The Writer
Bob is an alcoholic screen-writer for a motion picture studio. As Bob's
drinking deepens, the quality of his work begins to suffer, and he begins to have marital problems.
At the studio, the executives shake their heads at his latest work and toss
it back to him, asking for yet another re-write. Bob, you used to be our top writer. Movies would make hundreds of million
of dollars. We couldn't wait for your latest efforts. Now, your stuff is mediocre. Oh, we can make movies from it, sure. But
not hundreds of millions of dollars. There are other writers out there who can write pulp stuff like this. This is one step
up from trash - not that movies are normally any better. We know you can do better. And cut back on the sauce. It is probably
the reason your work is suffering.
Bob goes home and his wife begins yelling at him. There isn't an "us" in
the relationship anymore. Where did the romantic evenings, the quiet walks in the park, the surprise flowers and the vacations
to distant parts of the world go? It is work, work, work, all you do is spend hours in your office, the smell of alcohol on
your breath... I want the old Bob, the Bob I married, not this thing, this excuse of a man, this monster who comes home drunk
and quiet...
The dog and the cat are introduced.
Bob works the typewriter in his office and places the finished pages in
a box. We see time pass as indicated by the number of pages in the box. Bob's style of writing is depicted as a linear or
"for a movie" process of constant typing - not any kind of realistic style which involves stopping, thinking, correcting.
One morning we see that the pages have moved slightly from the box and are
appearing now in another box next to it. Bob does not notice this, and continues pounding out the pages. We see on his calendar
that he has another date set up at the studio.
At the next meeting we see the studio executives after they have read Bob's
work.
Bob, that's more like it. Some of the spark is coming back to your work.
Not the Bob of old, mind you, but this is stuff we can make money on. Of course it is still trash. But it is the good kind
of trash - the kind of trash that fills seats in the theater.
Bob goes home and works again in his office. He decides to sleep on the
couch. He thinks that he hears something, but decides it is nothing.
His wife is now furiously packing. She is going to visit her mother. Bob,
I need some time away, some time to figure out what I want in this marriage, in this relationship.
Bob now thinks he hears the sounds of typing coming from somewhere. Bob's
drinking increases.
Bob begins to put the pieces together. The papers have definitely been moved
from where he placed them. He follows the sounds downstairs to the basement where the sounds of typing are louder. He creeps
down the stairs and sees, beneath a bare light bulb, his dog sitting at a typewriter, re-writing his work.
Bob goes back to bed. He works all the next day and evening. He collapses
exhausted on the couch in his office. Again he hears the typing, again he goes downstairs, again he sees the dog at the typewriter.
Again he goes back upstairs to sleep.
The next day he goes to the studio and drags the executives to his house.
He goes to the basement and sets the dog up at the typewriter and starts moving the paws on the keys. The dog just sits there
panting, then starts to lick his face.
What's this all about Bob? Ummm... oh we see, your next idea is about a
dog that is a mystery writer. Well, today's audience just doesn't go for that kind of stuff. Not buy a 12 dollar ticket to
see a dog writing a story. But your other stuff is getting better. Keep it up.
It now seems that his wife wants a divorce. His attorney says that the quicker
they settle things, the less it will cost. It seems that his wife wants the dog. Bob asks the attorney to see if she will
settle for the cat instead. No, she wants the dog. She comes by to pick up her things, and the dog.
Bob's drinking continues. He meets a girl at the bar he spends a lot of
time in, she is a writer and is interested in his work. Bob brings in a box of his work for her to read.
The girl starts reading sections of his work to Bob, and Bob becomes confused.
That's not what he wrote. It was similar, but still different.
That night he goes home and hears the typing again, but ignores it.
Back at the bar, the girl is telling him that there are three different
writing styles here, it looks like it was written, then rewritten twice.
Bob goes home, hears the typing again, creeps down to the basement. This
time, beneath the bare light bulb, he finds the cat, typing away.
Bob, exhausted, goes back upstairs to sleep.
The next day he props the cat up at the typewriter, and begins moving the
paws on the keys just like the dog, but the cat just looks at him, then runs away.
Back in his upstairs office, Bob sees that someone or something is moving
the typed pages from the box he places them in to another box sitting next to it. He begins reading the material and reads
page after page, transfixed.
