Hi!

I am writing a script, which is actually for use as a One Act play, but only for my own purposes. I'm having trouble refining several elements of the script outline, so I am unable to start writing, and I was wondering if you would mind taking a look and sharing your input. Thanks.

(And please ignore the completely unrealistic beyond fantasy parts, because I'm not entirely concerned with the overall realism of the thing)

The play is about a movie actress named Virgen Roxberry. When we first meet her, she is already a huge star... the audiences love her, and her onscreen demenor. Of course, off-camera she is the cliche egotistical snob. Now, we find out early on that when Virgen first came to L.A. to become an actress, she was very desperate, so when she was offered a studio contract through an agent, she immediately signed. And it served her well until now, but the contract limited her to only making films for the one studio, and only with rigid salary increases over time.

The problem is, now Virgen wants her salary to increase greatly, so she wants out of the contract. Virgen hires a lawyer and they meet with the studio, who protest greatly, but Virgen's Lawyer assures her she can find a loophole, if given a week or two. Now here's where the story really begins: The studio tries to have Virgen killed so they can replace her with a robotic-clone (I know how ridiculous it sounds) who will do the work they need at the price they want. Unfortunately, Virgen doesn't die, so she very quickly discovers that there is a clone of her living her life.

Naturally, she is very angry, but the studio convinces her it was nessecary to finish the remaining scenes on the movie she had been working on before she had 'died' (because this was going to be the biggest budget film she had starred in yet) and Virgen agrees to let the charade carry on until the promotional work for this movie is complete, then she wants the clone destroyed. Unfortunately the robot starts to get out of control, and really takes on a life of her own (although still stealing Virgen's life to do so), and some things happen and things get a little crazy from there, but the middle isn't the important part, so I'll skip to the end.

By the end, Virgen is convinced that her robot-clone has killed someone, and that the robot is trying to kill her, too. And it seems as though she's gone crazy, but then she noticed something, and realizes that the movie studio had massive debts, and the only thing keeping it from going bankrupt was her movies, so they needed her, and that is motive for doing anything they can to keep Virgen at the studio, hence the robot replacement. And when she confronts, there's the requisit explanations, and the studio realized after they 'killed' Virgen that they still needed her, because the robotic-clone could never truly capture Virgen's persona until it could experience it first hand, which is why they kepy Virgen around for a while longer.

NOW, thanks so much for reading through all that, you must be bored out of your mind! But I'll finally get to the issue (although feel free to offer ideas about anything else up there---just please save the critism that doesn't offer alternatives, because I don't need that)... the problem is that something Virgen finds that can make her realize they need her due to financial troubles. OR, better yet still, I would LOVE any suggestions for better motivation behind:

A) The studio needing Virgen enough to want to replace her when it appears she will get out of her contract (instead of the money problems)

B) The Studio keeping Virgen alive after they found out she wasn't dead... although I'm not as concerned with this problem as I am Problem A.

Thanks again for all your time, I really appreciate it SO VERY MUCH!

Good story line . . . a bit surreal . . . but still cool!

I have had a few moments of thought with this one and have come up with a few suggestions:

Problem A
Virgen had several 'relations' with a few of the directors of the studio. As she was under contract they were able to keep a tight leach on the situation - but now there is the loophole, a few directors get worried and decided the next best thing is to dispose of her.

Problem B
After the hitman does the dirty deed (hired by the directors), the nice guy director visits the scene of the crime to realise that she isn't actually dead - just broosed. As he has really always loved her, he takes her under his wing and protects her.

I know they are very sick and standard film storylines - but I think your outline would improve if there was love element to counterbalance the harsh snob-i-ness of the industary / Virgen.

It sounds like a great project and would love to see the finished article sometime!

GOOD LUCK!