A simmering dispute over writing credits for Warner Bros.' Tom Cruise epic "The Last Samurai" erupted Monday into a larger legal assault on the secretive way the Writers Guild of America settles disputes over whose name goes on Hollywood films and TV shows.
In a federal lawsuit filed in Los Angeles, screenwriter Michael Alan Eddy alleges that arbitrators with the guild's Western faction spurned his efforts to secure proper credit and payment for originating the film's screenplay 12 years ago. The suit also names as defendants distributor Warner Bros. and producer Radar Pictures, as well as writer-director Ed Zwick and his production partner Marshall Herskovitz.
Eddy's lawsuit also accuses the guild of defying an earlier appeals court ruling that declared parts of the high-stakes credits determination system a violation of due process.
A guild spokeswoman declined to comment, as did Radar and Warner Bros., a unit of Time Warner Inc.
In an interview, Zwick said he had never read a script by Eddy and didn't believe he had even met the writer. He said he did read what apparently was a rewritten version of Eddy's screenplay, but decided to toss it out and start over using new material.
"I chose to abandon that script," Zwick said.
In any event, Zwick said, Eddy's beef should be with the guild -- not with him or with Warner Bros. "I do not in any way determine credits, and neither does the studio. It's entirely the purview of the guild."
Clashes over credits have become a growing sore point in an industry where studios are relying more and more on multiple writers to create big-budget films. These disputes often pit lower-paid writers who frequently originate projects against richly compensated A-list writers who revamp the scripts to bring them to the screen.
Significant sums are at stake. Studio contracts often tie bonuses worth hundreds of thousands of dollars to the credit on a film. Moreover, a screen credit can boost a writer's reputation, making it easier to land lucrative assignments in an industry where writers far outnumber projects.
In guild arbitrations, the original writers enjoy a deliberate advantage in the assignment of credits, and later writers -- particularly those who also function as producers or directors -- must make deep changes in a script to have their names attached.
