Page 45 - RICHERT VS. SORKIN THEFT OF THE AMERICAN PRESIDENT AND THE WEST WING

oPresident'
bringsout
HrRglil1q$, By TED J0HllS0H
.Writers Guild of America members voted to stay with the status quo onrcredits ThursdaY, but a dispute over Castle Rock Entertainment's upcoming' iThe American President" can onlY re- mind them of the bad blood that can come out of deciding whose name gets.on screen.
Writer-director r Bill, Richert, who wrote a screfrf,li]-ElTl&l ''oThe President F.lopeS," is chal- lenging the guild's arbitration process after the WGAW deci-
sion awarded sole credit on "The Arnerican President" torAaron Sorkin (Dafl; t Vari e ty,N ov . 2)'
Richert claims that his screen- piay, originally developed for Rob- ert Redford's Wildwood and later bought by Castle Rock, is the basis for "An Amedcan President," and that the guild based its credit deci- sion on false information.
When credits are in disPute oftenwhenrnany writers work on
the issue goes before a WGAW arbitration panel. The panel, composed ofthree anony- mous guild members, operates on a set of guidelines for awarding
credit.
Among them: The first wliter
of a screenplay would get at least a shared story credit.
But in this instance, Sollcin re- quested a special guild Panel to Turn lo Page 31
Procmfor
'fpident'
Continuedfront page 7
detemrine that "An American President" was developed inde- pendent of "The President Elopes," given the links between the two screenplays, said Richard Heller, Sorkin's attorney.
Heller said there were "special circumstances" in this case, given the two projects featuring ulmar- riedpresidents.
Sorkin met with Redford and Rob Reiner in 1993, Heller said. Redford "described the storylinq" of "The hesident Elopes," but Sorkin turned down an offer to re- write the script, he said. lnstead, he agreed to write an original screen- play, Hellersaid.
"hr his original screenplay, somehow in his head he remem- bered the story to a T," Richert responded. "They were hirilg him to write my story his way."
But the guild's pre-arbitration panel saw these as fwo seParate projects, as did both the arbiters and an appeals panel, Heller said.
Y. tL
a project
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Sorkin requested a 'special panel" headed by Rob Reiner's partner; he lied to the panel.