Tax credits are the MacGuffin in the based-on-reality fictitious screenplay about saving the entertainment industry in California.

Genre: Dark, romantic comedy

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Logline: When a desperate California Film Commission bureaucrat tries to save her husband’s doomed movie by securing state production tax credits, she falls for a rebellious digital artist squatting inside an abandoned soundstage — unaware that a media mogul wants the movie to fail to justify moving his studios to a tax haven.

MARGOT (30s): A hyper-organized, chronically stressed screenwriter-turned-executive at the California Film Commission. She uses tax credits to save a dying entertainment industry.

CHASE (40s): Margot’s husband. A fading, arrogant cinematographer clinging to the old Hollywood, demanding 35mm film while the world moves on.

LEO (30s): A charismatic avant-garde artist building immersive virtual worlds. He is aggressively independent.

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MAXIMILIAN “MAX” VANE (40s): A sleek trust fund billionaire who recently bought three legacy studios. He secretly hates cinema. His true plan is to grab state (and new federal) production tax credits, make a dud, write off the losses and move his empire to Monaco.

GOV. “HAIRDO” HARDING (early 60s, looks 45): California’s image-obsessed governor. 

The California Film Commission is a........

© San Francisco Chronicle