Referring to famous people
I’m writing a comedy where two main characters are discussing Michael Bay films. One hates the man and his work, the other is more neutral.
Is this okay and considered “fair”, to talk/discuss/rant about a person like Michael Bay (or Uwe Boll, or Nicholas Cage etc.)? Do you need permission from them?
– James
Feel free to have your characters discuss Michael Bay. Say good things; say bad things; say what you want. It’s pretty hard to cross into libel territory when you just have dialogue about somebody famous like Mr. Bay. Consider what South Park or Family Guy get away with every week.
Is it “fair?” I’d say that as long as it’s funny, you’re fine. When it stops being funny and is simply mean-spirited, you risk alienating your reader. Go and The Nines refer to some real people, not always in a flattering way, and I’ve gotten no objections.
Where you get into trouble is when you take potshots at someone who is not a public figure, like that weird girl in health class. Not only is it legally unwise to call out Millie Walker by name, it’s also unconscionably lame. So don’t do that.
Back to Mr. Bay for a sec: Keep in mind that there’s a difference between referring to a real person in a movie and making a movie about that person.
If you were writing a bio-pic of Michael Bay (Born in Slow Motion: The Michael Bay Story), you would need either his cooperation or significant legal reassurance that whatever protections you were counting on (public record, parody, whatever) could really hold up in court.
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April 8th, 2009 at 10:00 am
If the practice wasn’t “fair”, Kevin Smith would be out of a job :) His characters’ discussions on various pop culture topics might be a good point of reference on how to keep things balanced.
April 8th, 2009 at 10:12 am
“Born In Slow Motion” = priceless! John, your little throwaway examples outshine much of what passes as actual stuff (i.e., “…washing the ketchup out of his hair when he hears a scream…” almost made me forget about the point being made). Rock on.
April 8th, 2009 at 10:19 am
I think Michael Bay would be THRILLED to have his name mentioned in any sort of conversation in a movie…
April 8th, 2009 at 10:22 am
The big caveat here is that generally speaking, pop-culture dialogue like this will date your script faster than a Flowbee reference.
That said, vaya con Dios and it’s Nicolas Cage, by the way.
April 8th, 2009 at 10:43 am
This is the perfect time for this topic since I’m currently putting the finishing touches on my new spec “Jason Priestley Stole My Life”
April 8th, 2009 at 1:50 pm
There once was a script called “Mr. Spielberg’s Boat” in which the heroes – who lived in a small harbor town – commented on the arrival of Steven Spielberg’s yacht and the differences between their lives and his.
Spielberg would have none of it, so the script became “Mr. Spreckman’s Boat”, and eventually “Far Harbor” with Jennifer Connelly.
April 8th, 2009 at 2:08 pm
Is it just me, or is the whole Michael-Bay-is-the-devil dialogue “clammy”, as they say in the TV biz?
April 8th, 2009 at 2:35 pm
Ya… its clammy. In fact, anyone who bags on Michael Bay from their couch without making a serious run at beating him is clammy. – Its just fat women giving weight loss advice, and they need to shut the fuck up.
April 8th, 2009 at 2:35 pm
(Tosses 84th draft of “Cloud Of Doves: The John Wu Story” in the bin.) ……damn!
April 8th, 2009 at 2:45 pm
In the director’s commentary for Love Actually, Richard Curtis does mention not being able to use the names of some famous people because of legal reasons. Their legal team did clear these names. Maybe that’s just because they’d rather be safe than sorry or something.
April 8th, 2009 at 3:16 pm
Other possibilities:
Shake the Camera and Run: The Paul Greengrass Story
I Saw This in a Movie Once: The Brett Ratner Story
The David Mamet Story: The David Mamet Story: The David Mamet Story: The David Mamet Story
April 8th, 2009 at 3:16 pm
Hmm, formatting didn’t quite come through on that one. Oh well.
April 8th, 2009 at 5:07 pm
I’d be more worried about the entertainment and artistic value of watching two people discuss Michael Bay films. What do the characters’ opinions tell you about them as people or their situation? Is the person who hates Michael Bay actually an in-the-moment, high-voltage person living in denial? Is he secretly Michael Bay’s child? Make sure the conversation has a meaning beyond getting in potshots against a famous person and you’ll be fine.
April 8th, 2009 at 6:00 pm
Is this ever good timing! I have a few celebrity name dropping issues, too. As John advises, I figured mostly it’s okay, since these names are part of pop culture – but since some of my story concerns magazines and the gossip they publish, would I need to be a bit more circumspect?
Like Douchegourdijn at comment 10, I heard of the Love Actually example, and that’s got me a little worried. I’m conscious that these are real people who might not want to be mentioned, and I don’t want the threat of legal challenges to stand against any chance of the film being made.
I’ve made up a few fictional “stars” for the essential scandal stories, but without some real names as well I feel it would be a bit flat. If I use unexceptionable light matter, say: Cameron Diaz is having a surfing holiday” that should be okay – but what if I want to include a true story or past scandal? Even if I used a fictional name the audience would likely remember it and know who it was based on. Do I need to make sure anything scandalous is completely fictional and attributed to a made-up person?
April 8th, 2009 at 11:01 pm
“Shake the camera and run” could also be attributed to Michael Bay, but then he goes and does Slow-Mo for 5 seconds and people think they’ve seen something.
When are studios going to realize that the Matrix & T2 & Diehard were cool because why?????? Because you can SEE the fucking action.
Remember Godzilla? They had that killer trailer and then the entire movie happens at NIGHT…….IN THE RAIN!
Fuck You Roland Emmerich.
(C’mon, John. You knew we were gonna talk shit)
April 9th, 2009 at 5:58 am
Hi Off-topic and possibly annoying: I read your post from way-back-when regarding Jane Espenson’s mailing address. Well, her mailing address has since been removed from her site, and I’m wondering, a) do you feel the address might still be the same, and if so, is there any way you could remember it and provide it to me?, or b) is there any other way to figure out what her snail mail address may be? Thanks, Sarah
April 9th, 2009 at 6:13 am
Schmetterling1129_blufor
HANDS OFF!
April 9th, 2009 at 8:09 am
a similar conversation happened in entourage tv series , about quinton tarantino ’s work .
April 9th, 2009 at 12:15 pm
I read that the reason Godzilla had so much rain was because they ran out of time before the release date and were only able to render the computer FX at a lower resolution and had to use all the rain to hide that.
And Michael Bay doesn’t use nearly as much shaky cam as Greengrass does, the third Bourne movie I had to look away from the screen for stretches due to motion sickness, and during the second it was so bad I actually had to leave the theater and ended up throwing up. Great movies, but I just can’t watch that much handheld on the big screen.
April 10th, 2009 at 5:11 pm
John, what about writing a scene with a famous, or marginally famous person, playing a fictionalized version of themselves? I think of Being John Malkovich, or JCVD. Or what about something like the Hangover, I saw a preview for it and it has Mike Tyson playing himself, but a broader comedic version of himself. (I hope, anyway). Is it wise to write with these people in mind and hope for the best when it comes time to getting them?
April 12th, 2009 at 2:28 pm
The guys from South Park already dissed the crap out of Michael Bay in their movie “Team America: World Police”