Last Shot, The (film) Hollywood screenwriter Steven Schats has long held the great ambition of selling his morbid screenplay, but he has had no success. Then he meets Joe Devine, who represents himself as the man who can green-light Schats’s low-budget movie. But Devine is not who he claims to be. In truth, he is not an agent—not of the movie industry variety at least—but rather with the FBI, and he is on a covert mission to ferret out mobsters with criminal ties to Hollywood. Devine is as determined to be a star at the Bureau as Schats is to be one in his industry and he is just clever enough to make the trusting screenwriter believe that he is at last on the fast track to filmmaking success. A Touchstone Picture in association with Mandeville Films. Directed by Jeff Nathanson. Limited release on September 24, 2004. Stars Matthew Broderick (Steven Schats), Alec Baldwin (Joe Devine), Toni Collette (Emily French), Calista Flockhart (Valerie Weston), Ray Liotta (Jack Devine), Tim Blake Nelson (Marshal Paris), Tony Shalhoub (Tommy Sanz), Buck Henry (Lonnie). Joan Cusack has an uncredited role as Fanny Nash; Pat Morita and Russell Means also have cameo roles playing themselves. 93 min. Based on a true story about aspiring filmmakers, Gary Levy and Dan Lewk, who became unwitting pawns in a covert government operation, as related in the article, “What’s Wrong with This Picture?” by Steve Fishman. The working title was Providence.
