A Discussion About Ranger 'One for the Money.'

Only picture seen of Daniel Sunjata as Ranger

I was doing some digging today trying to figure out when the movie wraps, and I noticed that the only picture we have of Ranger was fairly early on in the filming process, July 16th or 17th I think.  For all of us Ranger fans out there, I'm a little concerned about this. Does this mean that Ranger is hardly in this movie??  I hope this is not the case!  I know he is only in a few parts of the first book, but hopefully they included all the parts he is in so that we get an acceptable dose of Ranger candy in this film.

I for one think that the filmmakers should stick to the book as much as possible if they want to avoid having a big, angry mob of Stephanie Plum fans severely pissed off. I won't even go into my concern about the car situation since I have whined about that on a couple of different occasions. ;)

There are 3 different scenes that I can think of off the top of my head that I need to see Ranger in and are crucial in my opinion:

1) Ranger meets Stephanie and agrees to help her. They can skip the Professor Higgins dialogue if need be. It was cute, but not super, super important.

2) Ranger helps Stephanie out of her shower predicament. LOL!! This HAS to be in the movie!! If not I'm liable to have a tantrum right in the movie theater. This is one of my favorite scenes in the whole book, and I laughed so hard when I read it the first time.

3) When Ranger helps Stephanie out with an apprehension gone very wrong and gets shot in the process. I think this is important because it shows how much of a novice Stephanie is to get her pocketbook taken from her with her gun, and she has to call for help to get it back.  It makes her more believeable in her character and how hopelessly ironic her whole situation is. Also, it shows how impossible her plan is of trying to catch the ever ellusive, highly trained vice cop, Morelli, and the only reason she keeps finding her man again and again is because she is very inventive in her search for the gorgeous Joe fueled by revenge, greed, and an inner stubbornness to prove that she can do the job even with amazing odds stacked against her.

If nothing else, I hope that they at least introduce a little sexual tension between Ranger and Stephanie preferably during the shower scene. That ought to spice up the love triangle a little bit and set it up for the next movie...that I'm crossing my fingers they make. Tee-hee!

Any thoughts? Any scenes I've missed? Anything you'd like to add?