'Voices'

Casting "Voices." Synopsis: A young writer, Michael (mid-20s), is being pressured and managed by Collin (40s, cold and controlled) as Michael tries to finish pages for a high-stakes publishing opportunity. The story opens with an unsettling leather case in a taxi, rattling and emitting murmured voices, hinting at something supernatural or metaphorical (voices trapped, ownership, exploitation.) At a series of tense meetings, often in restaurants/cafés, Collin exerts power over Michael: humiliating him (ruining his pages,) setting impossible deadlines (five new pages by an 8 a.m. meeting), and dangling access to a major publisher (McFoster and Kincaid) while tightening the terms. The recurring imagery of contracts (“in perpetuity”,) tickets exchanged, and the case that “whispers/cries” frames the central conflict: Michael’s ambition versus the cost of control/ownership over his work (and possibly his literal “voice”.)"