A proposal about uncredited screenwriters

I recently posted an interview with Joss Whedon in which he talked for the first time about his work rewriting the script for the movie Speed. Here is an excerpt:

Whedon: In my whole career, I’ve never had to talk about it. I’ve never signed a copy of it, I’ve never sort of been a part of it. And I was proud of it, I worked hard on it, I had a really great time and I worked with really cool people. I thought it was good stuff. Graham has been very generous, but I did not get a credit on it. The studio gave me one, but then the Writers Guild of America took it away, and I was pretty devastated. I have the only poster with my credit on it.

A majority of movies produced in Hollywood have had multiple writers work on them, most of them uncredited. Sometimes the writer doesn’t even seek credit, generally the case with ‘script doctors’ who work strictly for hire. Other times, writers actively seek credit, but do not receive it due to the determination of the WGA arbitration process.

Which leads to an odd situation: There can be literally hundreds of people credited with working on a movie, yet one or more writers who contributed to the development of the script receive zero credit.

So why not this credit: “Additional Writing By” and list all the other writers who were hired to work on the project? Slot it in the end credits crawl which would set off the credited writers with their own title card.

You may ask, “What if a writer contributed only one scene to the final movie? Why should s/he deserve an Additional Writing By credit?” What if the one scene is an important moment or plot point? Isn’t that creative contribution worth at least some public recognition? But even if the scene isn’t all that critical, it’s still a narrative element that would not in all likelihood exist in the final cut were it not for the work of this currently uncredited writer. I’d say that writer deserves some acknowledgement for their creative input.

You may ask, “What if the writer didn’t contribute even one scene, one character, one piece of dialogue to the movie? How in the world does s/he deserve an Additional Writing By credit?”

Writing a script involves thousands of choices. Decisions made and pages written that end up being tossed aside does not mean they are without value. Indeed, if Uncredited Writer’s draft explores, let’s say, twelve narrative possibilities that end up being rejected, that is not a negative in terms of the creative process, but rather a positive. First, the filmmaking team now knows they don’t have to go that way again. Second, those choices that end up not working for the final draft will almost assuredly help subsequent writers and the creative team determine what does make sense. So even if there are zero words of Uncredited Writer appearing in the shooting script, the fact is that writer has been part of a creative process which eventually led to a final draft, a story which may never have been realized without the choices made by that very same writer.

Here’s the thing: The use of Additional Writing By will never happen for at least two reasons: (1) I believe the WGA would look at it as cheapening the contributions of the credited writers. (2) It would expose how crazy Hollywood’s approach is to script development. Like the 11 writers 20th Century Fox hired to write The A-Team. Hell, I’ve participated as a judge in a WGA arbitration in which there 18 writers involved. Does Hollywood really want the public to see a list of writers hired per each movie that approximates the length of the Gettysburg Address?

And yet, it just doesn’t seem right for a writer to slave away on a one or more script drafts, perhaps representing six months or more of their creative effort, only to receive a big fat nada in terms of official recognition for their work. You think that doesn’t hurt? Look again at what Joss Whedon said about being denied a credit on Speed: “I was pretty devastated.”

Doesn’t the idea of Additional Writing By seem like a sensible, fair idea? Tell me if I’m wrong and why. Or perhaps you have a better idea. If so, head to comments to carry on this conversation to see if we can make invisible writers become visible… and receive credit for their creative efforts.

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