LONG THREAD

Please read this article

We need to bring awareness to a massive, unchecked problem in the film industry IP THEFT

This happened to a ‘friend of mine’

You know? The ‘asking for a friend’ friend?

This ‘friend’ wrote a treatment for a film

https://uproxx.com/movies/jack-barth-interview-yesterday-writer-richard-curtis/#

This treatment was pitched to a production company and the producers LOVED this treatment so much they hired him to write the screenplay.

My friend was thrilled. This was his shot. He wrote the shit out of the script and the producers LOVED IT

So much so they began to shop it

At this point I should say that this friend of mine didn’t work alone.

There were people guiding him along the way. People who could open doors that he couldn’t. Decent people. People who are still great friends of his to this day.

Out of respect for my friend’s friends...

I’m leaving them out of the story.

Suffice it to say these people were the ‘project’s’ core group and everything they did was in an effort to help my friend get his movie made.

There are more good people in this industry than bad. And these people were and remain the good guys

So my friend has this fantastic script that begins to get shopped around to production companies in the hopes that this film is going to get made.

Quick note: the script was optioned by a great company that was seeking partnership with a BIGGER company who could get it financed

On the surface it looked like this was a slam dunk!

Great script. Great producers. Starting to field offers. Looking for money. Was this going to happen?? Holy shit, my friend was going to have a movie made!!

Well, no. Not yet.

It takes a very long time to get a film made.

Development is a looooong process. Unless you’re a big company with lots of $$ it could take years to set up the pieces.

While my friend’s script was being developed something happened.

Another company announced a movie being rushed into production, that was pretty similar

Okay, no big deal. There are similar stories told all the time.

And to be honest, the core conceit of my friend’s script has been done before. No biggie.

So the producers kept developing my friend’s script. Things were looking good.

Then a trailer drops...

My friend saw the trailer and called the team.

“Hey guys did you see this trailer? Looks an awful lot like the movie I wrote.” He said.

The team watched the trailer and sure enough it wasn’t just similar, it was... identical

The team met and did some investigation and saw it

6 mos prior, the team pitched the treatment of my friend’s script to someone we will call Producer X and he passed. Not uncommon. Amiright?

After seeing the trailer, the team discovered Producer X was a producer on this new film. Wait. What??

Okay so it’s here I should state that this happens all the time. And in fairness to producers, they get pitched A LOT And sometimes ideas get mixed into their minds, unaware of the source and ideas get re-pitched

no big deal. Let’s be honest,not a lot of original ideas out there

But it’s the DETAILS of those ideas that are unique/original. And when those details are stolen... it’s hard to justify a case of ‘jumbled in the brain’

So my friend’s script was in the hands of Producer X who made this other movie that seems a lot like his. Then it comes out...

My friend sees the film on opening weekend.

Oh fuck

It’s his film. Not just a little... like, a lot. Like the first 45 mins are IDENTICAL.

Sure there are subtle changes, but the set up, the hook, the objective and the BIG REVEAL are exactly the same.

Beat. For. Beat.

My friend was devastated and his project was dead. Everyone on the team was devastated... so much so the lawyers got involved.

My friend’s lawyer asked him one simple question: “how much $ will you accept, to never be able to make a movie in hollywood again?”

My friend is pragmatic. He said: “5M”

His lawyer said: “then let it go, move on. You’ll never see anything close to that if you sue, and you’ll just be known as a writer who sued and never worked again.”

So my friend let it go. He didn’t pursue it even though he had a case.

The movie itself? Won the box office 2 weekends in a row. Made about 100M worldwide.

Okay. Here’s the rub and the point. Because something happened that was even worse.

While promoting the film, the ‘writer/director’ swore in interview after interview that the film was written ON SPEC (meaning he received no $ to write it was an idea he wrote in hopes it would get made)

He claims it was his idea and NO ONE ELSE’S

This is an odd thing to say...

Especially in interviews, especially over and over and over again.

It’s odd because, no one defaults to suspecting you of stealing.

It’s just assumed you wrote it and it’s yours. So why INSIST over and over that it’s YOURS ALONE?

“The lady doth protest too much methinks?”

My friend can’t say one way or another why this filmmaker went on and on. But he did and his voice is the only one that was heard.

It didn’t have to be this way. It never has to be this way. All that’s required is CREDIT/compensation

The problem is Producer X didn’t want to deal with the chain of title and had the relaxed copyright laws/protection guidelines on his side.

It was less hassle to steal from an unknown writer than it was to bring him (and the team) in on the deal.

Writers are not protected and sometimes it’s easier to steal than to deal with the chain of title.

To the writers out there who have suffered a similar fate as my friend: Don’t give up. But don’t accept that this is ‘the way it has to be’ it isn’t if we protect each other.

LAWS NEED TO CHANGE! PETITION THE GUILD TO PROTECT WRITERS

As for my friend, He went on to direct a couple films and he’s hustling to carve out a career for himself.

He promises to lift up everyone around him. So hang in there. This game can change if we work together