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A script doctor is a writer or playwright hired by a film, television, or theatre production to rewrite an existing script or polish specific aspects of it, including structure, characterization, dialogue, pacing, themes, and other elements.^[1]

Script doctors generally do their work uncredited for a variety of commercial and artistic reasons.^{[examples needed]}^[1]^[2]^[3] They are usually brought in for scripts that have been almost "green-lit"^[4] during the development and pre-production phases of a film to address specific issues with the script, as identified by the financiers, production team, and cast.^[5]

To receive credit, the Writers Guild of America screenwriting credit system requires a second screenwriter to contribute more than 50 percent of an original screenplay or 33 percent of an adaptation.^[5] Uncredited screenwriters are not eligible to win the Academy Award or the Writers Guild of America Award.

Examples

Many screenwriters have done uncredited work on screenplays:

Paul Attanasio: Speed (1994), Air Force One (1997), Armageddon (1998), Patch Adams (1998), Town & Country (2001), and The Bourne Ultimatum (2007). "I really enjoy doing them. I basically analogize it to being the closer in baseball. There's something about the nature of that kind of pressure, where you're coming in at the ninth inning and throwing your fastball to three batters and leaving, that's exhilarating," Attanasio is quoted as saying from an article in the Los Angeles Times in 2002.
Al Boasberg: The General (1926) and A Night at the Opera (1935).^[6]
Carrie Fisher: Hook (1991),^[7] Sister Act (1992),^[8] Lethal Weapon 3 (1992),^[7] Last Action Hero (1993),^[9] The River Wild (1994),^[7] and The Wedding Singer (1998).^[10] An Entertainment Weekly article from May 1992 described her as "one of the most sought after doctors in town."^[8] When asked if she was still working as a script doctor in December 2008, she said: "I haven't done it for a few years. I did it for many years, and then younger people came to do it and I started to do new things. It was a long, very lucrative episode of my life. But it's complicated to do that. Now it's all changed, actually. Now in order to get a rewrite job, you have to submit your notes for your ideas on how to fix the script. So they can get all the notes from all the different writers, keep the notes and not hire you. That's free work and that's what I always call life-wasting events."^[10]
Ben Hecht: Twentieth Century (1934), A Star Is Born (1937), Angels with Dirty Faces (1938), Gone with the Wind (1939), Stagecoach (1939),^[11] Foreign Correspondent (1940),^[12] Cornered (1945), Gilda (1946), Rope and Cry of the City (1948), Strangers on a Train (1951), Angel Face (1952),^[13] and Cleopatra (1963).^[14] According to a November 1999 article from The Guardian, "[Uncredited script doctoring is] a tradition that goes back to the mighty Ben Hecht. Hecht was a snob, and hanging out at the Algonquin with Dorothy Parker, it suited him to downplay his movie work, so he only received credit for about half of the 100 plus films he worked on."^[15]
Tom Mankiewicz: The Deep (1977), The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), Superman (1978), Moonraker (1979), and Superman II (1980). He was credited as "creative consultant" on Superman by director Richard Donner.^[16] In a June 2012 interview, Robert Crane, who co-wrote Mankiewicz's autobiography My Life as a Mankiewicz (2012), said: "I think script doctoring was an in road for him. People had liked what they'd seen with the Bond films, especially the dialogue. I think that caught the attention of agents and studio heads, and they said, 'I want Mankiewicz to come in here and work on this project.' He spent a lot of time at Warner Brothers and Universal working on scripts."^[17]
Elaine May: Reds (1981), Tootsie (1982), and Labyrinth (1986).^[3]
John Sayles: Apollo 13 (1995) and Mimic (1997). Sayles has stated that the script doctor's main role is to help others tell their stories. He decides which jobs to accept based on whether there is a germ of an idea for a movie he would actually like to see. He has also stated that he works harder when writing for others than he does on his own work.^[18]
Aaron Sorkin: Schindler's List (1993), The Rock (1996), Excess Baggage (1997), and Enemy of the State (1998). In an October 2010 interview, he said: "With the script doctoring, I did it for Jerry Bruckheimer for a while, because I was just going through a period where I was having a very difficult time coming up with my own ideas and I was climbing the walls. So I did what is called 'the production polish', where you are brought into the last two weeks on something that you are not emotionally invested in, where it is not your job to break the story, to come up with the moving parts and plot points. Basically, they just wanted some snappy dialogue for Sean Connery and Nicolas Cage. The first time I did it, actually, was for Schindler's List where no-one is looking for snappy dialogue, but the writer of that movie had gone on to direct a picture and there was a little more work that [director Steven Spielberg] wanted done before it went to Poland to begin shooting. He asked me to come in and do that, but you are obviously more interested in your own thing."^[19]
Sir Tom Stoppard: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989),^[20] Sleepy Hollow (1999),^[21] and The Bourne Ultimatum (2007).^[22]^[23] On The Bourne Ultimatum, Stoppard said in October 2007, "I wrote a script for [director] Paul Greengrass. Some of the themes are still mine—but I don't think there's a single word of mine in the film."^[23] According to an April 2010 interview with The Guardian, Stoppard "does uncredited script-doctoring on Hollywood movies, 'about once a year': most recently he worked on Paul Greengrass's The Bourne Ultimatum. 'The second reason for doing it is that you get to work with people you admire. The first reason, of course, is that it's overpaid.' Once, hearing the phone ring at home while in the shower, he took a call from [director] Steven Spielberg on the set of Schindler's List, agonising over a scene in Steven Zaillian's script. Standing naked, Stoppard improvised a solution that was used in the movie. He remains bemused by this American habit of invisible script revision. 'I actually got quite angry with Spielberg, who was and is a good friend, and told him just to film Zaillian's script. But Steven, like a lot of other people in movies, tends to think one more opinion can't hurt.'"^[22] He also said, "I used to worry about it enormously, but it's a different culture. It's a moral issue, almost. A few years ago, I was invited to a film festival, as a freebie, because I'd done so much work on a movie that they said I should be there. And I said: 'I can't do that, because I'm not supposed to be on this film, and it's unfair to the chap whose name is on it.' But it just goes with the territory: these are the conditions one works under out there."^[22]
Quentin Tarantino: It's Pat (1994)^[24] and Crimson Tide (1995).^[15]^[25]
Robert Towne: Bonnie and Clyde (1967), The Godfather (1972), and Armageddon (1998).^[15] Author Peter Biskind writes in Easy Riders, Raging Bulls (1998) that Francis Ford Coppola asked Towne if he wanted credit for his contributions to the screenplay of The Godfather, and Towne replied: "Don't be ridiculous. I only wrote a couple of fuckin' scenes. If you win an Oscar, thank me."^[26] Coppola won the Academy Award for Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay) and thanked Towne.^[27]
Joss Whedon: Speed (1994), The Quick and the Dead (1995),^[28] Waterworld (1995), Twister (1996),^[29] and X-Men (2000).^[28] In a September 2001 interview, Whedon said: "Most of the dialogue in Speed is mine, and a bunch of the characters," adding that he was arbitrated out of credit.^[28] He also spoke about Waterworld and X-Men: "I refer to myself as the world's highest-paid stenographer. This is a situation I've been in a bunch of times. [...] Waterworld was a good idea, and the script was the classic, 'They have a good idea, then they write a generic script and don't really care about the idea.' When I was brought in, there was no water in the last 40 pages of the script. It all took place on land, or on a ship, or whatever. I'm like, 'Isn't the cool thing about this guy that he has gills?' And no one was listening. I was there basically taking notes from [Kevin Costner], who was very nice, fine to work with, but he was not a writer. And he had written a bunch of stuff that they wouldn't let their staff touch. So I was supposed to be there for a week, and I was there for seven weeks, and I accomplished nothing. I wrote a few puns, and a few scenes that I can't even sit through because they came out so bad. It was the same situation with X-Men. They said, 'Come in and punch up the big climax, the third act, and if you can, make it cheaper.' That was the mandate on both movies, and my response to both movies was, 'The problem with the third act is the first two acts.' But, again, no one was paying attention. [...] And then, in X-Men, not only did they throw out my script and never tell me about it; they actually invited me to the read-through, having thrown out my entire draft without telling me."^[28]

