Ah but the unspoken rules are these- If the movie sucks blame the screenwriter. (This is almost always is the case) If the movie is brilliant praise the director. (And also the producer, depending on how much klout he has) The writers always get the lousy end of the deal in Hollywood. (But they get money! Yipee!) Ten years ago I would have taken your advice to start another project since that was the only real option back then. Now? Make and release your own movie. Count the profits as all your own. Never give a director the "Film By" credit - EVER. (Unless they are the SOLE writer too) I know plenty of people that make a terrific living this way. What they don't get is the glamour of Hollywood but that is overrated and now going out of style too. Netflix revolution baby!

"Which one do you think I recommend?" I'll go with Jim Beam.

I was leaning towards the assault in a very public eatery. You'll get press for that which, people being people, might play out in an interesting way.

The BBC equivalent of 'Alan Smithee' is 'David Agnew'. Mr Agnew was often employed when the script editor (who because of obnoxious BBC regulations couldn't take on-screen writing credit) had to substantially rewrite a freelancer's teleplay. These days the regulations have been done away with an it doesn't seem to be needed.

[...] Scott Myers discusses how to recover as a screenwriter from a terrible studio project. I wrote a movie that sucked. I don’t think it sucked so much because of my contribution. In fact, ... [...]