Suppose I told you there was an upcoming billiards movie that borrows storytelling, narration, and plot elements from Godfather Part II, GoodFellas, The Usual Suspects, and The Silence of the Lambs?
Yeah, I thought I might have your attention now.
Well, then get ready for 8-Ball, a billiards crime drama that is expected to be released at the New York Film Festival this September.
I had the pleasure of interviewing David Barroso, the lead actor and executive producer of 8-Ball. Though he was on only 2 hours of sleep, Barroso was incredibly personable and talkative about the film, and his passion and enthusiasm were contagious.
Barroso was rather secretive about the complete plot, but the gist of the story is that it begins 10 years ago with a fateful encounter at a pool hall in Queens, New York, between Ramone Torzo, the neighborhood mobster, who is a great pool player, and four neighborhood friends. When a phony bet is made on a game of 8-ball, the situation goes horribly wrong, and Torzo is forced to flee across the country. As the film shifts from black-and-white to color, the story picks up a decade later with Torzo, having left his billiards life (among other things) behind, comfortably settled into the Hollywood lifestyle. But, that ability to escape his past is threatened when a local cop, who is also a pool player, finds him, threatening to undermine his new lifestyle.
Seemingly, it’s a thriller that has the usual share of twists, suspense and dead bodies. But, this story is based on the life of a real mobster, for whom “pool was his life.” And so while gangster movie fans will rejoice over the newest true crime biopic, billiards movies fans will equally celebrate a movie in which one-third focuses on pool (and was filmed on location between Rack Em-Up in Queens and Mr. Pockets in Manhattan Beach, CA).
The story behind the billiards movie is as compelling as the movie itself. Much of the movie was filmed 10 years ago by David Manzano, the original director and writer. But, the movie stalled when Manzano left to pursue his music career. Fortunately, Barroso would not let the movie wither. He says, “I wanted to get this movie done. I owed it to a lot of people.” Along with cinematographer Adrian Manzano, Barroso committed himself to raising the financing and finishing the movie, which included filming the remaining 40-50%, attracting all-star talent like actor Paul Ben-Victor (who fans of The Wire will forever remember as Spiros “Vondas” Vondopoulos) and assembling a killer soundtrack with music from The Rolling Stones, James Brown, and Eminem.
So, whether you’re a movie lover or a pool player, keep your eyes open for 8-Ball. Fingers crossed it will premiere at the New York Film Festival, before moving on to the Hollywood Film Festival (October), the 10th Annual Big Apple Film Festival (November) and the Slamdance Film Festival in Park City (January). And, if all goes well, we should see it on the big screen in select cities around April, 2014.
For ongoing updates, check out the film’s Facebook page and homepage.