The next day at the studio the executives are congratulating him. Looks
like we have another blockbuster here Bob. 100 million dollars, minimum. We can use the A-list stars. Expand the budget for
promotion and advertising. We can even hire you an assistant to do editing and even ghost writing for you. Bob gives the name
of the girl he met at the bar, and she starts work reading and light editing for final production. They interview a director,
start the storyboarding, look at various actors and actresses for the leading roles.
Bob goes home and listens for the sounds of the typing, but does not hear
any - in fact nothing for several days. He sees the swinging dog door and realizes that the cat has been going out at night
and coming back at dawn, so his work is not being re-written. The girl is complaining now that his work is now trash again,
and needs heavy rewriting.
Bob decides to see where his cat has been going. He follows it through the
neighbors yards - he goes through a series of stock gag adventures like falling into a pool, being chased by a barking dog,
stepping on a rake and having the post flip up and hit him in the face, stepping onto sharp barbecue utensils left on a patio,
getting tangled and caught in a hammock, etc. Now the cat he is following exits the residential area and we enter a seedy
commercial area. The cat first goes to a bar, where it is served a drink. Attractive ladies come up to it and start petting
the cat and saying how much they adore it. The cat purrs and then runs out the door. Bob chases after the cat. Next it
goes to an all-night dance club. Two attractive ladies somehow become attracted to Bob (who is sopping wet and disheveled)
and drag him onto the dance floor, where he shows a few dance moves and becomes a hit with the regulars. There is a synchronized
dance number where Bob starts a sequence, the people at the club immediately learn it then they they all dance it together,
we can add a popular song to get the younger audience. Bob then sees the cat run out the door, and he again follows. Next
the cat goes to an outdoor punk rock concert where there are costumes and Head banging and loud music. Bob dances around and
enjoys the music, then sees the cat again leave and he races to follow it.
The cat runs around a corner, there is a sound of a motorcycle engine starting
and then we see a shadowy figure riding a racing bike out onto the street. For some reason there is another bike next to it
(with a helmet) and Bob decides to follow. Bob is following the cat on the bike and he somehow gets too close while following
and the cat suspects now that it is being followed. The cat now speeds off at high speed. Bob follows, and a high speed chase
happens.
Bob seems to lose sight of the cat, and begins searching back and forth,
then sees the motorcycle parked next to a streetlight. Bob follows and sees the silhouette of a cat on a fence next to a female
cat, rubbing noses. Bob gets closer, and the cat is startled and runs back to the area where the bike is parked. We hear the
sound of the bike starting and the motorcycle pulling away. Bob begins to follow, but he is eventually pulled over for speeding.
He cannot produce a license, and the bike has been reported as stolen. Bob is hauled off to jail.
Bob is bailed out by his movie executives, who caution him to avoid this
kind of activity. Bob returns home to find that more of his work has been rewritten. The cat mysteriously shows up but when
placed at the typewriter in the basement it just looks at him, then runs away. Bob's drinking increases.
Bob's career continues to climb and his writing improves. The girl who runs
his office now gets suspicious and starts snooping around his office. She looks at the writing box, at the typewriter in the
basement, and appears to be putting the clues together.
She calls Bob into the office and starts telling him that she has seen signs
that someone else has been re-writing his work, and wants to know what has been going on. Bob starts to tell the story about
umm... his dog was doing rewrite, then the dog got taken by his wife, then it appears that his cat is now re-writing it.
Wrong, he is told. His wife has been returning each night and taking some
of his writing and returning each morning with fresh pages. A motion-sensor camera placed at the door of his house reveals
her comings and goings. But why? She also shows Bob puppet figures of the dog and cat and shows him how someone could lie
hidden and move the puppet and make him think that the dog or cat is typing.
Bob and the girl go to Bob's mother-in-law's house and they decide to spy
on his wife. The woman arrives with pages from his house and a silhouette of Bob's wife and her mother appear in the kitchen
window. A light goes on upstairs and we hear sounds of typing, and we see that Bob's mother in law is the one who has been
doing the re-writing.
The girl produces a file and says she has hired a private investigator to get the dirt on his mother in
law. Seems she has been ghost- and re-writing scripts for a number of years and has had a number of successes, even a nomination
for an academy award. Seems that she wanted to shield her family from the Hollywood lifestyle, especially her daughter - Bob's
wife. They first think that Bob's wife is trying to help him out - get his career back on track.