References

^ ^a ^b Jones, Sarah (2004). Film. North Mankato: Smart Apple Media. pp. 14–15. ISBN 158340256X.
^ Hyman, Paula E.; Moore, Deborah Dash, eds. (1998). Jewish Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia. New York: Routledge. p. 444. ISBN 0415919363. Currently [Fisher] works in that great uncredited Hollywood profession of script doctor—or, as Fisher calls it, script nurse.
^ ^a ^b Hurd, Mary G. (2007). Women Directors and Their Films. Westport: Praeger Publishers. p. 150. ISBN 978-0275985783. She [Elaine May] then became a script doctor, one of a small group of writers who are paid handsome fees by studios to do uncredited work on a script.
^ Appleton, Dina; Yankelevits, Daniel (2010). Hollywood Dealmaking: Negotiating Talent Agreements for Film, TV and New Media (2 ed.). New York: Allworth Press. p. 303. ISBN 978-1581156713. A writer hired to 'spruce up' or 'fix' a script, usually by inserting jokes or otherwise adding some 'juice'. These highly paid writers are often hired by studios for brief periods of employment, most often to work on scripts that are very close to being 'green-lit'.
^ ^a ^b Abramowitz, Rachel (October 27, 2002). "To the rescue?". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved August 17, 2012.
^ Erickson, Hal (2015). "Al Boasberg - About This Person". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times. Baseline & All Movie Guide. Archived from the original on 2015-06-11. Retrieved November 8, 2013.
^ ^a ^b ^c McNamara, Jonathan (April 29, 2008). "Carrie Fisher on Spy in the House of Me, Tinkerbell and being the movie industry's best script doctor". Phoenix New Times. Retrieved August 19, 2012.
^ ^a ^b Cagle, Jess (May 29, 1992). "The Prayer". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved August 16, 2012.
^ Nick De Semlyen, "The Life And Death Of Last Action Hero", Empire, no. 269
^ ^a ^b Setoodeh, Ramin (December 18, 2008). "Being Carrie Fisher". Newsweek. Retrieved August 16, 2012.
^ Booker, M. Keith (2011). Historical Dictionary of American Cinema. Lanham: Scarecrow Press. p. 164. ISBN 978-0810871922.
^ Phillips, Gene D. (2012). Out of the Shadows: Expanding the Canon of Classic Film Noir. Lanham: Scarecrow Press. p. 88. ISBN 978-0810881907.
^ Spicer, Andrew (2010). Historical Dictionary of Film Noir. Lanham: Scarecrow Press. pp. 129–130. ISBN 978-0810859609. He became a Hollywood screenwriter from 1926, valued highly for his contemporary, idiomatic, and vivid prose, and as a ruthless and effective 'script doctor', having a hand in many films noir for which he was uncredited...
^ Kashner, Sam; Schoenberger, Nancy (2010). Furious Love: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, and the Marriage of the Century. New York: HarperCollins. p. 13. ISBN 978-0061562846.
^ ^a ^b ^c Morris, Mark (November 29, 1999). "Get me Tom Stoppard". The Guardian. Retrieved August 17, 2012.
^ Nelson, Valerie J. (August 3, 2010). "Tom Mankiewicz dies at 68; screenwriter for James Bond, Superman films". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved August 16, 2012. Tom Mankiewicz, a screenwriter and premier script doctor...
^ Konow, David (June 26, 2012). "Think You Know Hollywood? You Don't Know Mank". Script Magazine. Retrieved August 19, 2012.
^ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzsfp7ufVyw
^ Lawrence, Will (October 11, 2010). "Facebook movie The Social Network tells a Shakespearean tale of money, power and betrayal". The Herald. Retrieved August 16, 2012.
^ Koski, Genevieve (May 15, 2008). "Raiders Of The Lost Ark". The A.V. Club. Retrieved August 17, 2012. Spielberg said, in an 2005 interview with Empire magazine, 'Tom is pretty much responsible for every line of dialogue [in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade].'
^ Nashawty, Chris (November 19, 1999). "Sleepy Hollow: A Head of its Time". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved August 17, 2012. On the other hand, it doesn't hurt that Sleepy Hollow's script—credited to Andrew Kevin Walker (Seven)—received a stealthy stem-to-stern overhaul from Shakespeare in Love's Oscar-winning screenwriter Tom Stoppard.
^ ^a ^b ^c Lawson, Mark (April 14, 2010). "Tom Stoppard: 'I'm the crank in the bus queue'". The Guardian. Retrieved August 17, 2012.
^ ^a ^b Rapkin, Mickey (October 18, 2007). "Tom Stoppard". Time Out New York. Retrieved August 16, 2012.
^ Dawson, Jeff (1995). Quentin Tarantino: The Cinema of Cool. New York: Applause Books. p. 198. ISBN 1557832277.
^ Dawson, p. 61.
^ Biskind, Peter (1998). Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex-Drugs-And Rock 'N Roll Generation Saved Hollywood. New York: Simon and Schuster. p. 158. ISBN 0684857081.
^ Turan, Kenneth (November 27, 1988). "Robert Towne's Hollywood Without Heroes". The New York Times. Retrieved August 17, 2012.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Robinson, Tasha (September 5, 2001). "Joss Whedon". The A.V. Club. Retrieved August 19, 2012.
^ Jacobs, A.J. (April 25, 1997). "Interview with a Vampire Chronicler". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved August 16, 2012. Consider that Whedon, an A-list screenwriter and script doctor...

