Monthly archive March, 2010
The Leading Man
1996
Directed by John Duigan
Starring Jon Bon Jovi, Thandie Newton and Barry Humphries
Successful playwright Felix Webb has a new play, ‘The Hit Man’, in rehearsal. Directed by his old friend Humphrey, it is already being hailed as a masterpiece; but Felix can’t enjoy his success. He has fallen passionately in love with Hilary, a beautiful, fiesty young actress, and is preparing to desert his perfect family, his wife Elena and three lively children. His intolerable situation is further complicated when Humphrey casts Hilary as one of the leads in ‘The Hit Man’. Enter Robin Grange, a charismatic young Hollywood actor making his London theatre debut. Robin is attractive, charming and dangerous, and soon inveigles his way into everyone’s life. He ingratiates himself with the cast and, quickly grasping Felix’s dilemma, sets about weaving his web of mischief. He suggests that if he were to seduce Elena, she would be distracted from Felix’s affair, regain her self respect, and perhaps even willingly part from the unfaithful husband to whom she clings. Initially Felix is outraged but as the tension mounts with Hilary, reluctant to continue as the second woman in his life, he succumbs. Watching in horror as Elena responds to Robin’s perfectly plotted seduction, and tormented with suspicions that Hilary has also fallen under Robin’s spell, Felix spirals towards a kind of madness. Desperate to regain control of his life, he indulges in a grand theatrical gesture, but fate intervenes, and both Felix and Robin learn that real life doesn’t always follow the script.
Virginia Duigan
Virginia Duigan wrote the screenplay of the 1998 movie The Leading Man, starring Jon Bon Jovi, Thandie Newton and Barry Humphries. Before becoming a novelist, Duigan worked as a journalist, broadcaster, editor and TV scriptwriter. She was a regular feature writer on The National Times, and contributed documentaries to ABC radio. She was a freelance contributor to The Bulletin, The Age, The Australian, The Financial Review, Cinema Papers, and in London to the The Observer and The Times. She was Literary Editor of The National Times, and a theatre, book, film and restaurant reviewer. The Age of Discretion is her fourth novel, after Days Like These, The Biographer and The Precipice.
About
Virginia Duigan, author, screenwriter and journalist. Born Cambridge UK
Attended 8 schools in the UK, Malaya and Australia.
BA (hons) Melbourne University
Lived and worked in England, Australia and USA
Journalism
UK: Journalist on World’s Press News, Campaign; freelanced for The Observer, The Times.
Australia: freelance feature writer on for The National Times, The Bulletin, The Age, The Australian, The Bulletin, Cinema Papers, Cleo. Variously theatre, film, restaurant & book reviewer; freelance book editor; Arts Editor, The National Times.
TV
Interviewer ABC show Nightcap.
Co-writer ABC series Lucky Colour Blue, Beat of the City. Script editor/writer Andra. ABC drama script consultant.
Film
Script assessor, Australian Film Commission
Original screenplay The Leading Man (directed by my brother John Duigan)
Novels
Days Like These (Random House Vintage)
The Biographer (Random House Vintage)
The Precipice (Random House Vintage)
The Age of Discretion (Ventura Press)