The Characterisation of Annabelle le Roux

Chapter Two: Blueprints

James remembered the day he got the job. Through connections Alicia had shown the story to a producer of a TV company. He had started laughing. He was gripped. He had phoned James to tell him.

"I love this story James; it is so relevant. The world has gone mad James, and you encapsulate the feeling so cleverly. I can't believe how clearly you manage to articulate my thoughts in this crazy world. This world needs your voice, James. The world needs you to entertain them." said in a rapid succession of sentences.

"I have a new story; I think it is better than the one that Alicia showed you" said James in response.

"Really, I am so intrigued" said the executive. "I can't wait to see it"

"The only problem is that it isn't quite finished yet. But it is really fast paced and gripping, it has really villainous villains. I think it will help us to think about the problems we face in this country more clearly, because it subtly shifts the frame of reference. You know how some people say that Romeo and Juliet is a great way to teach kids about racism, even though everybody in Romeo and Juliet is Italian."

"Yes, yes we need that" said the executive "But only if we can have fun doing it"

"It's about corrupt power structures and people using words to mean something other than what they mean, how words can be twisted to the point where they have no resemblance to their original meaning."

"Like nineteen eighty-four" asked the executive producer.

"Well I haven't read nineteen-eighty-four so I wouldn't know." Replied James cautiously.

"Well neither have I, so it doesn't matter"

"Yes, then it is exactly like nineteen eighty-four," said James with a laugh "A dystopian world filled with an authoritarian government, hopeless people, debt, pollution, nothing good left for the common person to enjoy. And then a hero comes along and offers the people hope, so they rally around him. He suffers and his suffering inspires the nation, they start to work together to fight for the common good. The big bad is overthrown, and they have to deal with the difficulty of rebuilding the nation."

"When can we start with the marketing?" said the executive producer. "I have so many costume ideas."

"Don't you want to see the script first?" asked James.

"That can be tweaked in due time. This is great" said the executive producer. "Alicia was right, you are fantastic"

Everything happened to James in a whirlwind from that point on. He created a city which he named Zilby situated on an island ruled by a foreign force. He created a hero named Phoenix. He wrote the script and watched how his words magicked the whole thing into existence.

The executives hired actors and scene creators, make-up artists and bell boys. Most importantly they had a marketing team creating hype around the whole project.

The advert for the TV series showed the city of Zilby, with grey walls on both sides of the street. The place looked grim and foreboding. James was pretty sure he had written the place to be cheerful and bright. It was meant to be a tropical island with white sand beaches.

The billboard showed Andrew Kortley as Phoenix in the front of a vee formation with an actress named Vanessa as Annabelle to the left. A young man stood behind her, played by an actor that James particularly liked named Paul van Staden. On the right of Phoenix stood Milton as the Lesser Lord George, the shows main villain. He wore a turban even though James had specified that the Lesser Lord George always wore a bowler's hat. To the right of the Lesser Lord George stood an unnamed guard. He was extremely muscular. The only person who had more muscles on them was the main character Phoenix.