[Jones-1] Jones, Sarah (2004). Film. North Mankato: Smart Apple Media. pp. 14–15. ISBN 158340256X.

[2] Hyman, Paula E.; Moore, Deborah Dash, eds. (1998). Jewish Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia. New York: Routledge. p. 444. ISBN 0415919363. Currently [Fisher] works in that great uncredited Hollywood profession of script doctor—or, as Fisher calls it, script nurse.

[Hurd-3] Hurd, Mary G. (2007). Women Directors and Their Films. Westport: Praeger Publishers. p. 150. ISBN 978-0275985783. She [Elaine May] then became a script doctor, one of a small group of writers who are paid handsome fees by studios to do uncredited work on a script.

[4] Appleton, Dina; Yankelevits, Daniel (2010). Hollywood Dealmaking: Negotiating Talent Agreements for Film, TV and New Media (2 ed.). New York: Allworth Press. p. 303. ISBN 978-1581156713. A writer hired to 'spruce up' or 'fix' a script, usually by inserting jokes or otherwise adding some 'juice'. These highly paid writers are often hired by studios for brief periods of employment, most often to work on scripts that are very close to being 'green-lit'.

[Abramowitz-5] Abramowitz, Rachel (October 27, 2002). "To the rescue?". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved August 17, 2012.

[6] Erickson, Hal (2015). "Al Boasberg - About This Person". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times. Baseline & All Movie Guide. Archived from the original on 2015-06-11. Retrieved November 8, 2013.

[McNamara-7] McNamara, Jonathan (April 29, 2008). "Carrie Fisher on Spy in the House of Me, Tinkerbell and being the movie industry's best script doctor". Phoenix New Times. Retrieved August 19, 2012.

[Cagle-8] Cagle, Jess (May 29, 1992). "The Prayer". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved August 16, 2012.

[lahempire-9] Nick De Semlyen, "The Life And Death Of Last Action Hero", Empire, no. 269

[Setoodeh-10] Setoodeh, Ramin (December 18, 2008). "Being Carrie Fisher". Newsweek. Retrieved August 16, 2012.

[11] Booker, M. Keith (2011). Historical Dictionary of American Cinema. Lanham: Scarecrow Press. p. 164. ISBN 978-0810871922.

[12] Phillips, Gene D. (2012). Out of the Shadows: Expanding the Canon of Classic Film Noir. Lanham: Scarecrow Press. p. 88. ISBN 978-0810881907.

[13] Spicer, Andrew (2010). Historical Dictionary of Film Noir. Lanham: Scarecrow Press. pp. 129–130. ISBN 978-0810859609. He became a Hollywood screenwriter from 1926, valued highly for his contemporary, idiomatic, and vivid prose, and as a ruthless and effective 'script doctor', having a hand in many films noir for which he was uncredited...

[14] Kashner, Sam; Schoenberger, Nancy (2010). Furious Love: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, and the Marriage of the Century. New York: HarperCollins. p. 13. ISBN 978-0061562846.

[Morris-15] Morris, Mark (November 29, 1999). "Get me Tom Stoppard". The Guardian. Retrieved August 17, 2012.

[16] Nelson, Valerie J. (August 3, 2010). "Tom Mankiewicz dies at 68; screenwriter for James Bond, Superman films". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved August 16, 2012. Tom Mankiewicz, a screenwriter and premier script doctor...

[17] Konow, David (June 26, 2012). "Think You Know Hollywood? You Don't Know Mank". Script Magazine. Retrieved August 19, 2012.

[18] ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzsfp7ufVyw

[19] Lawrence, Will (October 11, 2010). "Facebook movie The Social Network tells a Shakespearean tale of money, power and betrayal". The Herald. Retrieved August 16, 2012.

[20] Koski, Genevieve (May 15, 2008). "Raiders Of The Lost Ark". The A.V. Club. Retrieved August 17, 2012. Spielberg said, in an 2005 interview with Empire magazine, 'Tom is pretty much responsible for every line of dialogue [in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade].'

[21] Nashawty, Chris (November 19, 1999). "Sleepy Hollow: A Head of its Time". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved August 17, 2012. On the other hand, it doesn't hurt that Sleepy Hollow's script—credited to Andrew Kevin Walker (Seven)—received a stealthy stem-to-stern overhaul from Shakespeare in Love's Oscar-winning screenwriter Tom Stoppard.

[Lawson-22] Lawson, Mark (April 14, 2010). "Tom Stoppard: 'I'm the crank in the bus queue'". The Guardian. Retrieved August 17, 2012.

[Rapkin-23] Rapkin, Mickey (October 18, 2007). "Tom Stoppard". Time Out New York. Retrieved August 16, 2012.

[24] Dawson, Jeff (1995). Quentin Tarantino: The Cinema of Cool. New York: Applause Books. p. 198. ISBN 1557832277.

[25] Dawson, p. 61.

[26] Biskind, Peter (1998). Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex-Drugs-And Rock 'N Roll Generation Saved Hollywood. New York: Simon and Schuster. p. 158. ISBN 0684857081.

[27] Turan, Kenneth (November 27, 1988). "Robert Towne's Hollywood Without Heroes". The New York Times. Retrieved August 17, 2012.

[Robinson-28] Robinson, Tasha (September 5, 2001). "Joss Whedon". The A.V. Club. Retrieved August 19, 2012.

[Jacobs-29] Jacobs, A.J. (April 25, 1997). "Interview with a Vampire Chronicler". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved August 16, 2012. Consider that Whedon, an A-list screenwriter and script doctor...

