The link you gave to the WGA lists other credits too (e.g., “Adaptation” and “Based on a Story by”). Do those end up in the opening credits as well?

I want credit for watching Pearl Harbor in the theatre.;)

Unfortunately, an Edit button would require cookies and a whole lot more sophistication. Sorry.

Spec:

Unfortunately, you’ll never squeeze all the subjectivity out, even with the Contracted Writers angle. Case in point: A WRINKLE IN TIME, which went through more than a dozen writers over a fifteen year period. It changed production companies many times, and had both WGA and non-WGA writers on it. (Indeed, some of the companies that developed it weren’t even WGA signatories.) So who gets included? If you want to stick with “any WGA writer who ever had a contract to write on it,” great, but realize you’re still making subjective choices to exclude certain writers.

And whose responsibility is it to investigate and validate all the contracted writers?

I’m not trying to deflate the Contracted Writer idea, just to point out the unbiased aspect of it really isn’t airtight.

Since movies with multiple writers often go to arbitration, my instinct is that the arbiters should be allowed to decide which names belong in the end scroll. And yes, that would involve subjectivity.

That credit is impossible on a movie produced by a WGA signatory. I can only assume the WGA did not have any authority over the award of credits on your movie.

Give me a tall ship, and a star to sail her by.

Or rather,

Give me a gifted writer, and a story for him to tell.

Hey John, how about an edit button? :D

Give me a tall ship, and a star to sail her by.

Or rather,

Give me a gifted writer, and a story to for him to tell.

Every writer who is hired under a WGA contract should get credit.

The argument is that implementing any kind of subjective qualification for “deserving” end credit will just result in writers getting a second chance to have their names excluded from the movie.

The proposed solution is to use an objective standard — if they were hired under a WGA contract, they should be acknowledged in the end credits. Not as a “contributor,” or a “consultant” or “participant,” but as a WGA Contracted Writer, which implies no authorship, but gives these professional writers formal screen credit for doing their job for the production company.

Just like the guy driving the catering truck.