The tragi-comedy of an obscure English novelist who becomes so obsessed by the delusion that American film-makers have plagiarized his work that he hunts them down with a Luger.

SYNOPSIS:

U.S. Copyright Registration Number for They Stole My Movie! is: PAu 4-125-501, granted March 7th 2022.

Era: Present

Locations: Hollywood, Chicago

Genre: Tragi-comedy, Dramatic Comedy

Act 1: the snub; the scam.

Inciting incident. Hollywood Walk of Fame. Daniel Frampton, 60s, an obscure English novelist, visits an intellectual property lawyer. He is fooled into paying double fees, snubbed by the lawyer and kicked out of the office without a hearing.

Scam: Daniel pretends to be an academic from the Department of Film Studies, King's College, London, in order to get face to face with the film-makers - the Clancy twins - whom he believes stole his movie. He tells the Clancy's agents that he's setting up a dedicated study of the Clancy's work and would like to meet face to face. The agents invite him to a free lunch, but one agent leaves early, and the other can't pay, so Daniel himself is scammed and foots the bill of $420.

He has spent $1100 of his retirement savings in 2 days. His wife, Alice, has had enough. She books tickets early for Chicago, where they will stay with their daughter, Joyce, 30s, a psychiatric nurse, and their son-in-law, Allan, 40s, a black Chicagoan, head of a university English faculty. Joyce and Allan have a 6 year old son, Philip.

Allan is dismayed that his in-laws are coming early: he has no time for Daniel, whom he regards as a Walter Mitty fantasist in need of a 'reality check'.

Act 2: escape; pursuit.

After a weighty clash between Daniel and Allan over lunch, there is fallout between Joyce and Allan too, and with Alice.

Daniel retires defeated to his guest room and in the morning, after breakfast, he disappears.

Allan is dismissive of Alice and Joyce's fears for Daniel's safety.

Daniel takes a cab to Chesterton Station and finds his way back to California, to a seedy motel that is one hour's drive from Avila Beach, where one of the millionaire Clancy twins - Barry Clancy - lives.

Daniel buys a Luger.

At the same time Daniel reaches his lowest ebb, we learn that Barry Clancy has discovered an obscure English novelist - J.G.Robinson - whose work he passionately admires and would like to film. Neither Barry Clancy, nor his agents, who scammed Daniel for the $420 lunch, know that J.G.Robinson is the pseudonym of Daniel Frampton, but one agent - a sharp young intern - makes connections with remarks Daniel made over lunch. Her ideas are ignored by her mentor, who suggests to Barry Clancy that he need not bother with the rights to Robinson's books because Robinson is an unknown and might actually be dead, for all they know, which leaves the Clancy twins free to take the key characters and storyline for their own treatment. Barry Clancy is appalled at the suggestion of plagiarism and chucks the agent out. The intern stays and collaborates with Barry in his search for the rights to Robinson's works.

Act 3:

Pace accelerates as Alice and Joyce pursue measures to find Daniel from Chicago, while Barry Clancy and the intern try to find him from California to obtain the rights to his books. Both pursuing parties are aware of the threat that Daniel might commit suicide before they reach him.

In his seedy motel room Daniel has been working night and day on a manuscript. His sleep is interrupted by paranoid nightmares of the ms being stolen from his room, and these intensify until he actually shoots the Luger at a pair of retreating phantom thieves.

This causes a minor ruckus and he is about to quit the motel when his pursuers track him down. Barry Clancy is first.

Daniel finds it impossible to accept that Barry Clancy is not an imposter and that he, Daniel, is not the victim of a tasteless joke. Once Clancy is inside his motel room, Daniel threatens to shoot him, and for a moment the audience is led to believe he has shot him, but this is not the case.

There is a mysterious banquet being assembled by the entire cast outside the motel room during this incident, full of optimism and bonhomie.

The film ends on the ambiguity that the make-believe ms Daniel has just completed is actually the make-believe the audience have just watched.