A sound is heard and Bob's wife returns to her car. They follow her back
to Bob's house, where she uses a spare key to enter and replace the typed pages, then leaves. But why would she want Bob to
think first his dog, then his cat was re-writing his work? They see that Bob's wife has dropped something and we see that
she has purchased an insurance policy on Bob and they suspect that she is trying to do him in for the insurance money. A bottle
of aspirin tablets is also found on the sidewalk where the label is partially removed indicating that it really is a bottle
of poison. The girl thinks that the dog and cat thing is just a ruse - Bob was purposefully disoriented in order to make him
take the poisoned tablets which his wife was supposed to plant in his medicine cabinet. This is perfect timing because the
script is nearly finished - the mother-in-law will perform final re-write on the script and emerge to take credit and receive
possibly her first academy award.
Bob returns to the movie studio where he tries telling the executives that
his writing success is really due to re-writing by his mother in law, who denies it, and his wife denies taking his work.
His dog and cat are present, and he again tries to move their paws at the typewriter, but the animals just look at him. Bob
is fired from his job as a writer.
Bob is wandering the city aimlessly, without a plan for what to do next, when he is stopped by a man who
introduces himself as a private investigator. "Frank" says that he has been hired by an individual who wishes to remain anonymous,
but wishes to bring some matters to Bob's attention. The girl Bob has hired to do some light re-write for him, what does
he know about her? When someone has a close business relationship with another person, it is always wise to hire an investigator
just to make sure the person involved has no skeleton's in the closet. Just where did she come from and who has she worked
for? Next, just who are the people who have done the re-writes of his story, and why? The pages themselves might have clues
on them. Third, you need to find out who owns the story he is working on. It might have value at another studio. Last, the
individual who has hired Frank has suggested that Bob get some help for his drinking habit. The individual
involved doesn't want Bob to get hurt.
Bob listens, then offers to hire Frank to help him find the answers. Frank smiles. He says that he
can't do that - his job is just to communicate the message and that it would be a kind of conflict of interest. There are
other reputable private investigators in the city, and any one of them might help. Frank leaves.
Bob now performs a series of rapid actions. He hires a private investigator to get the answers for the questions
that Frank suggested. He is now seen leaving the office of a social worker - he has gotten some counseling on his drinking
- he goes home and proceeds to throw out his stash of booze. He calls his wife and leaves a message that he wants to
meet with her and to try to talk about their problems.
A few days pass. The investigator has determined that the girl is working for a rival studio, and has likely
set him up. The surveillance video of his wife entering his house was grainy and could have been anyone. The girl had the
key to his house and probably had someone who looked like his wife enter and plant the fake insurance policy and poison tablets. The
girl also probably staged the dog and cat re-writing scenes. He is advised to dismiss her. The investigator determines
that Bob is the owner of the work in question, and has the right to submit it to other studios.
The investigator cannot determine exactly who rewrote the work in question - it is most likely his
mother-in-law and his wife working together.
Bob fires the girl doing re-write for him, who denies the charges and says that she was quitting anyway
to work for a better writer.
Bob meets his wife, and she confesses that she meant no harm by re-writing the work, that she and her mother
did it to try to help Bob and save their marriage. Bob and his wife kiss and make up, and stage a second wedding, with all
their relatives invited, to begin the healing process. The dog, the cat, Bob and his wife are back together again.
At the wedding reception we find that Bob's work has been accepted by another studio, and a woman
arrives to present Bob a large payment check for his work, which he accepts. Bob is now offered a drink, but he raises a hand
(with a slight palm-wave) so as to refuse it, smiles and shakes his head. Bob thanks his wife for hiring the investigator
who had the right questions and actions to get his life back together again. Bob's wife is puzzled. She didn't hire the investigator.
Bob's mother in law also says that she didn't hire any investigator.
The movie now appears to end - but instead we now see
paws again working the typewriter, and a cat behind it. The sound of a page being removed from a typewriter is heard and a
page placed into a binder. The cover is closed by a paw, and the title of the script is displayed, "The Writer". The dog is
now seen making a payment to Frank, who accepts it and pats the dog on the head, and turns to leave as the screen fades to
black.
