Not to mention, that man has ALOT of friends in the business ranging from heads of studios and big-name directors to grips and production assistants.

So…I don’t think ol Frank would be running his mouth publicly unless he had good enough reason to suspect this was all happening.

If they ARE indeed using ideas that Darabont came up with, and *if* those ideas are as awesome as Spielberg thought they were, this *may* be FANTASTIC news for the movie as far it not sucking.

Either way, I’ll be there opening day regardless, first in line.

Um… With all due respect to Kristina, this has absolutely nothing (well, little) to do with money. We writers toil as most cannot fathom. It’s us, a blank page…and words. An endless choice of words. Trying to sling them together ‘just so’.

Darabont refers to a wasted year. Not just a wasted year of effort that never came to see the light of day…but one, purportedly, that’s seeing the somewhat-light of day…with another writer getting credit.

Within their industry, writers get less respect than they’re due on a daily basis. (For more insight into this, check out http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/showrunner-explains-why-hes-on-strike/) If what’s happened to Darabont is true, this is adding insult to injury.

‘Walk a mile in their shoes’ and all that is what I’d suggest to those outside the creative world before lobbing guffaws.

(Great comment, Darren.)

Probitionate’s above comment is more accurate. In fact, int’l friends -and that means you, too, Doug- this sort of thing happens all the time and sometimes, the writers “credited” may not have been part of the final studio film presented, but ‘one or two’ ideas may have been used while rewriting…or sometimes not. Writers do haggle over credit from time to time, but nobody “sues”. It is left up to arbitration.

It has nothing to do with money. It has to do with screen credit. Nothing more, nothing less. What could be used is anything from an idea to a character the writer created/wrote dialog for.

Granted, arbitration is an odd bird- every now and then you could have a credit of scribes a mile long. Some are given “strory by” credit without given the “screenplay by” credit. Or, instead of a writing credit of some kind, a meaningless “co-producer” credit is given, not by the WGA but by the filmmakers who wish to give a nod to a contributing writer whose work is significant but went uncredited by the WGA arbitration.

It happens.

Christ, these people suing each other at the drop of a dime just annoys me. You already have more than enough money. Just stop already, people!