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Thank you to everyone who got me to 2500 likes!

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Neil Gaiman, on strike at the NBC Upfronts.

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The strike could be over now if the companies prioritized rewarding those without whom they would have NOTHING.

#WGAStrong

All of this. #WGAStrong

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As a WGA member on strike right now, I’m so heartened to see the most well-known of us standing up and being counted. Thank you Neil!! And yes, Diane’s suggestions are on the money.

Hello.

I've seen you posting detailed information about the WGA strike and wondered if you had any suggestions as to how those of us not directly involved can show our support for the Union?

Okay, bearing in mind that all this is entirely subjective at the moment (and so far lacking any more useful input from other sources): a few thoughts.

This will be my third WGA strike. (My first one was in 1988, just after I'd made my first live action sale—s1e6 of ST:TNG). And the thought keeps occurring to me at the moment that this time out, there's a potentially gamechanging player on the field that wasn't there before: truly pervasive social media.

(Adding a cut here, because this goes on a bit...)

In 2007, social media as we now understand it was still in its cradle. Now, though, those of us who're striking can make our voices much more widely heard. And so can those of us who're not, but just want to show solidarity. Last time, the AMPTP was able to do pretty much what it wanted without the public noticing or having even a medium-profile way to make their feelings known. But this time? Not so much.

So as an otherwise uninvolved person who wants to show solidarity, I'd start with something seemingly low-value. If I was on Twitter, I'd start routinely tweeting about the strike and my support for it—not obsessively, just persistently, a couple/few times a week—using the Twitter hashtags that are gaining ground even now, such as #DoTheWriteThing (and of course #WGAStrike). I would make sure I was following @WGAEast and @WGAWest, to keep an eye on what's going on.

Additionally: I would start politely, but repeatedly—again, maybe once or twice a week at least, and not stopping—tweeting the various major players in the AMPTP, especially the streamers: Amazon, Netflix, Hulu et al. I would start suggesting that their current attitude toward the WGA's contract negotiations is not only unrealistic but potentially (for the AMPTP) bad for business. (And self-destructive, too, as if this goes on much longer in this vein, they'll be seemingly eagerly casting themselves as The Baddies.) I would suggest that their bad behavior, if not amended by them coming to the table to bargain in good faith, might start affecting both my interest in their shows and my willingness to keep paying unreasonable people for access to them.

I should emphasize here that so far there've been no formal calls from anyone for boycotts or subscription cancellations. For the moment, this strikes me as wise. The point for WGA-friendly observers, right now, would be to keep what's happening to the writers visible: to keep bringing it up: to refuse to allow it to be swept under the rug. The "They only want two cents on the dollar!" angle seems potentially useful the more it's repeated. The point is to keep the repetition going: to make it plain, day after day, that the other side's being not just unreasonable, but greedy. Day after day, and week after week, and (if necessary: please Thoth may it not be...) month after month.

And tweeting is hardly all that can be done. Email is cheap and easy. But actual letters, written on actual paper and mailed, can still create a surprising amount of attention in a corporate office. (The saying in TV used to be that for every person who actually writes in about an issue, there are ten, or a hundred, who feel the same way but never got around to it.) Write letters to all the AMPTP members' CEOs, and make your feelings on the WGA's core demands politely plain. ...Especially when those CEOs collectively made almost three-quarters of a billion-with-a-B dollars in salaries last year, when many of the writers working on their shows can't afford rent.

After that: here's another thought, a little more physical. If by chance you're in an area where one or the other of the Guilds are picketing: turn out and support them! Honk when you pass: and if you're interested, show up and offer to walk the picket lines with them. These things get noticed. (In 2007 a bunch of us, both Guild members and non-, caused significant astonishment by turning out to picket AMPTP members' offices in Dublin.)

...Obviously not all that many people are going to be positioned, in terms of location or their own work and time commitments, to show up physically. But online? Find ways to keep this issue visible. The AMPTP wants this to go quiet, wants people to get bored with it, wants people to find reasons to blame the writers. They've tried spinning the story that way before. Don't let them pull that shit. Find ways to back those who're calling them on that, publicly. They do respond to this kind of thing (though they may strenuously deny it). If enough attention continues to be paid by the general public, they will blink—if sometimes excruciatingly slowly, as Disney began to blink over the dispute tagged #DisneyMustPay.

As viewers, and as viewers who pay for subscriptions to things, we far outnumber them. Help be a part of making the AMPTP understand that this quest for a truly fair deal is not going to go away. And the longer they try to act like the Guild's negotiation positions are beneath their notice, the more it's going to hurt them, and the stupider and greedier it's going to make them look.

...That's all I've got for the moment, as I need some lunch. :) ...But I hope this has helped. And thanks for your concern, and your desire to stand in solidarity with us! It's so welcome. :)

[coolscriptcovers]

Books are being banned and removed from library shelves. This is a very bad thing. I was one of the authors who protested. I would have protested even if my book hadn't have been one of the books banned.

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DON’T WORRY DARLING written by Carey Van Dyke and Shane Van Dyke. Cover + first two pages. From the original script that sold with Olivia Wilde attached to direct and Katie Silberman attached to rewrite. Finished film was credited to Silberman with the Van Dykes receiving shared ‘Story by’ credit. 

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#vhs #retrofuture

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UNTITLED GAME OF THRONES PREQUEL, written by Dave Hill.

Hill was a key writer/producer on Game of Thrones, and a former assistant to David Benioff & D.B. Weiss. Pilot developed at HBO, later abandoned in favor of the upcoming House of the Dragon. Here’s hoping it gets resurrected!

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Escape Triptych:

Escape from New York - June 1980 shooting script - Cover + 1st page

Escape from L.A. - July 1995 revised 1st draft - Cover + 1st page

Escape from New York (remake) - June 2007 draft - Cover +1st page

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THE MURDOCHS written by Jesse Armstrong. This Black List feature script was the progenitor to Armstrong’s acclaimed HBO series SUCCESSION. (Here’s to Mr. Armstrong sticking with a project for a decade!)

Draft 4, cover + 1st page.

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Hi. Do you have the triple nine script? Thanks you very much. Frederic.

Apologies, I can’t post or send full scripts, it violates fair use, and it gets people’s pages shut down. That said, it was on the 2010 Black List, shouldn’t be too hard to find.

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THE LIGHTHOUSE, written by Robert Eggers and Max Eggers.

Cover + cast of characters + first page

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A QUIET PLACE, written by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods. 

Note: Unlike most feature-length screenplays, this script is only 68 pages long, due to the lack of spoken dialogue.

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The 7th Voyage of Sinbad written by Kenneth Kolb, based on Sinbad the Sailor from The Arabian Nights: Tales of 1001 Nights. June 28, 1957 draft - 2 covers + 1st page. November 1957 - cover. Film directed by Nathan H. Juran, produced by Charles H. Schneer and Ray Harryhausen. Score by Bernard Herrmann.

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Animal House, written by Harold Ramis, Douglas Kenney, and Chris Miller. October 12, 1977 draft, cover + 1st page.

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Will you send me one of these scripts? Please!

Apologies, can’t distribute pdfs! That would violate fair use and get the blog shut down. Search the net! Stuff is out there. Happy to answer any questions about writing screenplays for a living (which I continue to do somehow).

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I would like to ask this, where did you find David S. Goyer' screenplay for Doctor Strange? I would love to find it online.

I've worked in the movie biz for nearly 20 years. I've accumulated all kinds of stuff from many different sources. That one, I believe, came from when I worked for a management company that repped a few leading men. The script was submitted for someone's consideration to star.