How Do Writing Credits Work in Hollywood?
What do the screenwriting credits on a major motion picture actually mean?
A few weeks ago, Netflix released Mank, David Fincher’s tribute to Herman J. Mankiewicz, the screenwriter who collaborated with Orson Welles on Citizen Kane. The authorship of that film has been a controversial subject for decades, and Fincher’s movie opts for the (erroneous) notion that Mankiewicz was the sole writer, with Welles hogging credit.
Interestingly, Mank itself is credited exclusively to the director’s father, the late Jack Fincher (whose viewpoint was inspired by Pauline Kael’s discredited essay Raising Kane), but it has been reported that some revisions — perhaps by producer Eric Roth, who won an Oscar for Forrest Gump in 1995 — occurred before filming. Of course, said revisions were, most likely, not substantial enough to warrant any additional credit, as per the WGA system. But how does that system work?
The Writers Guild of America
What is currently known as the Writers Guild of America (itself split in two sections, East and…
