The Cincinnati Kid

📖 The Scoop

Inspired by Richard Jessup's original Cincinnati Kid (Steve McQueen) and set in the gritty precincts of current day New Orleans, The Cincinnati Kid faces off against longtime corrupted rival, Lancey Hodges in an ultimate game of 5 card stud with all of Louisiana on the line.Taking 23,000 dollars off the "undistinguished" Louisiana magistrate in a dirty flophouse game of poker, The Kid finds himself with just enough money to make a new start. But Hodges has other ambitions. Lancey's strongman, Douglas removes those winnings and sets up The Kid for the drowning of a drunken black man having fallen asleep in the backseat of a stolen vehicle.Sent to Baton Rouge Federal Penitentiary, The Kid fends off vicious cons and malicious prison guards to stay alive.A card tournament finds The Kid playing with the head of the notorious Vice Lords where all is at stake. Walking a delicate and lethal line, The Kid navigates the win, cuts a deal with the guards to secure a conjugal visit and learns that his mother is faltering in a care home in post-Katrina New Orleans.The hurricane aftermath settles into a vicious political land grab, and we now find one-time magistrate Lancey Hodges at the top of his dirty heap. Often found in the lower pools with a pension for the down-and-dirty, Hodges finds his thrills slinging in the lower depths. He's as dirty as they come with lofty if not filthy aspirations. Positioning for more power, Hodges calls a secret meeting off the Georgia coast of Jykell Island. An illegal regional banking cartel is created. With Louisiana's voting blocs decimated and the financial institutions now working in concert, Lancey Hodges has set the stage for his gubernatorial run. What he doesn't know is that the FBI has penetrated his rank and file and sits only miles off the coast on a shrimp trawler listening in to Lancey's designs of a regional takeover. The stakes are raised when Douglas, ambushes the trawler with overwhelming firepower. He then tows the boat 15 miles out to sea and leaves in his wake, four dead FBI agents.With a clear path to the Governor's seat, the only chance the authorities have to stop the state's takeover is to lure Lancey back into the mud where he likes it. Paroling The Cincinnati Kid from Baton Rouge State Pen, carefully setting up the game of Lancey's life, exposing the candidate for gambling with customer's deposits, The Kid, now pitted in a showdown and the game of his lifetime, stands before the man who unjustly sent him to prison. Further pressure mounts from the investigation and we learn there is a corrupt FBI Agent working with Hodges. Cleaning up the Judge's dirty-work, FBI Agent Boone and henchman Douglas appear pitted against one another in a deadly double-cross that leaves Hodges exposed while the noose tightens in the homicide investigation.The stage is now set - the showdown looms between The Kid and Hodges. Action on the game grows rampant from Vegas to Atlantic City, from New Orleans to Minnesota.All is in motion, and all bets on the table as the last card drops between Lancey Hodges and The Cincinnati Kid.

Genre: Drama / General (fancy, right?)