When an innocent man with amnesia convicted of murder wakes inside reality TV prison series, he learns that killing inmates is the only path to proving his innocence and gaining freedom.

I agree with the previous reviewers that retrieving his memories cannot be the prime driver.
I still think there is a good base there. Hunger Games, Running Man will be mentioned but the concept that the elite use a game to blind the population to the reality of their situation is not new. After all Rome invented the Arena for that purpose. The expression "Panem and Circenses"?that in Latin literally means "bread and circuses" was used to describe the cynical formula used by Roman emperors for keeping the masses content with ample food and entertainment.

Personnally I would flip the script. He has his memories, he knows that he is innocent. In fact he volunteered for the show in order to prove that the game was rigged.

In that dystopian world, Big Brother AI records everything, but access to unaltered version of video surveillance is restricted by security level. Participants to the show are supposed to be chosen randomly. The game is run by that an AI, so it is allegedly incorruptible. However high level executives have found a way so enemies and social undesirable are more likely to be selected. In the game, each victory unlocks points and with the points participants can purchase physical reward (food, weapons, medical supplies, ...) or increase their security level. In order to release the video that show the high level executives rigging the game, the?hero needs to survive and kill a lot of people.

In a dystopian world where victories in macabre TV reality show grant you Freedom, a principle man must kill his opponents to reveal how a mysterious cabal is staging a silent coup.

Benny:

Though my own thinking diverges on particular elements, the more I think about your general premise,? the more I am inclined to suggest? that it has a lot of potential.? (In a previous career incarnation, I worked in the belly of the beast, the law-enforcement-criminal-detention industrial complex, witnessed first hand its peculiar pathologies.)

So I am so bold as to suggest that you write the script in a way to set up a franchise, a series.? Specifically, don't try to solve in one film every dramatic question embedded in your premise.? He might want to find out who he really is,? and prove his innocence, but first things first.

And the first thing is to survive the "gladiator game" , win his freedom.? I suggest that be the focus of the 1st film (and logline).

In the course of fighting for his freedom, he discovers he isn't who he has been told he is, that he is? an innocent man -- that would be a late 2nd Act or 3rd Act Big Reveal.? Leave dangling the solution to his identity and his innocence.? The film could end with him walking off into the sunrise in the Outback determined? to recover his past (Part 2) and prove his innocence (Part 3).? If the 1st film is successful, you'll get a chance to explore those story line,? resolved those questions.? If not, the story will still have ended on an upbeat note:? he beat all the odds, won his freedom.

>>>the television show had been a form of crime prevention reducing it to all time lows

A generation ago, a "scared straight" solution to crime might have been credible story element.? We knew much less about human psychology, human behavior and audiences were less sophisticated, too.? But now days I doubt whether a mass audience would buy it.? I think the story should build on and tease out current insights.

And current trends in penology and criminal enforcement.? I bring to your attention that here in the United States, there has been a trend to outsource prison management to private companies. The rationale is to save taxpayer money.? (In the US it's an article of faith in the conservative canon that a private company can perform a government function more efficiently and more cheaply.)? Well, why not go a step further and develop as? your backstory? that private companies running prisons develop the TV series as a revenue source to save even more tax payer money, turn prisons from a fiscal drain into a profit center for government.

In two ways.? 1] Government gets a cut of the broadcast revenues.? 2] Government legalizes and gets a cut of the action from placing bets on the outcome of the games -- on who survives, on who dies, when and how.

Yes, the "Hunger Games" has betting on the outcome but it's not developed or explored as a motivating factor for the existence of the games.? But in your story it would be a central motivation.? Build on the fact that right now? governments have legalized gambling as a way to fund schools and infrastructure instead of raise taxes. And that means that governments can make even more money by collecting a cut of all bets? on players in this modern version of a? "gladiator" game.

IOW: I suggest taking current trends to their logical and absurd conclusion.? In the quest to cut government spending, save taxpayer money, criminals are exploited to become economic assets instead of liabilities. (Building on current trends also makes your story more relevant.? It's becomes an indicting parable instead of merely an action plot.)

fwiw

I think you have an interesting idea for film, but I, too, can't get past what I perceive as some plot holes.

Like the amnesia.? ? Why does the incentive to play have to be to get their memories back?? Isn't freedom a bigger incentive?? Or at least mere survival?

Seems to me that a lot of prisoners would just as well not want to get all those unhappy memories back.? They might like to start with a clean memory slate.

But freedom,survival? -- those are universal and irresistible incentives.

>>>The memories of each felon are erased so they don?t have any unfair advantages when they go into the prison.?

But there will still be plenty of unfair advantages.? Some will be taller, stronger, more agile or smarter (maybe all 3) than others.? It's not going to be an even playing field, so what difference will memory make?

>>>proving the innocence he feels?

So then the memories aren't really erased.? Because memory and associated feelings are inextricably bound together. (Purging the memory entails purging the emotional content of that memory.)

The premise seems like?a knock off, an adult version of the "Hunger Games" where the rules and odds are rigged to never be in their favor.? But at least in the "Hunger Games" there was a method behind the madness of the games beyond mere entertainment. There was a political agenda: to punish the masses for rebelling against the oppressive elite way back when, an annual re-enforcement of the message:? don't try it again.

What's the political agenda in this dystopia of yours for having these "prison games"?

>>>Behind the scenes the world is actually running out of criminals

How is that possible, believable, human nature being what it is?? In a corrupt world, how can there be a shortage of criminal?? When all human human history says just the opposite? is the operative case.

You're entitled to make up any rules for your fictional world -- but in a way that enables/ induces an audience to suspend disbelief.? And right now, I'm having a hard time suspending disbelief about a shortage of criminals.??

Just saying.