Well said Scott! Why is it that great novelists are rightly applauded and often revered, yet great screenwriters are virtually unknown to the general public? Without scripts there could be no movies, at least nothing that made any sense.

I'm with you Scott. It's truly mind-boggling how a movie can start as the screenwriter's baby, and then somehow end up being "A [director's name] film."

I followed the development of DEJA VU somewhat closely, from the time the script sold, reading the writer's posts on it on Wordplay, and then finally, many months later, rented the DVD, and the first thing you see as the movie starts? "A Tony Scott film" ... it felt like a punch in the stomach. And I wasn't even one of the writers.

I am always especially boggled by this as the offending articles are written by, of course, writers! How can they always overlook this? Why do they fall in line with director-as-auteur idea, as if the director had a blank canvas -- or blank page -- to work from? I cynically think that magazine journalists -- and I was one - privately envy the creativity and better pay of screenwriters, and so consciously or unconsciously slight their fellow writers when writing such one-sided pieces.

This sort of thing makes me froth at the mouth! I don't see how it's even POSSIBLE to ignore the screenwriter, but if I get started on this rant, I won't get any writing done today...

Judith

There are now three responses to the original article... all short but sweet (and yes one being mine) and they all reflect the opinion of Scott's original post.

Maybe with a little help from the GITS community we can open the writer's eyes... or just hammer his article for fun! : )

Something that really stuck with me at the Golden Globes was how, when Toy Story 3 won an award, they were quick to thank Michael Arndt for his wonderful script.

@Courtney: Good idea.

@Darren: That's because Pixar, perhaps above all others, know how important the story is.