Scoop

British investigative journalist Joe Strombel (Ian McShane) has just died. Crossing the river to his final resting place, he meets another fellow passenger Jane Cook (Fenella Woolgar), who believes she was murdered by her boss, wealthy blue-blooded Peter Lyman (Hugh Jackman), as she had circumstantial evidence that he is the notorious Tarot Card Killer, who has murdered several short haired brunette prostitutes, leaving a tarot card at the scene as his calling card. Still a journalist at heart despite being dead, Joe tries to channel this information to the living, the strongest pull toward Sondra Pransky (Scarlett Johansson), an American journalism student visiting London, she who would probably admit that she is too easily sidetracked to make a good journalist. After doing some research on Joe, Sondra has no reason to doubt what his spirit has told her, and as such decides to investigate if Peter is indeed the Tarot Card Killer. Sondra also decides to enlist the help of Sidney Waterman (Woody Allen), a second rate American magician with the stage name "Splendini", if only because it was when he pulled her from the audience of his show to assist with an on-stage trick that Joe's spirit visited her for the first time. Masquerading as an eccentric oil baron with a penchant for doing card tricks and his heiress daughter, Sidney and Sondra are able to infiltrate Peter's life directly, allowing Sondra, as "Jade Spence", to do her digging work closer to the source. She should be in no danger as a victim of the Tarot Card Killer neither being a prostitute, or having short brunette hair. But Sondra's distraction this time around is that she is falling in love with Peter and he seemingly with her, which may complicate matters regardless of if he is the Tarot Card Killer or not.