The day after his greatest triumph, a beloved Hollywood filmmaker indulges an aspiring writer, his biggest fan, only to learn she's the woman whose story he stole, come to rewrite his Hollywood ending.
Award-winning screenwriter and director DYLAN SUTTON, 42, has just swept the major prizes for his crime thriller Heist. The morning after, he holds court at his usual upscale hotel bar, grinning at the opening pages of something new. When APRIL, 31, approaches, all red lip and nervous fan energy, he waves her into the booth and buys her a drink.
The talk is easy and flirtatious. April asks what he's writing: it's the script he'll be remembered for, bigger than Heist, he says. Every idea he's had for the past four years lives in the bespoke orange journal at his side. They flirt, trading witty banter. She mentions a script she's working on now. A cat-and-mouse tale with a twist. He asks her to walk him through it.
Three years ago, green and unrepped, she stayed after a screenwriters' panel to pitch her idol beat by beat. He heard her out, said the ending wasn't "undeniable," and sent her off with kind encouragement. Months later that same writer sold a spec in a bidding war. Her exact story. It became Heist.
The idol was Dylan. She recorded the whole exchange.
When his lawyer calls mid-story, April tells him to send it to voicemail. The twist, she says, is happening now. She plays the voice memo: her voice, his, "Walk me through it." Dylan turns cold and tells her to leave. She's not going to sue, she promises; Hollywood would brand her a desperate nobody and move on. But a recording that leaks and goes viral, that turns the tide on a beloved unicorn at the top of his game? That's interesting to her. What does she want, he hisses. She wants him to lose something too.
Dylan recovers. AI makes audio trivial to fake, so her tape proves nothing, it's a red herring. The people invested in Heist will bury her, and he'll let them. April's certainty seems to break. A bitter pill, she admits, but he's taught her a lesson. She kisses him -- a bizarre move that rattles him -- and goes.
Dylan throws back his scotch and opens his laptop, determined to get back to work. He reaches for the journal. It's gone.
On Hollywood Boulevard, April tucks her purse close and smiles. As she disappears into crowd, the camera racks to a movie billboard above the street: a couple locked in a kiss, Heist across it.
Deborah Puette is a queer, L.A. based creator working across film, television, and the American theater who credits her success as an emerging screenwriter and director to her twenty-five years as an award-winning actor.
Puette’s debut feature as writer and co-director, CASH FOR GOLD, is from her very first full-length script. Puette also stars in the film. CASH FOR GOLD won the Audience Award at the prestigious Burbank International Film Festival before being released on VOD in February of 2025.
The Alliance of Women Film Journalists raves, “Deborah Puette makes an auspicious directorial debut with CASH FOR GOLD…there’s no denying the power of [her] storytelling…[it] will leave you looking forward to whatever Puette does next.” The Chicago Reader calls it “a courageous repudiation of the cruel path this country has committed itself to,” while Film Threat praises the film as “a brick house-built drama,” highlighting its authentic depiction of life's challenges, and top critic Nell Minnow from RogerEbert.com says “it is the compassion the film has for its characters that is the film’s true grace.”
CASH FOR GOLD is now available on Amazon Prime, Apple TV, and other VOD platforms courtesy of Freestyle Digital Media.
Since then, Puette wrote, directed, and produced SUCH A PRETTY GIRL, a short film based on her semi-autobiographical TV pilot, PLAY LIKE A GIRL (Finalist, 2021 Writers Lab underwritten by Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman, and Oprah Winfrey). The film was Executive Produced by Robina Riccitiello (DÍDI, MUTT). The short film also serves as a proof-of-concept for her second feature which is currently in development with and will be produced by Rachel Stander’s company, A Season of Rain.
In the television space, Puette has written several pilots, the most recent of which, BLAZE, has been recognized by the GLAAD x Blacklist, Warner Brothers Writers Workshop, the NBC Writers Program, and was the recipient of Roadmap Writers Jump Start Grand Prize.
As an actor, Puette has recurred and guest starred on shows across virtually every network and streamer and has played lead and supporting roles in features for Disney, Miramax, and many independent production companies.
On stage, she's carried lead roles in over 30 plays and 100 workshops and her work has been nominated for every major theater acting award in both Chicago and Los Angeles. She’s the recipient of Chicago’s Joseph Jefferson Award, Best Actress; L.A. Weekly Award, Best Actress; Los Angeles Critics Circle Award, Best Solo Performance; and, as a producer, the Ovation Award for Best Production.
Producer - Rachel Stander
