Vita, a drama/thriller screenplay by Greg Hickey

When a paralyzed, disillusioned, once-successful young man’s wife has an affair with his best friend, he avenges their betrayal by manipulating his friend into murdering his wife.

Vincent and Philip are two intelligent, successful, young men with everything going for them. But over the course of a single year, Vincent’s life takes a startling turn for the worst, beginning with a horrific car accident that leaves him paralyzed from the waist down. He later discovers that his wife, Maggie, is having an affair, and she is then killed in an apparent home burglary. One year after the car accident and shortly after Maggie’s funeral, Vincent and Philip meet in a bar. Over a game of Vita, a card game of Vincent’s invention, Vincent attempts to make sense of the unfortunate circumstances beyond his control in a world where he once seemed to hold all the cards. And although Philip gives nothing away, we begin to sense that he is more involved in Vincent’s fate than he first seemed.

Initially inspired by Fyodor Dostoevsky’s story of “The Grand Inquisitor,” Vita is now an original dramatic thriller about the willful denial of free choice and the consequences of this decision.

Vita was nominated for Best Crime/Thriller script in the Action on Film International Film Festival. Vita was also awarded an Honorable Mention in the Los Angeles Movie Awards 2010 (II) script competition, and was named a semi-finalist in the Drama category of The Screenplay Festival and a finalist in the Sacramento International Film Festival 2011.