CITY OF MASKS
A Venetian Thriller
Reg’d © Library of Congress
A playboy accused of murder disguises himself and leads the police on a chase through Venice.
Think of...
and of...
When Philip’s mistress the Contessa Antonia falls to her death and leaves him money, the police find that his former mistress had done the same—
—and Philip escapes over the rooftops through the Venice labyrinth, changing disguises as fast as he changes protectors.
Someone, he realizes, did kill Antonia, and is now trying to kill the rich American lady who’s taken him in—and who plans to marry him to her virginal niece.
Caught between the police and the murderer, between a crooked lawyer and a gay priest, between women who love and betray him, Philip slips, tears, swims, sails, jumps, races, hide-and-seeks through Venice—his co-star—to the final masquerade.
Proposed cast: Jeremy Irons (Philip Fanchester)
PHILIP is by profession a lady’s gentleman—and he is a gentleman, despite all the challenges. He has more fun than he perhaps should but it looks good on him.
Proposed cast: Tamsin Egerton (Audrey)
AUDREY is shy, romantic, protected, intellectual, emotionally a bit of a waif but a perfect lady. Her aunt Mrs Clark betroths her to Philip almost on a whim.
Proposed cast: Kathy Bates (Mrs Clark)
American and imperious MRS CLARK, robust rather than elegant, takes Philip in when she should turn him over to the police, follows her instinct and trusts him implicitly.
Proposed cast: Lily Cole (Gaby)
GABY, Contessa Antonia's teenage maid, adores Philip, misses no chance to tease him, helps him escape—and does murder.
Proposed cast: Nick Moran (Father Tomasso)
Father TOMASSO, a man of perfect integrity, hides his old friend against the advice of his fellow priest, who fears that his love for Philip is not entirely Christian.
Proposed cast: Anna Friel (Angela)
ANGELA, beautiful, superficial, much too rich but utterly charming, typifies Philip's old circle and hopes he murdered his mistress so he could be with her. “Angela, darling, anybody can be with you.”
Attached:
And the seventh character is VENICE, the only place this story could happen.
Pretentious Pictures presents a UK-Italian co-production of a Venetian thriller.
Reg’d © Library of Congress
Pretentious Pictures Presents:
CHOCOLATE AND CHAMPAGNE
A comedy with a dark center
A Beverly Hills woman wakes up "older" and finds her life with a younger man undignified. The stage version was produced in at the Creative Place Theatre in NYC.
Attached: Bo Derek
Diana, the Hamlet at the heart of this comedy, is a clothes designer with a boutique on Rodeo Drive, a house in Beverly Hills, and a younger lover, Jim, her kept man for two years now. There’s nothing she can’t handle—except getting older.
She deals with a birthday by throwing him out. They're right for each other, she regrets it immediately, but she can't take him back, because her daughter Jackie, who idolizes and competes with her, tells her Jim has seduced her, and Diana believes it.
Proposed: Sam Neill
So she makes do with the respectable but empty life she'd thought she needed, with her lawyer Griff—more her age, and on her success level. Griff has been in love with her for years. Now’s his chance.
Proposed: Gael GarcÃa Bernal
Jim is happy with a champagne-and-sports-car life, but he’s also a talented script-writer who’s postponing seriousness into a future that never comes. Together they’re fast company. They must have been brilliant at her birthday party last night.
This morning, though, even while he’s making love to her, she’s spooked. She tells him he has to go. She wants something more presentable, more—respectable—before it’s too late. Which shocks him. He takes life as it comes, but this is a bit violent.
Proposed: Jennifer Coolidge
Betsy, the suicidal widow of a husband she drove to suicide, is too scattered to pass a driving test, takes a lesson with Jim, spins the car onto a Mulholland Drive cliff and is ready to gun it and take him with her. He calms her down and she takes him home. But he can't forget Diana.
Proposed: Adelaide Clemens
Jackie, Diana’s daughter, idolizes her and so misses no chance to pick at and defy her. Inwardly shaky, she is outwardly impish and sexy. She thinks she’s in love with Jim; in fact what she needs is a father.
Proposed: Owen Teague
Proposed: Owen Teague
Betsy's son Dylan—eccentric hair, psychotic eyes, twitches constantly and rhythmically as if keeping time to music he doesn’t much enjoy—is in the same class at UCLA with Jackie, over whom he moans uncontrollably. He disgusts her.
Proposed: Rosie Perez
Maria, Diana's housekeeper, is the deadpan foil to Diana's Hamlet, secret ally to Jim, and the one person Diana doesn't dare defy.
Proposed: Amy Brenneman
GWEN is Diana's mischievous best friend and alter-ego. She'll take Jim if Diana doesn't want him! Just kidding. In an attempt to bring them back together she throws a party and invites both of them, but it turns into a confrontation....
And the final character is Beverly Hills—the tone, the climate, the village size and ambiance that make it inevitable for these people to collide.
Pretentious pictures presents
a comedy with a dark center.
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