It's not stealing it, it's "borrowing" from a creative source of what has already been created. You can't copyright an idea, this is established.
I am probably over protective [in today's world] because everything, literally, spreads the minute it hits the internet, and I've put time and effort into the project, last thing I would want is it to be taken from underneath me. And, one person's trash (writing wise), could be another person's break (even books, because every person interprets writing, reading etc differently; dependent on how they were raised, their life experiences etc etc)...
There are 29,778 screenwriters on this website (most who have not commented on this post). What is to stop them from seeing the book title, getting it, taking the main characters, changing the names and making a screenplay and getting it produced 50-times faster than I can write and produce it? Then the book and idea depreciates in value due to a movie with similar characters and plot coming out. Less chance of it getting made. For example, like you who is a professional writer with connections to the Blacklist and lives in LA. You could get it written and produced faster than me, wherever I may be.
It's interesting because after your first comment I made some calls to see if I was crazy for posting this and not revealing the title. I explained my view-point and what I think is logic, and they agreed that it would lose value. Which, it seems, you disagree with. But, I guess my question then becomes why does someone need to know the title of the book to just discuss become writing partners? Not even anything getting written yet. Maybe there is someone out there, after we talk, the book gets put to the side and a whole new original idea comes out of nowhere. And again, they will find out the title when they need to know. But, unlike most the people today, I don't go around pretending words/ideas/etc aren't worth anything and should be thrown around. To a writer (or business person), their words/ideas are their life and they need to, at times, protect them. Am I wrong? Do you share ideas on the regular? Like ideas that you think would make truly, deep-down, fantastic stories?
And I have the option, it would seem, because I'm dumbass? or that I thought I would attempt to try and make a film that was way outside my bounds (because it's over a million-dollar budget)? I guess also when two LA Producers believed in me and supported the idea, I believed I was on the right path to doing something positive... Again, this and life is all a test to see if we will just jog-on or stand up and fight to have something become a reality. Sorry I wrote this friggin essay back to you; I still don't know how to properly respond in the reddit world because re-looking at what I wrote is dam too much.