In so many words, Directors often sell tickets more then writers. Certain writers have a track record and a proven fanbase, a la Charlie Kaufman, Aaron Sorkin, etc, but the Directors and the Actors are the more visible moneymakers, fair or not.
A film is in essence a collaboration of many, many people. So many in fact that credits often take 6-10 minutes to run! The vastly overlooked include not just writers, but the DP's, the Editors, the Art Department, the Effects Department, etc, etc.
they're all just support personnel though. Whatever it is they do could be seen as manual labor they do according to the director's vision.
This twenty-year-old boy was distinguished from childhood by strange qualities, a dreamer and an eccentric. A girl fell in love with him, and he went and sold her to a brothel...