A look inside Hollywood and the movies. : HIGH-CONCEPT TIME : Greece, 411 B.C. to South-Central L.A., the Present

Somewhere between Nancy Reagan and the Greek tragedians is the latest movie idea. Oh yes, throw the L.A. riots into that mix.

“The Power of No” is the title and here’s the plotline: Women of South-Central Los Angeles take a stand against murder in the streets by refusing to have sex with their men until the violence stops.

Sound familiar? That’s because “The Power of No” is based upon Aristophanes’ “Lysistrata,” first performed in Athens in 411 B.C. The Greek playwright conceived his story from the 20-year Peloponnesian War that was being waged between Athens and Sparta. “Lysistrata”--translated from the Greek to mean “Demobilize the troops!”--is an Athenian woman who rounds up her sisters to occupy the Acropolis, where they successfully conduct a sex strike. The men, buckling under the strain, finally surrender and the comedy ends with the celebration of peace and the reconciliation of husbands and wives--pointing to the triumph of love over war.

Whether “The Power of No” could be so easily played out when set against the complexity of inner-city L.A. life awaits a Hollywood screenwriter’s adaptation. As it is, the concept is only a “log line”--a simple one-line plot summary--that’s being circulated by independent producer Dawn Steel and Steel Picture at the talent agencies in hopes of finding a writer from the agencies’ client list. Steel is a former Columbia Pictures president whose current credit is as producer of Walt Disney Pictures’ “Honey, I Blew Up the Kid.” She was unavailable to comment and a spokesman for her declined to discuss the project.

But the idea behind “The Power of No” disproves at least one Hollywood theory --that executives don’t read books or, presumably, plays. Apparently, some do --when the subject is sex.