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October 30, 2007

Need To Know

This is an example of a letter being sent out to WGA members in an information gathering process that has raised some hackles. Names and projects have been redacted.

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Dear XXX,

As you know, we’re heading toward a crucial period in the Guild’s negotiation with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (the AMPTP). The Negotiating Committee needs your help and they’ve asked us, the screenwriters on the Committee, to reach out to you.

You’re probably also aware that the studios are stampeding to rush projects into production. Each day brings more rumors of projects being rewritten, green-lit, brought back from the dead. As best we can tell, there are some 180 active projects heading toward pre-production, about three times the norm.

This week, however, comes a rumor that the studios will not assign any more writing projects until things ‘stabilize’. Some of this is gossip, some of it disinformation. To make crucial decisions in the forthcoming weeks, the Committee and the Guild need to have a clear and reliable picture of what is actually going on. We, the feature film screenwriters, are the best source of that reliable information so we’re reaching out for an overview of the current and projected screenplay work. The TV writers on the Negotiating Committee are also reaching out to TV writers to gather information about television production schedules.

We understand this is extremely sensitive information and we want to assure you that the sole purpose of the attached questionnaire is to make strategic decisions as to how to be most effective in applying or not applying the threat of a withdrawal of labor. The information provided by you will NOT be used for any other purpose and will remain absolutely confidential. If you’re not comfortable with anything in the questionnaire please do not hesitate to contact any of us through the Guild. We’ll be happy to discuss your concerns with you personally.

This is the crucial contract negotiation of our time. With this information, we on the Negotiating Committee can focus the power that our solidarity and resolve has brought to these negotiations so far.

Please work with us as we move toward a just and enduring contract.

Sincerely,

Andrew Bergman
Bill Condon
Stephen Gaghan
Terry George
Carl Gottlieb
Susannah Grant
Marc Norman
Ed Solomon

Writer XXX

1. You are listed as a writer on the film, XXX. Are you currently working on this project?
2. If not, have you finished all writing on the project, or are you scheduled to provide writing services on this project in the future?
3. If you are not the current writer on this project, who do you believe is the current writer?
4. What is the nature of the writing services you are doing/have done/will do on the project?
5. How close to completion is the writing on this project?
6. What is the projected start date for principal photography for this project?
7. Is this the kind of project that is likely to require significant ongoing rewriting during principal photography?
8. What is the projected release date for this project?
9. Are there other persons on your production that would step in and finish the writing if you were unable to finish it? Have you heard of any contingency plans?
10. What in your opinion would be the impact on this project of a WGA strike on November 1st?
11. Any other information you have about this project or any other project(s) that you believe would be helpful to us?

Please return this questionnaire by as soon as possible to: XXX

Posted by poland at October 30, 2007 01:00 AM

Comments

Heat; there may be some journalistic merit to posting this letter. Yet... it's sort of gossipy. I could have sworn that you -- David "HEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaattt" Poland -- stated you were finished with gossip.

Sure; this post is just an attempt to type out HEAT in a rather silly way. However... where does the line begin and end for you in terms of gossip? Since I see a letter meant for a certain pair of eyes and when they are not seeing them. It turns into something completely different.

That aside; 180 films in productions? A 180? No wonder they want to strikes because that level is simply asking for trouble from your union. It's also creating a glut of shit in the theatres for 24 months to come.

Posted by: IOIOIOI [TypeKey Profile Page] at October 30, 2007 01:25 AM

If you take the "S" off of "STRIKE" and put it on the end of "UNION." Everything will make sense. Still... a 180 projects at the current time? Blimey.

Posted by: IOIOIOI [TypeKey Profile Page] at October 30, 2007 01:29 AM

This is not gossip, it's a wake up call.

Posted by: T. Holly [TypeKey Profile Page] at October 30, 2007 04:01 AM

You just know that one or two of these filled-out forms will leak and that some web site or rumor monger (like Nikke Finke herself) will post them or use the information to try to generate hits.

