Screenwriting credit for motion pictures and television programs under its jurisdiction is determined by the Writers Guild of America (WGA). The Guild is the final arbiter of who receives credit for writing the screenplay, the original story, or creating the original characters, a privilege it has possessed since 1941. If a production company is a signatory to the Guild's Basic Agreement, it must comply with the Guild's rules; nearly all films widely distributed in the United States are subject to this jurisdiction. (Hereinafter, "film" will refer to both motion pictures and television productions.)

Rationale

Before 1941, it was common for studios, producers, and directors to arbitrarily assign credit to favored writers or to themselves. One of the best known examples of this practice is Citizen Kane (1941). Orson Welles, the star, producer, and director of the film, assigned himself a writing credit in addition to Herman J. Mankiewicz, when Welles did not write the script. Despite Mankiewicz saying Welles was nothing more than "a juvenile delinquent credit stealer", Welles received his only competitive Oscar for the screenplay to Citizen Kane. (Mankiewicz's contract was signed three months before the agreement that gave the Guild control over credit and so he was not protected. Mankiewicz was also hypocritical to complain because he later had to pay a biographer of William Randolph Hearst whose work he had plagiarized.)

The system is seen as important to writers first and foremost for reputational purposes. Nearly all sources list only the official credits certified by the WGA (e.g. the Internet Movie Database) and ignore the contributions of others. John Howard Lawson, the first president of the Screen Writers Guild (the former name of the WGA) said "a writer's name is his most cherished possession. It is his creative personality, the symbol of the whole body of his ideas and experience."

Second, the credit system affects writers' eligibility for membership in the union, which is determined on a point system awarded on what a writer has done. Third, it affects future income. While all writers, credited or not, are paid for their work at the time, residual income from future exploitation of a film on video, pay-per-view, broadcast television, and the like, usually is paid only to the credited writers.

The process

Upon completion of a film, the producer must submit his proposed credits for screenwriting to the guild. If any of the writers object or if credit is to be assigned to a producer or director of the film who rewrote someone else's screenplay the WGA requires the parties to compile drafts of the screenplays and an account of their work on each. This information is submitted to arbitration by a panel of three members of the Guild, which renders a decision.

The WGA resolutely rejects the auteur theory that only the director is the "author" of a film and so when a "production executive" (a producer or director) claims credit, he must meet a higher standard than others to receive credit. A writer must contribute at least one-third of the final screenplay to receive credit. If subsequent writers labor on an original screenplay, they must contribute more than half of the final screenplay to receive credit. If a production executive works on a script, he must contribute at least half the final product to receive credit.

Credit can be apportioned for the story, a short treatment of the plot and characters, and the screenplay itself when all writers were not equally involved in the creation of both. A credit might read "Story by John Doe. Screenplay by John Doe & Richard Roe."

Where a team of writers works on a screenplay, the names are joined by an ampersand (&) and when two teams of writers work successively on a script, the teams are joined by and. So, a credit reading "John Doe & Richard Roe and Jane Doe & Jane Roe" means that there were two writing teams, the men on one and the women on the other.

Where a film has been based on a previous film but does not remake it, a "based on characters created by" credit is given, such as on the show Frasier. Every episode gives credits to James Burrows , Glen Charles and Les Charles , the creators of Cheers, the show where the character of Dr. Frasier Crane originated.

Only three writers may be credited for the screenplay if they collaborated and a maximum of three teams of three may be credited no matter how many actually worked on it. For example, Lethal Weapon 4 (1998) had about a dozen writers, as did The Hulk (2003). The film adaptation of The Flintstones (1994)) supposedly had over sixty writers. Those awarded credit for creating the characters elsewhere and the original story are not included in this limit.

The Guild also permits use of pseudonyms if a writer requests in a timely fashion.

Examples of Guild Approved Credits

Here are some examples of more complicated credits the WGA has approved in recent years.

• The Rock (1996), starring Sean Connery and Nicolas Cage, has the writing credit "Screenplay by David Weisberg & Douglas F. Cook and Mark Rosner . Story by David Weisberg & Douglas F. Cook."
• Armageddon (1998) starring Bruce Willis carries the credits "Story by Robert Roy Pool and Jonathan Hensleigh . Adaptation by Tony Gilroy and Shane Salerno . Screenplay by Jonathan Hensleigh and J. J. Abrams".
• Scary Movie 3 (2003) credits "Based on characters created by Shawn Wayans & Marlon Wayans & Buddy Johnson & Phil Beauman and Jason Friedberg & Aaron Seltzer . Screenplay by Craig Mazin and Pat Proft ."

Arbitration

The arbitration process has been vocally criticized by some Guild members but the Guild has won most lawsuits against it. In 2002, the WGA membership overwhelmingly rejected changes to the arbitration procedures. Writer Eric Hughes made reform a centerpiece of his unsuccessful campaign for the WGA West presidency in 2004.

A chief objection is the secrecy of the process. The identities of the arbitrators are secret and so the parties have no way to object to the qualifications or possible biases of their judges. Second, the decision itself is secret, even from the parties to the dispute, so they have no way of knowing why they lost or won credit. Secret decisions also make an appeal impossible and leave no precedent for future disputes. (There is an appeal panel, but it only concerns itself with technical details as to whether the rulebook was followed.)

