a feature screenplay
written by Michael Edwards & Cynthia Troyer
LOGLINE
Treasure hunter Frankie Barlow learns an old family secret that leads her from the blue waters of Portugal to the lion’s den of Hollywood. As she begins to dig into her family’s past, she begins to unravel a nest of lies, and sets out on a trail through Tinseltown to solve her own father’s murder.
SYNOPSIS
Frankie Barlow, a 28 year old treasure hunter working a salvage boat near the Mediterranean, receives news that her Portuguese socialite mother has passed.
Upon returning to Piniche to see to her mother’s estate, Frankie makes a startling discovery. In a letter addressed to Frankie, Charlotte divulges Frankie’s real father’s identity. He was a famous movie star named Jonathan Barlow — one of the last studio contract players who committed suicide in 1980.
Frankie sets out for Hollywood to delve a little deeper and learn who Jonathan Barlow was. On the plane to Los Angeles, she meets Nicky Rae Wells, — a nervy and new singing sensation — and they become fast friends. At the airport Nicky Rae and Frankie are besieged by paparazzi. Dominick Rex, a celebrity stalker, becomes enamored with Frankie and sets out to learn who she is.
Because of her celebrity pedigree, Frankie becomes a target and an ongoing obsession of Dominick’s. After a little digging, Dominick becomes convinced that Jonathan Barlow was murdered and it was covered up.
Frankie begins to track down the leads she has — people connected to her father, but it’s Dominick that helps her put two and two together and realize that her father was murdered. Together Frankie and Dominick set out to solve the cold case — but who killed the movie star? Was it the movie producer, the mobster financier, the lover, the best friend or the king of the paparazzi whose career skyrocketed with Jonathan’s suicide pictures.
As the lies of the past are unraveled — nothing could prepare Frankie for what she discovers. And a whole new page of Hollywood history will be rewritten and a murderer brought to justice.
ARTISTIC STATEMENT
Utilizing Michael Edward’s history as a world class model and years being hounded by the paparazzi while living with Priscilla Presley, we wanted to craft a story that would reflect the real underground world of celebrity stalking. Michael originally envisioned the story to be a follow up to his best selling book “Priscilla, Elvis and Me,” but the subject lended itself much more to the visual medium of film. The story’s Shakesperean themes and multi-dimensional characters make for a great read.
WRITING PARTNER
Model turned Actor turned New York Best Selling Author
“Michael Edwards lived with Priscilla Beaulieu Presley for seven years — a year longer than she was married to Elvis Presley. Priscilla had been a shy and naive fourteen-year-old when Elvis Presley came into her life. Overwhelmed by his power and fame, she was molded by Elvis into his fantasy of a wife and mother.
As her lover, friend, and mentor Michael Edwards helped Priscilla blossom into a woman of elegant independence. He was also a father figure for Lisa Marie, Elvis’s only child, as she navigated the difficult years from childhood into adolescence.” – quote from book jacket of “Priscilla, Elvis and Me” the New York Best Seller on St. Martin’s Press.
Copyright (C) Cynthia Troyer & Michael Edwards
