TONE:
Romantic drama set in Marin County and San Francisco, covering a ten-year span from 1979 to 1989. Ensemble piece, similar in style and pacing to REALITY BITES and BOYS ON THE SIDE with a technical look similar to CLUELESS or SIXTEEN CANDLES.
SET UP:
A group of recent high-school graduates works for The Marin Renaissance Faire during the summer of 1979, the summer before they start college. It is there the heroine, Dorothea, meets the hero, Robert. They become involved, but Dorothea doesn't know that Robert has problems with drug abuse, beginning that summer with cocaine.
STORY LINE:
The film follows the group through the next ten years as they go to college, select careers, and watch Robert descend into the depths of drug abuse. Several times he seems close to recovery, but when he goes to Los Angeles to attend graduate school and Dorothea and their friend Annabelle go to London on a filmmaking grant, he begins to inject heroine with a group of friends. He is eventually diagnosed with AIDS and dies at the end of the film, though he is never shown in the throes of the disease. One other man in their group is diagnosed with the disease at the end of the film.
Copyright 2001 by Debora Hill
Reg. WGAw #620177
DEATH OF A SHINING STAR has been contracted to ShadowHawk Productions and is in pre-production in collaboration with 21st Century Media and Allied Artists.