I am not a Twitter person but sometimes I check out the handles from people in the industry to see what's doing, and I noticed the other day that manager / producer John Zaozirny (Bellevue) is considering leaving Twitter over a controversial post he made back in March
https://twitter.com/johnzaozirny/sta...89012717776904
which kind of blew up (in a bad way) and drew the ire of Craig Mazin, who will supposedly discuss this situation on a forthcoming episode of Scriptnotes (at least that's the way Zaozirny makes it sound).
My initial thought was, eh, Craig's kind of a dick sometimes. Maybe he got carried away.
And then I read the comments that started the whole thing--
Basically Zaozirny said that if a writer of an original spec engages a producer, even on a casual level, regarding development of a script (ie. notes), even if there's no option or shopping agreement, even if the writer doesn't use the notes and never even completes a draft for that producer, the writer has a legal responsibility to disclose the relationship in any future option or sale contracts as a chain-of-title liability, which could damage the value of the spec and/or scare off any buyers.
Zaozirny says that writers should hire a lawyer to draft paperwork before engaging a producer on any level (which just doesn't seem realistic).
He was called out in the replies by several entertainment attorneys (and Mazin) for giving wrong-headed advice.
Besides loving a good Hollywood Twitter fight, I have a great deal of interest in this topic as I am currently right in the middle of this exact situation (notes + revisions w/o a contract).
https://twitter.com/johnzaozirny/sta...89012717776904
which kind of blew up (in a bad way) and drew the ire of Craig Mazin, who will supposedly discuss this situation on a forthcoming episode of Scriptnotes (at least that's the way Zaozirny makes it sound).
My initial thought was, eh, Craig's kind of a dick sometimes. Maybe he got carried away.
And then I read the comments that started the whole thing--
Basically Zaozirny said that if a writer of an original spec engages a producer, even on a casual level, regarding development of a script (ie. notes), even if there's no option or shopping agreement, even if the writer doesn't use the notes and never even completes a draft for that producer, the writer has a legal responsibility to disclose the relationship in any future option or sale contracts as a chain-of-title liability, which could damage the value of the spec and/or scare off any buyers.
Zaozirny says that writers should hire a lawyer to draft paperwork before engaging a producer on any level (which just doesn't seem realistic).
He was called out in the replies by several entertainment attorneys (and Mazin) for giving wrong-headed advice.
Besides loving a good Hollywood Twitter fight, I have a great deal of interest in this topic as I am currently right in the middle of this exact situation (notes + revisions w/o a contract).
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