Star Wars, Alien, etc. novelization dispute

[Deset Gled]

Genuine question - what stops them just hiring writers not in America?

Are you talking about books specifically, or all writers? If we're just talking books, probably nothing.

On the large media scale: American audiences tend to respond best to American writers. While there are many cases of international movies and TV shows being accepted here, by and large we like our entertainment to be home grown (or at least close enough that we can pretend it's ours, i.e. Canadian). Having no American writers wouldn't stop Disney completely, but it could still hurt them.

On the medium scale: It's important to remember that Disney owns ABC. There is no way ABC could stand against the other big US networks without American writers. FX and the various Disney Channels would also struggle. And there's no way Disney could take that hit when their movie and theme park industries are reeling.

 

[Morrus]

On the large media scale: American audiences tend to respond best to American writers.

I question that and would be inserted to see where you got that data. I bet most American audiences have no idea who writes the scripts for their movies and TV shows (and even if they did probably wouldn't care).

Are you talking about books specifically, or all writers? If we're just talking books, probably nothing.

I was under the impression that the writers strike we were discussing was film and TV writers in the US. Nothing to do with books to my knowledge.

 

[Ulfgeir]

Genuine question - what stops them just hiring writers not in America?

The Unions related to filming is powerful? Or maybe they would need special work permits?

 

[Umbran]

Genuine question - what stops them just hiring writers not in America?

It isn't like they hire just any old person off the street to write on projects worth tens or hundreds of millions of dollars. They are working with pools of writers who have established portfolios of work - and all those writers are parts of the various guilds.

So, yes you can hire writers not in America - but that means hiring an unknown, which means unknown quality in the resulting product. Do you figure Disney's willing to take a lot of risk with respect to these largest of properties?

 

[Deset Gled]

I was under the impression that the writers strike we were discussing was film and TV writers in the US. Nothing to do with books to my knowledge.

The original post in the thread is about the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America guild. Just saying "writers" seemed slightly ambiguous.

 

[Morrus]

It isn't like they hire just any old person off the street to write on projects worth tens or hundreds of millions of dollars. They are working with pools of writers who have established portfolios of work - and all those writers are parts of the various guilds.

So, yes you can hire writers not in America - but that means hiring an unknown, which means unknown quality in the resulting product. Do you figure Disney's willing to take a lot of risk with respect to these largest of properties?

Well, not every Canadian or British writer is exactly "unknown" and "any old person hired off the street". In fact, I'll bet a bunch of stuff you watch is written by non-Americans. Disney works outside the US extensively; the Star Wars movies are filmed in the UK, and have a largely British cast and crew. LotR (different studio) is basically a New Zealand production. I think you might just be being a bit contrary here (and a little offensive) - non-Americans aren't 'unknowns' and are employed plenty by these international megacorps.

 

[Morrus]

The original post in the thread is about the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America guild. Just saying "writers" seemed slightly ambiguous.

Yes, but then we started talking about the 2007–08 Writers Guild of America strike. If that wasn't clear then, hopefully it has been adequately cleared up now.

 

[Ryujin]

Zero. Unless they have some sort of contracts that might prevent it, but that doesn't sound like a megacorp to me.

Contracts are doing nothing to stop them from doing what they already are (the reason for the thread), so i doubt they would get in the way going forward.

 

[Zardnaar]

Well, not every Canadian or British writer is exactly "unknown" and "any old person hired off the street". In fact, I'll bet a bunch of stuff you watch is written by non-Americans. Disney works outside the US extensively; the Star Wars movies are filmed in the UK, and have a largely British cast and crew. LotR (different studio) is basically a New Zealand production. I think you might just be being a bit contrary here (and a little offensive) - non-Americans aren't 'unknowns' and are employed plenty by these international megacorps.

I think our film industry is fairly booked up and the guild doesn't have any influence here.

One reason they like filming here less problems with filming.

 

[Umbran]

Well, not every Canadian or British writer is exactly "unknown" and "any old person hired off the street".

No, but if they aren't unknowns, then they are also members of writers guilds in their respective nations.

UK: Writers' Guild of Great Britain | WGGB
Australia: Home
New Zealand: NZ Writers Guild - Professional Association of Script Writers
Canada: Home | Writers Guild of Canada

If there is a strike over this (I don't think there will be, but if there is) I would not expect well-established writers of any English-speaking nation are going to jump on board as scabs.

Which means hiring unknowns.

You could hire unknowns here, but that would be a career-ending move for anyone who wanted to continue writing for TV or movies in the US in the future after the strike. I just expect an unknown outside the US might get away with it, due to the obscurity you just mentioned.