The Spanish Prisoner

The Spanish Prisoner

The Spanish Prisoner is a 1997 American neo-noir suspense film, written and directed by David Mamet and starring Campbell Scott, Steve Martin, Rebecca Pidgeon, Ben Gazzara, Felicity Huffman and Ricky Jay. The plot entails a story of corporate espionage conducted through an elaborate confidence game. In 1999 the film was nominated by the Mystery Writers of America for the Edgar Award for Best Motion Picture Screenplay but lost out to Steven Soderbergh's Out of Sight.

Production: Sony Pictures Classics
  3 nominations.
 
IMDB:
7.3
Metacritic:
70
Rotten Tomatoes:
88%
PG
Year:
1997
110
1,133 Views
Can you really trust anyone?
It's the oldest con in the book.

George Lang:
The Process. And by means of the Process, to control the global market.

Businessman 1:
And this Process is complete?

George Lang:
It's near completion.

Businessman 1:
"Near completion."

George Lang:
Very near. This team which Mr. Ross — the Team. The Team. And I think, if I may, uh, Mr. Klein, it would not be amiss to state that both the work and the inspiration for the process was —

Mr. Klein:
Thank you, George. I know you'll understand when I say that's neither here nor there. These gentlemen have come down to hear the good news.

Joe Ross:
The good news is control of the market.

[The Businessmen interrupt him.]

Joe Ross:
Obviously, we don't want to get too specific, for security reasons. So, my task today is to tell you those things which I can in laymen's language. I think I can break it down sufficiently to give you a pretty firm idea of —

Mr. Klein:
The Process, yes.

Businessman 2:
How long can we hold on to it before the competition steals it?

Mr. Klein:
Well, we defend it. Of course. Tooth and nail. This is a proprietary process.

[The Businessmen engage in cross-talk.]

Joe Ross:
Without the data, without our actual data, without the formula, the Japanese, or anyone else, for that matter, would have nothing. Should you give us the go-ahead, their actual — [He hesitates and looks at George.]

George Lang:
The legal issues are these. We have both the de facto and the de jure copyright of that process. It was developed by —

Joe Ross:
Even if they should engage in piracy, their search and development time —

George Lang:
— their catch-up time —

Joe Ross:
— would put them back — George?

George Lang:
Three?

Joe Ross:
Three to five years.


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