Fox Rewriting Rules With Top Hollywood Scribes

Score one for the scribblers, traditionally the low men on the totem pole when it comes to getting paid. And one for Fox, a studio known more for its parsimonious business practices than its industry innovation. But in a time where producers and scribes are at odds over sharing risk and reward, Fox has struck a highly unusual deal with a collective of A-list screenwriters, known as Writing Partners, which includes John August (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), Michael Brandt and Derek Haas (3:10 to Yuma), Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio (Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End), Michael Arndt (Little Miss Sunshine), Craig Mazin (Scary Movie 3), Simon Kinberg (Mr. & Mrs. Smith), Stuart Beattie (Collateral), Tim Herlihy (Happy Gilmore) and Cormac and Marianne Wibberley (National Treasure). The studio is offering members of the collective a small upfront payment (around $300,000, well below their normal quotes) to write one original screenplay over the next four years, and first-dollar gross participation (around 2.5%) if the movie gets made. The writers also maintain more creative control of their script. Fox can't replace a writer without his/her permission and the writer doesn't have to accept the studio notes, but the gross participation provides the incentive for the writer to be flexible with studio/director requests and to keep the product smart but commercial. "If a standoff does occur, there are provisions in the deal that protect Fox but also allow the writer to take back the script," Variety says. Here's some more context about the unique deal, and what it signals about the potential strike, from the LA Times' Scriptland column:

Gross participation is a rare circumstance and remains a kind of brass ring for screenwriters. Back in 1999, Amy Pascal announced that Columbia Pictures would entice top writing talent by offering more than 30 top-tier writers 2% of "adjusted gross receipts." In that case, the screenplays weren't specs; they were studio assignments, but the upfront fees were much higher. David Koepp, Paul Attanasio, Ron Bass, Scott Frank and Richard LaGravenese all participated in the program, and Bass, Frank and LaGravenese are now members of the Wells co-op. Over its first five years, the Sony arrangement paid out on more than 75 projects, but there was no resulting groundswell at other studios.

Until now.

In the current contract-negotiations climate, screenwriters are proactively taking control of their destinies by seeking to partner with their employers. They're sending a clear message: We will take less money upfront to write commercial movies that we have a strong hand in developing so that we can share in the success and profits if they get produced and make money. The new Fox deal will encourage writers to write the mainstream potential blockbusters that many of them already churn out.

The advantage for the studio will be original feature scripts, with an excellent chance of a high percentage of good, producible projects given the writers involved, many of whom have well-established track records.