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Threshers, Mergers and the Top Two Boxes

Episode - 157

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August 12, 2014 Film Industry, Rights and Copyright, Scriptnotes, Transcribed

Craig and John discuss the accusations of plagiarism surrounding True Detective — and what plagiarism even means in the context of filmed entertainment. Movies don’t have footnotes, so how should screenwriters give attribution?

Next it’s time for a look at the major Hollywood studios, and what would happen if any of them were to merge, like Fox and Warners seemed poised to do. Following that, we take a look at the test screening process.

Finally, John wants to talk about the Canadian “about,” which isn’t “aboot,” and is a lot more complicated than you’d think.

Links:

  • Did the writer of True Detective plagiarize Thomas Ligotti and others?
  • Nic Pizzolatto on Thomas Ligotti and the Weird Secrets of True Detective
  • The Problem With Saying True Detective Was “Plagiarized”
  • Stephen Glass on Wikipedia
  • Slate on Why Biden’s plagiarism shouldn’t be forgotten
  • The New York Times on How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild and Got a Life
  • Fox Withdraws Time Warner Bid
  • Wikipedia on the Majors
  • Slate on NRG
  • How Canadians Really Pronounce “About”
  • A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder
  • One Man, Two Guvnors
  • How Jesus Became God by Bart D. Ehrman
  • The Historical Jesus by John Dominic Crossan
  • Outro by Scriptnotes listener Rajesh Naroth (send us yours!)

You can download the episode here: AAC | mp3.

UPDATE 8-15-14: The transcript of this episode can be found here.

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