Posted by: EDouglas [TypeKey Profile Page] at October 30, 2007 04:48 AM

1. You are listed as a writer on the film, XXX.
XXX had writers?

Posted by: doug r [TypeKey Profile Page] at October 30, 2007 06:55 AM

Here's a prediction for sometime before lunch today:

Although I think, that in a free and open society, where markets rely on transparency, that the WGA should be able to ask it's memebership what's going on, but the producers will jump in, like they did on the Script Authorization Program, and site the confidentiality clause and say it prevents writers from discussing their work, which they will say are secrets owned by the company.

But on a lighter note, Dave, are you feeling any of the myth about how "ready," "smart," and "anticipated" (your terms) those disaster averting buyer/studios are, or can be? Are you feeling 2008 in the pipeline, or Don huffing and puffing ahead of the faux (his term) strike?

Posted by: T. Holly [TypeKey Profile Page] at October 30, 2007 07:55 AM

"XXX had writers?"

Yes. Indeed, they should not be called writers, but instead, right-ers. Because XXX (or, as it should be called, xXx) is a brilliant, brilliant film.

I'm only being partially sarcastic, btw.

Posted by: Alan Cerny [TypeKey Profile Page] at October 30, 2007 08:13 AM

I don't know. A couple of those sound like "are you now or have you ever been a writer on project xxx?"

Posted by: hendhogan [TypeKey Profile Page] at October 30, 2007 10:37 AM

Have to love that the secretary-treasurer of Hollywood Teamsters Local 399 said while it's not Teamster policy at the moment to tell its members not to cross the picket lines nevertheless he won't do it and encourages others to follow suit.

Meanwhile, Patrick Goldstein gave the studios one HELLUVA BLOWJOB in his column today reducing every writer into a cliche filled stereotype. Can you imagine any semi-intelligent journalist saying that all directors are screaming ego maniacs or all actors are spoiled, unprofessional brats but apparently its an accepted truism that all writers are uncompromising elitists who hold up productions by telling actors what to do, refuse to change one line of dialogue - but thats only if they aren't three sheets to the wind.

Posted by: RoyBatty [TypeKey Profile Page] at October 30, 2007 01:15 PM

Roy,

we need you in byob post. noah's trashing "blade runner"

Posted by: hendhogan [TypeKey Profile Page] at October 30, 2007 02:37 PM

DP I know you love using the word, but 'redacted' is not what you're doing by simply blanking out names and projects.

Posted by: Jeffrey Boam's Doctor [TypeKey Profile Page] at October 30, 2007 06:51 PM

I posted this in BYOB - Halloween, too:

No one seems moved by Dave's "Need to Know" post of a seemingly leaked, official, information gathering, WGA communicae to a member. So, was he possibly played, or is he possibly playing the strike through The Hot Blog?

Posted by: T. Holly [TypeKey Profile Page] at October 31, 2007 09:09 AM

Hend - I might post on that, but don't assume you will like what I have to say. If approached from a WRITER'S point of view, what Scott has done with the director and final cuts of BLADE RUNNER is terrible.

It is clear in Dick's novel that only Deckard questions his "human-ness" and Dick was going for the more profound idea that the Replicants were more human than the emotionally dead Deckard. That his budding feelings for Rachael become more darkly ironic when it is revealed that she is also a replicant.

That said, it's not like I'm going to throw out my laserdiscs (I have both versions) or three different soundtracks.

Posted by: RoyBatty [TypeKey Profile Page] at October 31, 2007 11:00 AM

Are you standing by the authenticity of this letter?

Posted by: T. Holly [TypeKey Profile Page] at November 1, 2007 02:21 PM

It is 100% legitimate, T Holly... sent by the union to working writers for specific projects.

I'm not quite sure why this is such drama for you.

Posted by: David Poland [TypeKey Profile Page] at November 2, 2007 02:17 AM

An authentic letter sent to one? Perhaps you think my opinion is less than humble, (which it is, is not), you owe it to yourself to run a follow-up as to why you think the AMPTP isn't having a cow over it, considering they're tripping all over themselves on the Script Validation Program, claiming company secrets and waving the confidentiality clause-flag in the WGA's face.

Posted by: T. Holly [TypeKey Profile Page] at November 2, 2007 08:59 AM

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