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@@ Line 10: / Line 10: @@
 {{example farm|section|date=January 2020}}
 Many screenwriters have done uncredited work on screenplays:
-* [[Paul Attanasio]] (born 1959): ''[[Speed (1994 film)|Speed]]'' (1994), ''[[Air Force One (film)|Air Force One]]'' (1997), ''[[Armageddon (1998 film)|Armageddon]]'' (1998), ''[[Patch Adams (film)|Patch Adams]]'' (1998), ''[[Town & Country (film)|Town & Country]]'' (2001), and ''[[The Bourne Ultimatum]]'' (2007). "I really enjoy doing them. I basically analogize it to being the closer in baseball. There's something about the nature of that kind of pressure, where you're coming in at the ninth inning and throwing your fastball to three batters and leaving, that's exhilarating," Attanasio is quoted as saying from an article in the ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'' in 2002.
+* [[Paul Attanasio]]: ''[[Speed (1994 film)|Speed]]'' (1994), ''[[Air Force One (film)|Air Force One]]'' (1997), ''[[Armageddon (1998 film)|Armageddon]]'' (1998), ''[[Patch Adams (film)|Patch Adams]]'' (1998), ''[[Town & Country (film)|Town & Country]]'' (2001), and ''[[The Bourne Ultimatum]]'' (2007). "I really enjoy doing them. I basically analogize it to being the closer in baseball. There's something about the nature of that kind of pressure, where you're coming in at the ninth inning and throwing your fastball to three batters and leaving, that's exhilarating," Attanasio is quoted as saying from an article in the ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'' in 2002.
-* [[Al Boasberg]] (1891–1937): ''[[The General (1926 film)|The General]]'' (1926) and ''[[A Night at the Opera (film)|A Night at the Opera]]'' (1935).<ref>{{cite web|last=Erickson|first=Hal|title=Al Boasberg - About This Person|url=https://www.nytimes.com/movies/person/158592/Al-Boasberg/biography|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150611150032/http://www.nytimes.com/movies/person/158592/Al-Boasberg/biography|url-status=dead|archive-date=2015-06-11|access-date=November 8, 2013|department=Movies & TV Dept.|work=[[The New York Times]]|publisher=[[Baseline (database)|Baseline]] & [[All Movie Guide]]|date=2015|author-link=Hal Erickson (author)}}</ref>
+* [[Al Boasberg]]: ''[[The General (1926 film)|The General]]'' (1926) and ''[[A Night at the Opera (film)|A Night at the Opera]]'' (1935).<ref>{{cite web|last=Erickson|first=Hal|title=Al Boasberg - About This Person|url=https://www.nytimes.com/movies/person/158592/Al-Boasberg/biography|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150611150032/http://www.nytimes.com/movies/person/158592/Al-Boasberg/biography|url-status=dead|archive-date=2015-06-11|access-date=November 8, 2013|department=Movies & TV Dept.|work=[[The New York Times]]|publisher=[[Baseline (database)|Baseline]] & [[All Movie Guide]]|date=2015|author-link=Hal Erickson (author)}}</ref>
-* [[Carrie Fisher]] (1956–2016): ''[[Hook (film)|Hook]]'' (1991),<ref name="McNamara">{{cite web|last=McNamara|first=Jonathan|title=Carrie Fisher on Spy in the House of Me, Tinkerbell and being the movie industry's best script doctor|url=http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/valleyfever/2008/04/carrie_fisher_on_spy_in_the_ho.php|work=Phoenix New Times|access-date=August 19, 2012|date=April 29, 2008}}</ref> ''[[Sister Act]]'' (1992),<ref name="Cagle">{{cite web|last=Cagle|first=Jess|title=The Prayer|url=http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,310617,00.html|work=Entertainment Weekly|access-date=August 16, 2012|date=May 29, 1992}}</ref> ''[[Lethal Weapon 3]]'' (1992),<ref name="McNamara"/> ''[[Last Action Hero]]'' (1993),<ref name="lahempire">{{citation | url=http://www.empireonline.com/features/last-action-hero | magazine=[[Empire (film magazine)|Empire]] | title=The Life And Death Of Last Action Hero | issue=269 | author=Nick De Semlyen}}</ref> ''[[The River Wild]]'' (1994),<ref name="McNamara"/> and ''[[The Wedding Singer]]'' (1998).<ref name="Setoodeh">{{cite web|last=Setoodeh|first=Ramin|title=Being Carrie Fisher|url=http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2008/12/18/being-carrie-fisher.html|work=Newsweek|access-date=August 16, 2012|date=December 18, 2008}}</ref> An ''Entertainment Weekly'' article from May 1992 described her as "one of the most sought after doctors in town."<ref name="Cagle"/> When asked if she was still working as a script doctor in December 2008, she said: "I haven't done it for a few years. I did it for many years, and then younger people came to do it and I started to do new things. It was a long, very lucrative episode of my life. But it's complicated to do that. Now it's all changed, actually. Now in order to get a rewrite job, you have to submit your notes for your ideas on how to fix the script. So they can get all the notes from all the different writers, keep the notes and not hire you. That's free work and that's what I always call life-wasting events."<ref name="Setoodeh"/>
+* [[Carrie Fisher]]: ''[[Hook (film)|Hook]]'' (1991),<ref name="McNamara">{{cite web|last=McNamara|first=Jonathan|title=Carrie Fisher on Spy in the House of Me, Tinkerbell and being the movie industry's best script doctor|url=http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/valleyfever/2008/04/carrie_fisher_on_spy_in_the_ho.php|work=Phoenix New Times|access-date=August 19, 2012|date=April 29, 2008}}</ref> ''[[Sister Act]]'' (1992),<ref name="Cagle">{{cite web|last=Cagle|first=Jess|title=The Prayer|url=http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,310617,00.html|work=Entertainment Weekly|access-date=August 16, 2012|date=May 29, 1992}}</ref> ''[[Lethal Weapon 3]]'' (1992),<ref name="McNamara"/> ''[[Last Action Hero]]'' (1993),<ref name="lahempire">{{citation | url=http://www.empireonline.com/features/last-action-hero | magazine=[[Empire (film magazine)|Empire]] | title=The Life And Death Of Last Action Hero | issue=269 | author=Nick De Semlyen}}</ref> ''[[The River Wild]]'' (1994),<ref name="McNamara"/> and ''[[The Wedding Singer]]'' (1998).<ref name="Setoodeh">{{cite web|last=Setoodeh|first=Ramin|title=Being Carrie Fisher|url=http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2008/12/18/being-carrie-fisher.html|work=Newsweek|access-date=August 16, 2012|date=December 18, 2008}}</ref> An ''Entertainment Weekly'' article from May 1992 described her as "one of the most sought after doctors in town."<ref name="Cagle"/> When asked if she was still working as a script doctor in December 2008, she said: "I haven't done it for a few years. I did it for many years, and then younger people came to do it and I started to do new things. It was a long, very lucrative episode of my life. But it's complicated to do that. Now it's all changed, actually. Now in order to get a rewrite job, you have to submit your notes for your ideas on how to fix the script. So they can get all the notes from all the different writers, keep the notes and not hire you. That's free work and that's what I always call life-wasting events."<ref name="Setoodeh"/>