One criticism is when existing material, such as a book, is adapted the first writer to work on it will naturally appropriate the most cinematic elements of the story. Barry Levinson, the director of Wag the Dog (1998) and a disputant over screenwriting credit for the film (which was adapted from a novel), says "if a writer creates an idea from scratch, that's one thing. Even if the script is given to other writers and rewritten, that first writer created the seeds of that idea and he or she should get some regard. But for a script from a book, it's different." Even if little of his efforts remain in the final script, he often is awarded credit because he was first on the scene.

Examples of credit conflicts and resolutions

"Just by virtue of being the first guy in the door, you're going to get the credit," says Scott Rosenberg . For example, Miracle (2004), the film about Herb Brooks and the 1980 American Olympic hockey team, was based on a screenplay by Eric Guggenheim, a writer who had never had a screenplay produced. Mike Rich came in, worked with Brooks's family, and labored for over two years on it, leaving nothing of Guggenheim's original except for the historical facts the story was based on. Despite his work, the WGA denied Rich any credit at all. Guggenheim himself was surprised by Rich being cut out completely.

Graham Yost, the credited writer of the film Speed has stated publicly that, "Joss Whedon wrote 98.9 percent of the dialogue...We were very much in sync, it's just that I didn't write the dialogue as well as he did. That was a hard part of the whole Speed thing. It's my name up there, but I didn't write the whole thing. But I fought hard to get that credit, so I'll live with it." Writers are often granted credits for generating overall ideas, setting up story arcs or creating plot points, as would seem to be the case with Speed.

Frank Pierson , formerly WGA president and the current (as of 2005) president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, says "the large majority of credits are still straightforward and uncontested" but "when they go wrong, they go horribly wrong." Phil Alden Robinson says "No one can trust the writing credit. Nobody knows who really wrote the film."

When Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998) was adapted for the screen, Alex Cox and Tod Davies did the initial adaptation. Terry Gilliam was brought in to direct and he rewrote it with Tony Grisoni . The Guild initially denied Gilliam and Grisoni any credit at all even though Gilliam claimed nothing of the original adaptation remained in the final film. "As a director, I was automatically deemed a 'production executive' by the Guild and, by definition, discriminated against. But for Tony to go without any credit would be really unfair." After complaints, the Guild did award Gilliam and Grisoni credit in addition to Cox and Davies but Gilliam resigned from the union over the dispute. "It's really a Star Chamber," said Gilliam of the arbitration process, which he claimed took more work than the screenplay itself.

From 1993 to 1997, there were 415 arbitrations, about one-third of all films whose credits were submitted.

See also

• Screenwriter
• Screenplay
• Category:Screenwriters

References

When the article focuses on certain films, they are noted in parenthesis after the citation

• Michael Cieply and James Bales. "Legal Clash Over 'Samurai' Credit". The Los Angeles Times. June 6, 2004. C1. (The Last Samurai)
• Jane Galbraith. "3 on the Towne, or How to get a 'Firm' writing credit". The Los Angeles Times. July 4, 1993. (Adaptation of John Grisham's The Firm)
• "Giving credit where credit's due". Hollywood Reporter. October 8, 2002. 97.
• Michael A. Hiltzik. "Untangling the Web". The Los Angeles Times. March 24, 2002. A1. ( Spider Man)
• Shawn Levy. "Hollywood Tale: Writing the Script, Losing the Credit". The Oregonian (Portland, Oregon). January 25, 2004. A1. (Miracle)
• Nick Madigan. "Scribe tribe on warpath". Daily Variety. June 8, 1998. 1.
• Dennis McDougal. "Hollywood Screenwriters Weigh a Real-Life Revolution at the Ballot Box". The New York Times. September 18, 2004. A17.
• Dave McNary. "WGA mulls credit rules". Daily Variety. October 24, 2002. 2.
• Dave McNary. "Scribes nix bid to ease credit rules". Daily Variety. November 18, 2002. 1.
• Dave McNary. "A thorny debate continues to plague the Writers Guild of America". Daily Variety. December 18, 2003. A10.
• Kate O'Hare. "The "Bus Guy" Triumphs on Boomtown. Zap2It.com. May 23, 2003
• Tom Shales. "Sometimes Giving Credit When It's Due Isn't Easy". Chicago Tribune. May 3, 1985. 5. (A television miniseries on Raoul Wallenberg)
• Virginia Wright Wetman. "Success Has 1,000 Fathers (So Do Films)". The New York Times. May 28, 1995. Arts section, p. 16.
• Robert W. Welkos. "'Cable', 'Rock' in Dispute on Writing Credits". The Los Angeles Times. May 21, 1996. F1. (The Rock and The Cable Guy)
• Robert W. Welkos. "Giving Credit Where It's Due". The Los Angeles Times. May 11, 1998. A1.
• Michelle Williams. "How Many Writers Does It Take . . . ?" The New York Times. May 17, 1998. Arts section, p. 17.

External links

• Official WGA rulebook on writing credit: [1]
• WGA East page on credit determination: [2]
• Eric Hughes's site: [3]
• IMDB's page on credit determination: [4]
• Terry Gilliam's dispute, complete with photos of him burning his WGA membership card: [5]
• The dispute over Aaron Sorkin receiving sole credit on the film The American President: [6]
• An example of the bias: an arbitrator votes against Ben Stein because he worked for Richard Nixon: [7]