Lion pounces on 'Last Dance'
USC newcomer gets mid-six figures for drug drama
"Last Dance" is a drama detailing the travails of an attractive, popular and drug-addicted college co-ed who befriends a shy but intelligent fellow student from the other side of the popularity tracks. As their bond grows, the smart wallflower ends up insinuating herself into every aspect of the coke-sniffer's life, including her illicit habit. When the girl overdoses and dies, the popular girl must grapple with the guilt and blame over the death.
While she says writing is her primary avocation, what Strouse really wants to do is act -- in what she writes. The 1996 graduate of USC's screenwriter's program also is a thespian who initially intended her scripts as possible acting vehicles. But with a sale to a Hollywood studio Strouse -- whose father is Broadway composer Charles Strouse ("Annie," "Bye, Bye Birdie") -- is more sanguine about the prospects, "now that it is at a studio, I can only hope to maybe be an extra."
The acting may be up in the air, but Strouse also is developing at Original Films her original screenplay "Chic Flick." The project isn't set up at a studio, but it is currently out to directors.
Strouse is represented by the William Morris Agency's Ramses IsHak and attorney Karl Austen.
