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posted March 06, 2001 04:36 PM            

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I hate when I hear about stuff like this happening. (link to the complete story is below)

20th Century Fox Loses Legal Battle on Film Script

ANN ARBOR, Mich. (Reuters) - A small Detroit publishing firm won a $19 million lawsuit against 20th Century Fox on Tuesday after a jury agreed the movie studio swindled the script for a hit Christmas movie starring Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Murray Hill Publications claimed in the lawsuit the script for the 1996 movie ``Jingle All the Way'' bore a remarkable resemblance to the screenplay ``Could this be Christmas?'' written by high school teacher Brian Alan Webster.

The screenwriter for ``Jingle All the Way,'' listed as Ed McQueen, was actually an alias for Randy Kornfield, a script reader at 20th Century Fox, Mayer Morganroth, a lawyer for the publishing firm, told Reuters.
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010306/re/leisure_fox_dc_1.html

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Posts: 8183
From:Santa Monica
Registered: May 2000

posted March 06, 2001 04:44 PM            

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I really hope the judgment holds up. These script readers need to be a little more creative when they decide to steal stuff.

Of course it happens all the time, little snippets of dialogue here, little plot turns there. They take home these little jewels and plug into their own sorry little stories and suddenly... THEY'RE CREATIVE! I hope of that $19 million judgment some of it trickles down to the high school teacher who wrote the script.

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Posts: 2906
From:Studio City, CA
Registered: Apr 2000

posted March 06, 2001 09:48 PM            

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At least that's one ruling in the favor of the "original" writer. Hundreds of bits and ideas are stolen all the time - a studio is stealing an idea right now as I type - and most of the time the person who really wrote the stuff is completely clueless that it was stolen. It's a tough call. If you fight and claim somebody stole something and lose - you don't work again in this town and if you win - you most likely will not work in this town again because you would be labeled a troublemaker.

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Posts: 237
From:Hollywood USA
Registered: Dec 2000

posted June 26, 2001 01:41 PM         

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I noticed the 8th Annual Manka Screenplay competition on the front page... when is the 9th Annual competition? Is it just screenplays?

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From:a
Registered: Aug 2001

posted August 14, 2001 05:02 PM            

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dont even try to be a screenwriter. the odds are better that you will be hit by lightning or win 2 lotteries before you would sell anything

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From:Hollywood, CA
Registered: Apr 2002

posted April 23, 2002 04:32 PM            

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I thought there was a Quentin Tarantino category here... oh, well, this will have to do...
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QUENTIN TARANTINO
Shark Pictures/ZUMA Press
OSCAR-winning movie-maker QUENTIN TARANTINO is planning a new career - as a novelist.

The PULP FICTION director has sold the world publishing rights for his first book, KILL BILL, about a bride who goes on a killing spree after being hit by a bullet on her wedding reception.

And fans won't have to wait long for a movie version of the novel - Tarantino's already making one, starring UMA THURMAN, LUCY LIU and DARRYL HANNAH and it's due for release next year.

But the director - who picked up an ACADEMY AWARD for his screenplay for PULP FICTION - insists the novel is different from his previous writing efforts.

Quentin says, "I'm moving away from screenplay format, keeping what I do like of the form and throwing away what I don't. I write tons of prose. It's all about the page, it's the writer in me."

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Posts: 8183
From:Santa Monica
Registered: May 2000

posted May 07, 2002 04:22 PM            

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Good article from the L.A. Times by Patrick Goldstein about how good scripts turn into bad movies.
http://www.calendarlive.com/top/1,1419,L-LATimes-Movies-X!ArticleDetail-58221,00.html

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From:Hollywood, CA
Registered: Apr 2002

posted June 13, 2002 10:04 AM            

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Former Monty Python John Cleese turned his back on Hollywood following the failure of 1997's Fierce Creatures, he told today's Toronto Globe and Mail. Cleese, who co-wrote, co-produced, and co-starred in the movie, told the newspaper, "Fierce Creatures got good reviews but we were killed right after it opened because they re-released Star Wars. I won't spend three years on something, knowing a quirk of fate can destroy it." The movie, which also starred Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Kline and Michael Palin, grossed only $9.2 million at the domestic box office. Cleese said that following its failure he vowed "to live on the basis that I might at any given moment fall under a bus."

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posted June 14, 2002 12:40 AM         

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I'm a HUGE Cleese/Python fan, but I don't think the rerelease of Star Wars was the only thing behind the failure of FC. Despite the same cast, it was NO Fish Called Wanda. Still, I hope he changes his mind a decides to write something else down the line. The world needs more intelligently written films. In the meantime, I guess we'll have to make do with his other projects like the one on the human face.

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From:Hollywood, CA
Registered: Apr 2002

posted August 09, 2002 10:03 AM            

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Joe Eszterhas has cancer...
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=502&u=/ap/20020809/ap_on_en_mo/eszterhas_smoking_2&printer=1

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From:Hollywood, CA
Registered: Apr 2002

posted September 12, 2002 02:17 PM            

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The screenwriters of two movies are finally getting a chance to appear along with the actors and directors in the "extras" package that accompanies the films' DVD releases, the Los Angeles Times observed today (Wednesday). Chap Taylor and Michael Tolkin, who wrote Changing Lanes and Jay Wolpert, who wrote The Count of Monte Cristo each talk about the making of their films in their own featurettes, the Times reported. Ordinarily, the newspaper observed, screenwriters "get short shrift ... on most DVDs."

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posted September 13, 2002 02:43 PM         

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Anybody out there read 'Monster' by John Dunne? Kind of interesting. Basically the story of how the script he had his wife wrote based on the extreme life and tragic death of Jessica Savitch (moreso that I had known prior) was twisted into something almost entirely different (and much lighter)- the Disney/Redford/Pfeiffer film 'Up Close and Personal'.

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Posts: 7455
From:Hollywood, CA
Registered: Apr 2002

posted September 17, 2002 10:33 AM            

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THE WRITERS STORE AND STUDIO NOTES are proud to offer the Hollywood Gateway Screenwriting Contest. The winning entry will receive $5,000 Cash prize, an initial 12-month option agreement against a potential $100,000 purchase price, meetings with top Agents and Producers, exposure to over seventy top agencies and production companies
and more.

The submission deadline is September 30th, 2002 with a late entry date of October 31st, 2002 so don't wait. http://hollywoodgateway.com

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Posts: 7455
From:Hollywood, CA
Registered: Apr 2002

posted December 03, 2002 10:08 AM            

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The Writers Guild of America has launched an online registration service that allows members and outsiders to protect their scripts and ideas for television shows at the WGA's website <www.wga.org>, the Los Angeles Times reported today (Tuesday). (Guild members pay $10; nonmembers, $20.) As with hand-delivered and mailed submissions, the registered material is placed "under seal" -- to be opened only in the event of a lawsuit involving the material. The Guild said that it has recently experienced a surge in registrations (the service was launched in June) as a result of competition in HBO's Project Greenlight contest and an automatic reminder included in the scriptwriting software Final Draft urging users to register their completed script with the WGA.

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posted December 03, 2002 01:52 PM         

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Cool. Very convenient.

Speaking of Project Greenlight, what's the deal with the DVD release playing up the fact that it's "Uncensored" (I think that was the verbage)? Wasn't it that way on HBO? I can't remember now.

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