The WGA is a grotesquely political body. We saw that in the recent writers strike, and now we see it again. Jonathan Nolan (The Dark Knight Director’s Christopher Nolan’s brother and co-writer) had made major contributions to the script of the new Terminator Salvation script… and yet… he was not allowed to be credited.
His contributions to the script were so significant that director McG earlier said Nolan was “the lead writer of the film.” and “I don’t know how the WGA rules work but honest to goodness, we did the heaviest lifting with Jonah”. And yet… this “lead writer” who did the “heavy lifting” doesn’t get a credit. Help me out here.
Our friends over at /Film looked into it a bit more and give us this:
I called the Writers Guild of America to find out, and they told me that the FINAL “Written By” credits for the film list only John Brancato and Michael Ferris, the duo that wrote Terminator 3: Rise Of The Machines and the original script for Terminator Salvation. The WGA told me that the credits are not currently in arbitration, and that Jonathan Nolan is NOT listed on the final credits. Of course, this doesn’t mean that Nolan didn’t have a large contribution to the film. Changes in dialogue, character, mood and tone can mean the difference between a good movie and a bad movie. But WGA arbitration is a strange, often disputed and sometimes political process. Nolan would have had to change 51% or more of the story to earn a credit.
So if an actor is only in 5 minutes of a movie… less that 5%… then they get a credit. But someone who contributes as much as Nolan did to the script doesn’t get a credit. I’m not going to pretend to understand the interworkings of the WGA political machine, and I’m sure this happens all the time… but it’s still really messed up.
