Taglines: Winning is just the beginning. Surviving is another story.
Kevin Carson (Bow Wow), a young man living in the projects, is just an ordinary guy…until he wins $370 million in the Mondo Millions Lottery. That’s the good news. The bad news is, the lottery claim office is closed for the long Fourth of July weekend, so, before he can collect his price, Kevin is going to have to figure out how to keep a lid on his good fortune and survive the next three days.
As news of his windfall spreads through the community like a grass fire, Kevin quickly discovers the good, the bad and the ugly in his closest friends and neighbors. Girls who could never be bothered before start chasing him down. Everyone wants a piece of him–inclusing the reverend, the local loan shark and one very threatening recent parolee won’t take no for an answer.
On edge and on the run, he even begins to question the intenstions of his best friend, Benny (Brandon T. Jackson). He also starts to realize the power he holds in his hands and what this lottery ticket could really mean to him, his future, and the community. It’s funny hwat people will do when money is involved.
“When I was a kid, I’d see Ed McMahon on television, going up to someone’s house with a giant check,” recounts director Erik White, who shares a story credit for “Lottery Ticket.” “I always wondered why he never came to the projects, where I lived. I’d think, ‘Man, wouldn’t it be great if somebody I knew actually won that much money?’ The flip side of that was, winning that much money in this neighborhood, where everyone knows your business–would that be a good thing or a bad thing?'”
Scoring big on a Friday night lotto drawing would be especially problematic, since winners couldn’t claim their prize till the following Monday. Not a good situation if someone was hoping to keep his good news under wraps while he tried to wrap his own mind around it. “What would a person do? Lock himself in the bathroom and not come out? It was a thought that always intrigued me,” White adds.
That idea was the spark for “Lottery Ticket,” a universally relatable what-if story that takes a look at that scenario and all the comic fallout that might occur.
Bow Wow, who stars as Kevin, the story’s 18-year-old overnight millionaire, says, “Kevin’s just a regular guy, going through the things that any normal teenager would go through…if they happened to hit the lottery for 370 million dollars. He’s just trying to keep it quiet and get through the weekend until he can claim his money. Of course, nothing goes the way he plans it. One weekend can feel like a week.”
To raise the stakes, the filmmakers made sure it was a long weekend, the Fourth of July–and a real scorcher.
Ice Cube stars as Mr. Washington, one of Kevin’s few supporters in the ensuing free-for-all. Also an executive producer on the film, he says, “Here’s a guy being kicked to the curb for one reason or another, like the whole world was against him, until he got something–the winning ticket–and now everybody loves him, That’s when the fun begins. Everybody in the ‘hood is after him; everyone in his building, even the local gangster wants to get close to him.”
Cube particularly liked how “Lottery Ticket” hones in on that gap time between the promise of wealth and wealth itself, calling it “the quiet before the storm. It’s right before you get rich, when people know you’re about to become rich, and sometimes they switch on you. Anybody who’s gone from nothing to something has probably experienced this.”
Screenwriter Abdul Williams, who worked closely with White on developing the story behind “Lottery Ticket,” agrees. “Erik and I wanted to focus on that purgatory period, when you hold something valuable but it’s not yet real. It can be a huge burden you’re not prepared for. Suddenly you have to figure out what to do, who to trust.”
Producing partners Matt Burg and Oren Koules, who introduced White to Williams, were also taken with the idea. Matching all the numbers on the big lotto payoff is surely a fantasy for almost everyone, but how many people have thought through the ramifications of what happens next?
“Imagine knowing that this little piece of paper is all that stands between you and several hundred million dollars,” Burg proposes.
“From that point, it becomes a comedy of errors, like a road trip that takes place all in one city,” says producer Matt Alvarez, acknowledging that from the time Kevin puts that ticket into his pocket, he becomes a moving target.
Between dodging a few dozen of his new best friends, evading the local thugs and trying to resist a whole new world of temptation, Kevin has little opportunity to think about what he’s actually going to do with his money. Still, as the reality of it slowly sinks in, he starts to consider some vital questions for the first time, the kinds of questions that would likely occur to anyone suddenly thrust into such a situation.
“The idea of winning the lottery is universal,” says producer Broderick Johnson, offering some of the reasons why he and his Alcon Entertainment producing partner Andrew A. Kosove embraced the project, “aside from it being an absolutely hilarious script. Wish fulfillment, and also seeing how people treat you when they think you have money, are themes we can all recognize.”
“Beyond the jokes and the fun of seeing everything he has to do to keep himself and his ticket in one piece, we wanted the story to have some meaning,” White emphasizes. “So you see Kevin, during the course of this one crazy weekend, finding out who his real friends are, and also finding out who he is and what his life is going to be about.”
Toward that end, White and Williams gave their lead character a real job and an entrepreneurial dream about attending design school and maybe one day producing his own line of sneakers. The point being, says Williams, “Kevin doesn’t need this money to change his life. He could change his life on his own. The money will just allow him to do it faster.”
It’s a point of view that resonates with Kosove and Johnson. “We loved the concept,” says producer Andrew Kosove. “We thought it was funny but that it also had heart, and a message that’s relevant to anyone who has even casually picked up a lottery ticket and thought, ‘What could I do with all that money?'”
Lottery Ticket (2010)
Directed by: Erik White
Starring: Bow Wow, Brandon T. Jackson, Ice Cube, Naturi Naughton, Keith David, Loretta Devine, Mike Epps, Leslie Jones, Chris Williams, Naturi Naughton, Malieek Straughter, Vince Green
Screenplay by: Abdul Williams, Erik White
Production Design by: Roshelle Berliner
Cinematography by: Patrick Cady
Film Editing by: Harvey Rosenstock
Costume Design by: Sandra Hernandez
Set Decoration by: James Edward Ferrell Jr.
Art Direction by: Matteo De Cosmo
Music by: Teddy Castellucci
Production Design by: Roshelle Berliner
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for sexual content, language including a drug reference, some violence and brief underage drinking.
Studio: Warner Bros. Pictures
Release Date: August 20, 2010