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?](http://lovecraftzine.com/2014/08/04/did-the-writer-of-true-detective-plagiarize-thomas-ligotti-and-others/)
* [Nic Pizzolatto on Thomas Ligotti and the Weird Secrets of True Detective](http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2014/02/02/writer-nic-pizzolatto-on-thomas-ligotti-and-the-weird-secrets-of-true-detective/)
* [The Problem With Saying True Detective Was “Plagiarized”](http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2014/08/06/true_detective_plagiarized_no_nic_pizzolatto_did_not_plagiarize_thomas_ligotti.html)
* [Stephen Glass](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Glass) on Wikipedia
* Slate on [Why Biden’s plagiarism shouldn’t be forgotten](http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/history_lesson/2008/08/the_write_stuff.html)
* The New York Times on [How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild and Got a Life](http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/27/books/27cnd-author.html?_r=0)
* [Fox Withdraws Time Warner Bid](http://online.wsj.com/articles/fox-withdraws-time-warner-bid-1407269617)
* Wikipedia on [the Majors](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_film_studio)
* Slate on [NRG](http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/the_hollywood_economist/2005/07/hidden_persuaders.html)
* [How Canadians Really Pronounce “About”](http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/how-canadians-really-pronounce-about?page=all)
* [A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder](http://www.agentlemansguidebroadway.com/)
* [One Man, Two Guvnors](http://www.onemantwoguvnors.com/)
* [How Jesus Became God](http://www.amazon.com/dp/0061778184/?tag=johnaugustcom-20) by Bart D. Ehrman
* [The Historical Jesus](http://www.amazon.com/dp/0060616296/?tag=johnaugustcom-20) by John Dominic Crossan
* [Outro](http://johnaugust.com/2013/scriptnotes-the-outros) by Scriptnotes listener Rajesh Naroth ([send us yours!](http://johnaugust.com/2014/outros-needed))
You can download the episode here: [AAC](http://traffic.libsyn.com/scriptnotes/scriptnotes_ep_157.m4a) | [mp3](http://traffic.libsyn.com/scriptnotes/scriptnotes_ep_157.mp3).
**UPDATE 8-15-14:** The transcript of this episode can be found [here](http://johnaugust.com/2014/scriptnotes-ep-157-threshers-mergers-and-the-top-two-boxes-transcript).