-* [[Ben Hecht]] (1894–1964): ''[[Twentieth Century (film)|Twentieth Century]]'' (1934), ''[[A Star Is Born (1937 film)|A Star Is Born]]'' (1937), ''[[Angels with Dirty Faces]]'' (1938), ''[[Gone with the Wind (film)|Gone with the Wind]]'' (1939), ''[[Stagecoach (1939 film)|Stagecoach]]'' (1939),<ref>{{cite book|last=Booker|first=M. Keith|title=Historical Dictionary of American Cinema|year=2011|publisher=Scarecrow Press|location=Lanham|isbn=978-0810871922|page=164}}</ref> ''[[Foreign Correspondent (film)|Foreign Correspondent]]'' (1940),<ref>{{cite book|last=Phillips|first=Gene D.|title=Out of the Shadows: Expanding the Canon of Classic Film Noir|url=https://archive.org/details/outshadowsexpand00phil|url-access=limited|year=2012|publisher=Scarecrow Press|location=Lanham|isbn=978-0810881907|page=[https://archive.org/details/outshadowsexpand00phil/page/n102 88]}}</ref> ''[[Cornered (1945 film)|Cornered]]'' (1945), ''[[Gilda]]'' (1946), ''[[Rope (film)|Rope]]'' and ''[[Cry of the City]]'' (1948), ''[[Strangers on a Train (film)|Strangers on a Train]]'' (1951), ''[[Angel Face (1952 film)|Angel Face]]'' (1952),<ref>{{cite book|last=Spicer|first=Andrew|title=Historical Dictionary of Film Noir|url=https://archive.org/details/historicaldictio00spic|url-access=limited|year=2010|publisher=Scarecrow Press|location=Lanham|isbn=978-0810859609|pages=[https://archive.org/details/historicaldictio00spic/page/n179 129]–130|quote=He became a Hollywood screenwriter from 1926, valued highly for his contemporary, idiomatic, and vivid prose, and as a ruthless and effective 'script doctor', having a hand in many films noir for which he was uncredited...}}</ref> and ''[[Cleopatra (1963 film)|Cleopatra]]'' (1963).<ref>{{cite book|last1=Kashner|first1=Sam|last2=Schoenberger|first2=Nancy|title=Furious Love: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, and the Marriage of the Century|year=2010|publisher=HarperCollins|location=New York|isbn=978-0061562846|page=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780061562846/page/13 13]|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780061562846/page/13}}</ref> According to a November 1999 article from ''The Guardian'', "[Uncredited script doctoring is] a tradition that goes back to the mighty Ben Hecht. Hecht was a snob, and hanging out at the [[Algonquin Hotel|Algonquin]] with [[Dorothy Parker]], it suited him to downplay his movie work, so he only received credit for about half of the 100 plus films he worked on."<ref name="Morris">{{cite web|last=Morris|first=Mark|title=Get me Tom Stoppard|url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/1999/nov/30/tvandradio.television2|work=The Guardian|access-date=August 17, 2012|date=November 29, 1999}}</ref>
+* [[Ben Hecht]]: ''[[Twentieth Century (film)|Twentieth Century]]'' (1934), ''[[A Star Is Born (1937 film)|A Star Is Born]]'' (1937), ''[[Angels with Dirty Faces]]'' (1938), ''[[Gone with the Wind (film)|Gone with the Wind]]'' (1939), ''[[Stagecoach (1939 film)|Stagecoach]]'' (1939),<ref>{{cite book|last=Booker|first=M. Keith|title=Historical Dictionary of American Cinema|year=2011|publisher=Scarecrow Press|location=Lanham|isbn=978-0810871922|page=164}}</ref> ''[[Foreign Correspondent (film)|Foreign Correspondent]]'' (1940),<ref>{{cite book|last=Phillips|first=Gene D.|title=Out of the Shadows: Expanding the Canon of Classic Film Noir|url=https://archive.org/details/outshadowsexpand00phil|url-access=limited|year=2012|publisher=Scarecrow Press|location=Lanham|isbn=978-0810881907|page=[https://archive.org/details/outshadowsexpand00phil/page/n102 88]}}</ref> ''[[Cornered (1945 film)|Cornered]]'' (1945), ''[[Gilda]]'' (1946), ''[[Rope (film)|Rope]]'' and ''[[Cry of the City]]'' (1948), ''[[Strangers on a Train (film)|Strangers on a Train]]'' (1951), ''[[Angel Face (1952 film)|Angel Face]]'' (1952),<ref>{{cite book|last=Spicer|first=Andrew|title=Historical Dictionary of Film Noir|url=https://archive.org/details/historicaldictio00spic|url-access=limited|year=2010|publisher=Scarecrow Press|location=Lanham|isbn=978-0810859609|pages=[https://archive.org/details/historicaldictio00spic/page/n179 129]–130|quote=He became a Hollywood screenwriter from 1926, valued highly for his contemporary, idiomatic, and vivid prose, and as a ruthless and effective 'script doctor', having a hand in many films noir for which he was uncredited...}}</ref> and ''[[Cleopatra (1963 film)|Cleopatra]]'' (1963).<ref>{{cite book|last1=Kashner|first1=Sam|last2=Schoenberger|first2=Nancy|title=Furious Love: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, and the Marriage of the Century|year=2010|publisher=HarperCollins|location=New York|isbn=978-0061562846|page=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780061562846/page/13 13]|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780061562846/page/13}}</ref> According to a November 1999 article from ''The Guardian'', "[Uncredited script doctoring is] a tradition that goes back to the mighty Ben Hecht. Hecht was a snob, and hanging out at the [[Algonquin Hotel|Algonquin]] with [[Dorothy Parker]], it suited him to downplay his movie work, so he only received credit for about half of the 100 plus films he worked on."<ref name="Morris">{{cite web|last=Morris|first=Mark|title=Get me Tom Stoppard|url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/1999/nov/30/tvandradio.television2|work=The Guardian|access-date=August 17, 2012|date=November 29, 1999}}</ref>
-* [[Tom Mankiewicz]] (1942–2010): ''[[The Deep (1977 film)|The Deep]]'' (1977), ''[[The Spy Who Loved Me (film)|The Spy Who Loved Me]]'' (1977), ''[[Superman (1978 film)|Superman]]'' (1978), ''[[Moonraker (film)|Moonraker]]'' (1979), and ''[[Superman II]]'' (1980). He was credited as "[[creative consultant]]" on ''Superman'' by director [[Richard Donner]].<ref>{{cite web|last=Nelson|first=Valerie J.|title=Tom Mankiewicz dies at 68; screenwriter for James Bond, Superman films|url=http://articles.latimes.com/2010/aug/03/local/la-me-tom-mankiewicz-20100803|work=The Los Angeles Times|access-date=August 16, 2012|date=August 3, 2010|quote=Tom Mankiewicz, a screenwriter and premier script doctor...}}</ref> In a June 2012 interview, Robert Crane, who co-wrote Mankiewicz's autobiography ''My Life as a Mankiewicz'' (2012), said: "I think script doctoring was an in road for him. People had liked what they'd seen with the Bond films, especially the dialogue. I think that caught the attention of agents and studio heads, and they said, 'I want Mankiewicz to come in here and work on this project.' He spent a lot of time at [[Warner Brothers]] and [[Universal Studios|Universal]] working on scripts."<ref>{{cite web|last=Konow|first=David|title=Think You Know Hollywood? You Don't Know Mank|url=http://www.scriptmag.com/features/think-you-know-hollywood-you-dont-know-mank|work=Script Magazine|access-date=August 19, 2012|date=June 26, 2012}}</ref>
