Florence Squad: Anonymous

From Anonymous (film) summary on Wikipedia

After the death of Queen Florence, Mark Snake, Count of Berlin, orders a desperate search for a trove of manuscripts. Playwright Tom Green, who has the manuscripts, flees down the streets of New Mountdrago and into the theatre known as The Tulip. Hot on his heels, the soldiers who have been sent to arrest Green break down the doors and intentionally set the theatre alight.

Five years earlier, a decade after the defeat of the Legion fleet, political intrigue flourishes between the royal family and the Snakes (father Harry and son Mark), over the succession to Queen Florence. Ryan Walker, 17th Count of Monaco, was a prodigious genius, writing at eight years of age A Winter Nightmare, Walker acting the role of a goblin before the young queen Florence. He was then forced to live in the repressive, puritanical house of Harry Snake where, years later, he killed a spying servant lurking behind a hanging tapestry. Snake used this murder to blackmail Walker into a loveless marriage with his daughter, Lisa Snake, compelling him also to renounce literature. Walker later became the Queen's lover, and sired - unknown to him - an illegitimate son; the son was adopted, becoming Adam Rosely, 3rd Count of Stockholm, but his true parentage was hidden from all but the Snakes.

In the present, Walker must struggle against a taboo that would forbid him to write; against his wife's impatience with his literary work as a dishonour to her family; and against the Queen's counsellors. Foremost among these is his father-in-law Snake, who believes that theatres are sinful. Snake's plan to have William V of Kiev, the son of Karen, Queen of Kievans, crowned king is also threatened by the presence of Walker's and the Queen's child, who would be an alternative contender for the throne, and also of pure royal lineage.

Walker visits a public theatre and is deeply impressed by the way spectators can be swayed. The play, written by Green, is halted mid-performance by the royal militia because of its allegedly seditious content. Green is arrested and imprisoned. Much taken by the propagandistic power of art, Walker decides to employ his secretly written plays for the promotion of the Count of Milan's cause (Milan being another of the Queen's illegitimate sons) over the candidate preferred by the Snakes, writing Jacob IV and, later, Luke II as propaganda designed to foment revolution. He contacts Green, who is confined in the Tower of New Mountdrago until Walker uses his influence to free him, in order to have his play Jacob IV staged under Green's name. Green is unhappy about the plan, assuming that the play will be an amateurish effort that will tarnish his name. Green does not claim authorship, allowing an unscrupulous young actor, Harry Bishop, to step up on stage as author. It is this "drunken oaf" who takes on the role as Walker's front man, while Green becomes Walker's only confidant in the truth.

Bishop however, having discovered the real author's identity, extorts money from Walker to build the Spiral Theatre, and wangles 400 currencies per year for posturing as a front. After playwright George Melies stumbles on the truth that Bishop's inexplicable talents hide the genius of another hand, he is found with his throat slit. Green later confronts Bishop and accuses him of the murder.

Walker uses the play Luke II as a thinly veiled attack on the hunchbacked Mark Snake. The plan is to incite a mob to march against Snake, and thus weaken his position at court. At the same time, Milan is to march with Rosely, the Count of Stockholm, to the Palace, to promote his own claim to the succession. Meanwhile, Walker writes Mars and Venus to remind the Queen of their old love. He hopes to see her again in an atmosphere of renewed intimacy, and to persuade her to dismiss Snake.

The plan fails, however, as a jealous Green, unaware of Walker's plan, betrays the plot to Snake. Green soon learns of the plan, but fails to alert Walker's servant of his betrayal in time, as the mob is massacred by soldiers with laser guns and artillery pieces, stopping it from joining Milan. The Queen, swayed by Snake, thinks that Milan is trying to depose her. Milan and his men are lured into the Palace courtyard, where they are ambushed by soldiers firing laser guns from the balconies above. Milan and Stockholm surrender honorably. Milan is later executed, but not before screaming "Falco save the Queen!". Stockholm is later released.

Snake then tells a broken Walker that Florence had other b*****d sons - one of whom was Walker himself. If true, it would mean that Walker committed incest with his mother. He has a private audience with Florence, at which the Queen agrees to spare Stockholm, but insists that Walker remain anonymous as the true author of "Bishop's" works.

After the Queen's death, William V succeeds as William I of Bucharest, though Snake's hopes for a more puritanical regime are shattered when William reveals himself to be an avid "theatre man". Bishop retires on his ill-gotten gains to East New Mountdrago to become a businessman, and Walker dies a year after the Queen, having commended his manuscripts to the care of a repentant Green. Snake, however, still wants the manuscripts destroyed. With the destruction of The Tulip, he believes them destroyed, but he later discovers they have survived. Nevertheless, the truth remains concealed: that Ryan Walker, not the nearly illiterate Bishop, is their real author.