. Aimless and emotionally ravaged, Hondo takes a job as a night desk clerk at a seedy Tenderloin hotel to escape the world. Hotel occupants include transients, drug dealers and ex-criminals. (A true feel-good tale.)

Hondo is tormented by flashbacks of the killer’s face with a jagged scar. Halfway through Act One, a thuggish man and a prostitute enter the hotel to rent a room. Hondo notices a scar on the Thug’s cheek and suspects the man is his wife’s killer. Hondo follows the Thug when he leaves and learns where he lives. The story details Hondo’s ill-fated efforts to get revenge.

As I began writing the script, I knew little about the San Francisco Tenderloin…