+* [[Tom Mankiewicz]]: ''[[The Deep (1977 film)|The Deep]]'' (1977), ''[[The Spy Who Loved Me (film)|The Spy Who Loved Me]]'' (1977), ''[[Superman (1978 film)|Superman]]'' (1978), ''[[Moonraker (film)|Moonraker]]'' (1979), and ''[[Superman II]]'' (1980). He was credited as "[[creative consultant]]" on ''Superman'' by director [[Richard Donner]].<ref>{{cite web|last=Nelson|first=Valerie J.|title=Tom Mankiewicz dies at 68; screenwriter for James Bond, Superman films|url=http://articles.latimes.com/2010/aug/03/local/la-me-tom-mankiewicz-20100803|work=The Los Angeles Times|access-date=August 16, 2012|date=August 3, 2010|quote=Tom Mankiewicz, a screenwriter and premier script doctor...}}</ref> In a June 2012 interview, Robert Crane, who co-wrote Mankiewicz's autobiography ''My Life as a Mankiewicz'' (2012), said: "I think script doctoring was an in road for him. People had liked what they'd seen with the Bond films, especially the dialogue. I think that caught the attention of agents and studio heads, and they said, 'I want Mankiewicz to come in here and work on this project.' He spent a lot of time at [[Warner Brothers]] and [[Universal Studios|Universal]] working on scripts."<ref>{{cite web|last=Konow|first=David|title=Think You Know Hollywood? You Don't Know Mank|url=http://www.scriptmag.com/features/think-you-know-hollywood-you-dont-know-mank|work=Script Magazine|access-date=August 19, 2012|date=June 26, 2012}}</ref>
-* [[Elaine May]] (born 1932): ''[[Reds (film)|Reds]]'' (1981), ''[[Tootsie]]'' (1982), and ''[[Labyrinth (1986 film)|Labyrinth]]'' (1986).<ref name="Hurd"/>
+* [[Elaine May]]: ''[[Reds (film)|Reds]]'' (1981), ''[[Tootsie]]'' (1982), and ''[[Labyrinth (1986 film)|Labyrinth]]'' (1986).<ref name="Hurd"/>
-* [[John Sayles]] (born 1950): ''[[Apollo 13 (film)|Apollo 13]]'' (1995) and ''[[Mimic (film)|Mimic]]'' (1997). Sayles has stated that the script doctor's main role is to help others tell their stories. He decides which jobs to accept based on whether there is a germ of an idea for a movie he would actually like to see. He has also stated that he works harder when writing for others than he does on his own work.<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzsfp7ufVyw</ref>
+* [[John Sayles]]: ''[[Apollo 13 (film)|Apollo 13]]'' (1995) and ''[[Mimic (film)|Mimic]]'' (1997). Sayles has stated that the script doctor's main role is to help others tell their stories. He decides which jobs to accept based on whether there is a germ of an idea for a movie he would actually like to see. He has also stated that he works harder when writing for others than he does on his own work.<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzsfp7ufVyw</ref>
-* [[Aaron Sorkin]] (born 1961): ''[[Schindler's List]]'' (1993), ''[[The Rock (film)|The Rock]]'' (1996), ''[[Excess Baggage (1997 film)|Excess Baggage]]'' (1997), and ''[[Enemy of the State (film)|Enemy of the State]]'' (1998). In an October 2010 interview, he said: "With the script doctoring, I did it for [[Jerry Bruckheimer]] for a while, because I was just going through a period where I was having a very difficult time coming up with my own ideas and I was climbing the walls. So I did what is called 'the production polish', where you are brought into the last two weeks on something that you are not emotionally invested in, where it is not your job to break the story, to come up with the moving parts and plot points. Basically, they just wanted some snappy dialogue for Sean Connery and Nicolas Cage. The first time I did it, actually, was for ''Schindler's List'' where no-one is looking for snappy dialogue, but the writer of that movie had gone on to direct a picture and there was a little more work that [director Steven Spielberg] wanted done before it went to Poland to begin shooting. He asked me to come in and do that, but you are obviously more interested in your own thing."<ref>{{cite web|last=Lawrence|first=Will|title=Facebook movie The Social Network tells a Shakespearean tale of money, power and betrayal|url=http://www.heraldscotland.com/arts-ents/film-tv-features/facebook-movie-the-social-network-tells-a-shakespearean-tale-of-money-power-and-betrayal-1.1060841|work=The Herald|access-date=August 16, 2012|date=October 11, 2010}}</ref>
+* [[Aaron Sorkin]]: ''[[Schindler's List]]'' (1993), ''[[The Rock (film)|The Rock]]'' (1996), ''[[Excess Baggage (1997 film)|Excess Baggage]]'' (1997), and ''[[Enemy of the State (film)|Enemy of the State]]'' (1998). In an October 2010 interview, he said: "With the script doctoring, I did it for [[Jerry Bruckheimer]] for a while, because I was just going through a period where I was having a very difficult time coming up with my own ideas and I was climbing the walls. So I did what is called 'the production polish', where you are brought into the last two weeks on something that you are not emotionally invested in, where it is not your job to break the story, to come up with the moving parts and plot points. Basically, they just wanted some snappy dialogue for Sean Connery and Nicolas Cage. The first time I did it, actually, was for ''Schindler's List'' where no-one is looking for snappy dialogue, but the writer of that movie had gone on to direct a picture and there was a little more work that [director Steven Spielberg] wanted done before it went to Poland to begin shooting. He asked me to come in and do that, but you are obviously more interested in your own thing."<ref>{{cite web|last=Lawrence|first=Will|title=Facebook movie The Social Network tells a Shakespearean tale of money, power and betrayal|url=http://www.heraldscotland.com/arts-ents/film-tv-features/facebook-movie-the-social-network-tells-a-shakespearean-tale-of-money-power-and-betrayal-1.1060841|work=The Herald|access-date=August 16, 2012|date=October 11, 2010}}</ref>
