Writers Guild of America members have overwhelmingly approved a measure that would create a new film screen credit – “Additional Literary Material”.
The credit would appear in a film’s end credits roll and acknowledge all the writers who worked on drafts of a film’s screenplay, but did not contribute enough work to qualify them for an actual “Story by” or “Screenplay by” credit. This would acknowledge the contributions of the numerous writers who work on a film project doing everything from writing drafts that get abandoned to uncredited polishes to dialogue and joke punch-up.
Seventy-three per cent of their voting membership cast their lot to approve the referendum.
In a document that the Guild prepared for members about the proposal, they explained how that would impact writers.
For 2020, the WGA determined credits for 213 films. On 69 of these films — roughly 1 in 3 — at least one participating writer received no credit. In total, 185 participating writers wrote on features for which they ultimately received no credit. These are the writers who would be eligible for a new credit.
The “Additional Literary Material” credit will be available on projects on which the Guild finalizes credit arbitration December 31, 2021.