-* Sir [[Tom Stoppard]] (born 1937): ''[[Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade]]'' (1989),<ref>{{cite web|last=Koski|first=Genevieve|title=Raiders Of The Lost Ark|url=http://www.avclub.com/articles/raiders-of-the-lost-ark,2302/|work=The A.V. Club|access-date=August 17, 2012|date=May 15, 2008|quote=Spielberg said, in an 2005 interview with ''Empire'' magazine, 'Tom is pretty much responsible for every line of dialogue [in ''Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade''].{{'}}&nbsp;}}</ref> ''[[Sleepy Hollow (film)|Sleepy Hollow]]'' (1999),<ref>{{cite web|last=Nashawty|first=Chris|title=Sleepy Hollow: A Head of its Time|url=http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,271744_2,00.html|work=Entertainment Weekly|access-date=August 17, 2012|date=November 19, 1999|quote=On the other hand, it doesn't hurt that ''Sleepy Hollow''{{'}}s script—credited to Andrew Kevin Walker (''Seven'')—received a stealthy stem-to-stern overhaul from ''Shakespeare in Love''{{'}}s Oscar-winning screenwriter Tom Stoppard.}}</ref> and ''[[The Bourne Ultimatum (film)|The Bourne Ultimatum]]'' (2007).<ref name="Lawson">{{cite web|last=Lawson|first=Mark|title=Tom Stoppard: 'I'm the crank in the bus queue'|url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2010/apr/14/tom-stoppard-the-real-thing|work=The Guardian|access-date=August 17, 2012|date=April 14, 2010}}</ref><ref name="Rapkin">{{cite web|last=Rapkin|first=Mickey|title=Tom Stoppard|url=http://www.timeout.com/newyork/theater/tom-stoppard|work=Time Out New York|access-date=August 16, 2012|date=October 18, 2007}}</ref> On ''The Bourne Ultimatum'', Stoppard said in October 2007, "I wrote a script for [director] [[Paul Greengrass]]. Some of the themes are still mine—but I don't think there's a single word of mine in the film."<ref name="Rapkin"/> According to an April 2010 interview with ''The Guardian'', Stoppard "does uncredited script-doctoring on Hollywood movies, 'about once a year': most recently he worked on Paul Greengrass's ''The Bourne Ultimatum''. 'The second reason for doing it is that you get to work with people you admire. The first reason, of course, is that it's overpaid.' Once, hearing the phone ring at home while in the shower, he took a call from [director] [[Paul Greengrass|Steven Spielberg]] on the set of ''[[Schindler's List]]'', agonising over a scene in [[Steven Zaillian]]{{'}}s script. Standing naked, Stoppard improvised a solution that was used in the movie. He remains bemused by this American habit of invisible script revision. 'I actually got quite angry with Spielberg, who was and is a good friend, and told him just to film Zaillian's script. But Steven, like a lot of other people in movies, tends to think one more opinion can't hurt.{{' "}}<ref name="Lawson"/> He also said, "I used to worry about it enormously, but it's a different culture. It's a moral issue, almost. A few years ago, I was invited to a film festival, as a freebie, because I'd done so much work on a movie that they said I should be there. And I said: 'I can't do that, because I'm not supposed to be on this film, and it's unfair to the chap whose name is on it.' But it just goes with the territory: these are the conditions one works under out there."<ref name="Lawson"/>
+* Sir [[Tom Stoppard]]: ''[[Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade]]'' (1989),<ref>{{cite web|last=Koski|first=Genevieve|title=Raiders Of The Lost Ark|url=http://www.avclub.com/articles/raiders-of-the-lost-ark,2302/|work=The A.V. Club|access-date=August 17, 2012|date=May 15, 2008|quote=Spielberg said, in an 2005 interview with ''Empire'' magazine, 'Tom is pretty much responsible for every line of dialogue [in ''Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade''].{{'}}&nbsp;}}</ref> ''[[Sleepy Hollow (film)|Sleepy Hollow]]'' (1999),<ref>{{cite web|last=Nashawty|first=Chris|title=Sleepy Hollow: A Head of its Time|url=http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,271744_2,00.html|work=Entertainment Weekly|access-date=August 17, 2012|date=November 19, 1999|quote=On the other hand, it doesn't hurt that ''Sleepy Hollow''{{'}}s script—credited to Andrew Kevin Walker (''Seven'')—received a stealthy stem-to-stern overhaul from ''Shakespeare in Love''{{'}}s Oscar-winning screenwriter Tom Stoppard.}}</ref> and ''[[The Bourne Ultimatum (film)|The Bourne Ultimatum]]'' (2007).<ref name="Lawson">{{cite web|last=Lawson|first=Mark|title=Tom Stoppard: 'I'm the crank in the bus queue'|url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2010/apr/14/tom-stoppard-the-real-thing|work=The Guardian|access-date=August 17, 2012|date=April 14, 2010}}</ref><ref name="Rapkin">{{cite web|last=Rapkin|first=Mickey|title=Tom Stoppard|url=http://www.timeout.com/newyork/theater/tom-stoppard|work=Time Out New York|access-date=August 16, 2012|date=October 18, 2007}}</ref> On ''The Bourne Ultimatum'', Stoppard said in October 2007, "I wrote a script for [director] [[Paul Greengrass]]. Some of the themes are still mine—but I don't think there's a single word of mine in the film."<ref name="Rapkin"/> According to an April 2010 interview with ''The Guardian'', Stoppard "does uncredited script-doctoring on Hollywood movies, 'about once a year': most recently he worked on Paul Greengrass's ''The Bourne Ultimatum''. 'The second reason for doing it is that you get to work with people you admire. The first reason, of course, is that it's overpaid.' Once, hearing the phone ring at home while in the shower, he took a call from [director] [[Paul Greengrass|Steven Spielberg]] on the set of ''[[Schindler's List]]'', agonising over a scene in [[Steven Zaillian]]{{'}}s script. Standing naked, Stoppard improvised a solution that was used in the movie. He remains bemused by this American habit of invisible script revision. 'I actually got quite angry with Spielberg, who was and is a good friend, and told him just to film Zaillian's script. But Steven, like a lot of other people in movies, tends to think one more opinion can't hurt.{{' "}}<ref name="Lawson"/> He also said, "I used to worry about it enormously, but it's a different culture. It's a moral issue, almost. A few years ago, I was invited to a film festival, as a freebie, because I'd done so much work on a movie that they said I should be there. And I said: 'I can't do that, because I'm not supposed to be on this film, and it's unfair to the chap whose name is on it.' But it just goes with the territory: these are the conditions one works under out there."<ref name="Lawson"/>
-* [[Quentin Tarantino]] (born 1963): ''[[It's Pat]]'' (1994)<ref>{{cite book|last=Dawson|first=Jeff|title=Quentin Tarantino: The Cinema of Cool|year=1995|publisher=Applause Books|location=New York|isbn=1557832277|page=[https://archive.org/details/quentintarantino0000daws/page/198 198]|url=https://archive.org/details/quentintarantino0000daws/page/198}}</ref> and ''[[Crimson Tide (film)|Crimson Tide]]'' (1995).<ref name="Morris"/><ref>Dawson, p. 61.</ref>
+* [[Quentin Tarantino]]: ''[[It's Pat]]'' (1994)<ref>{{cite book|last=Dawson|first=Jeff|title=Quentin Tarantino: The Cinema of Cool|year=1995|publisher=Applause Books|location=New York|isbn=1557832277|page=[https://archive.org/details/quentintarantino0000daws/page/198 198]|url=https://archive.org/details/quentintarantino0000daws/page/198}}</ref> and ''[[Crimson Tide (film)|Crimson Tide]]'' (1995).<ref name="Morris"/><ref>Dawson, p. 61.</ref>
-* [[Robert Towne]] (born 1934): ''[[Bonnie and Clyde (film)|Bonnie and Clyde]]'' (1967), ''[[The Godfather]]'' (1972), and ''[[Armageddon (1998 film)|Armageddon]]'' (1998).<ref name="Morris"/> Author [[Peter Biskind]] writes in ''[[Easy Riders, Raging Bulls]]'' (1998) that [[Francis Ford Coppola]] asked Towne if he wanted credit for his contributions to the screenplay of ''The Godfather'', and Towne replied: "Don't be ridiculous. I only wrote a couple of fuckin' scenes. If you win an Oscar, thank me."<ref>{{cite book|last=Biskind|first=Peter|title=Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex-Drugs-And Rock 'N Roll Generation Saved Hollywood|year=1998|publisher=Simon and Schuster|location=New York|isbn=0684857081|page=[https://archive.org/details/easyridersraging00biski/page/158 158]|url=https://archive.org/details/easyridersraging00biski/page/158}}</ref> Coppola won the [[Academy Award for Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay)]] and thanked Towne.<ref>{{cite web|last=Turan|first=Kenneth|title=Robert Towne's Hollywood Without Heroes|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/11/27/movies/film-robert-towne-s-hollywood-without-heroes.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm|work=The New York Times|access-date=August 17, 2012|date=November 27, 1988}}</ref>
+* [[Robert Towne]]: ''[[Bonnie and Clyde (film)|Bonnie and Clyde]]'' (1967), ''[[The Godfather]]'' (1972), and ''[[Armageddon (1998 film)|Armageddon]]'' (1998).<ref name="Morris"/> Author [[Peter Biskind]] writes in ''[[Easy Riders, Raging Bulls]]'' (1998) that [[Francis Ford Coppola]] asked Towne if he wanted credit for his contributions to the screenplay of ''The Godfather'', and Towne replied: "Don't be ridiculous. I only wrote a couple of fuckin' scenes. If you win an Oscar, thank me."<ref>{{cite book|last=Biskind|first=Peter|title=Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex-Drugs-And Rock 'N Roll Generation Saved Hollywood|year=1998|publisher=Simon and Schuster|location=New York|isbn=0684857081|page=[https://archive.org/details/easyridersraging00biski/page/158 158]|url=https://archive.org/details/easyridersraging00biski/page/158}}</ref> Coppola won the [[Academy Award for Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay)]] and thanked Towne.<ref>{{cite web|last=Turan|first=Kenneth|title=Robert Towne's Hollywood Without Heroes|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/11/27/movies/film-robert-towne-s-hollywood-without-heroes.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm|work=The New York Times|access-date=August 17, 2012|date=November 27, 1988}}</ref>
-* [[Joss Whedon]] (born 1964): ''[[Speed (1994 film)|Speed]]'' (1994), ''[[The Quick and the Dead (1995 film)|The Quick and the Dead]]'' (1995),<ref name="Robinson">{{cite web|last=Robinson|first=Tasha|title=Joss Whedon|url=http://www.avclub.com/articles/joss-whedon,13730/|work=The A.V. Club|access-date=August 19, 2012|date=September 5, 2001}}</ref> ''[[Waterworld]]'' (1995), ''[[Twister (1996 film)|Twister]]'' (1996),<ref name="Jacobs">{{cite web|last=Jacobs|first=A.J.|title=Interview with a Vampire Chronicler|url=http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,287570,00.html|work=Entertainment Weekly|access-date=August 16, 2012|date=April 25, 1997|quote=Consider that Whedon, an A-list screenwriter and script doctor...}}</ref> and ''[[X-Men (film)|X-Men]]'' (2000).<ref name="Robinson"/> In a September 2001 interview, Whedon said: "Most of the dialogue in ''Speed'' is mine, and a bunch of the characters," adding that he was [[WGA screenwriting credit system#Arbitration|arbitrated]] out of credit.<ref name="Robinson"/> He also spoke about ''Waterworld'' and ''X-Men'': "I refer to myself as the world's highest-paid [[stenographer]]. This is a situation I've been in a bunch of times. [...] ''Waterworld'' was a good idea, and the script was the classic, 'They have a good idea, then they write a generic script and don't really care about the idea.' When I was brought in, there was no water in the last 40 pages of the script. It all took place on land, or on a ship, or whatever. I'm like, 'Isn't the cool thing about this guy that he has gills?' And no one was listening. I was there basically taking notes from <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[Kevin Costner]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>, who was very nice, fine to work with, but he was not a writer. And he had written a bunch of stuff that they wouldn't let their staff touch. So I was supposed to be there for a week, and I was there for seven weeks, and I accomplished nothing. I wrote a few puns, and a few scenes that I can't even sit through because they came out so bad. It was the same situation with ''X-Men''. They said, 'Come in and punch up the big [[Climax (narrative)|climax]], the [[Three-act structure|third act]], and if you can, make it [[Film budgeting|cheaper]].' That was the mandate on both movies, and my response to both movies was, 'The problem with the third act is the first two acts.' But, again, no one was paying attention. [...] And then, in ''X-Men'', not only did they throw out my script and never tell me about it; they actually invited me to the [[read-through]], having thrown out my entire draft without telling me."<ref name="Robinson"/>
+* [[Joss Whedon]]: ''[[Speed (1994 film)|Speed]]'' (1994), ''[[The Quick and the Dead (1995 film)|The Quick and the Dead]]'' (1995),<ref name="Robinson">{{cite web|last=Robinson|first=Tasha|title=Joss Whedon|url=http://www.avclub.com/articles/joss-whedon,13730/|work=The A.V. Club|access-date=August 19, 2012|date=September 5, 2001}}</ref> ''[[Waterworld]]'' (1995), ''[[Twister (1996 film)|Twister]]'' (1996),<ref name="Jacobs">{{cite web|last=Jacobs|first=A.J.|title=Interview with a Vampire Chronicler|url=http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,287570,00.html|work=Entertainment Weekly|access-date=August 16, 2012|date=April 25, 1997|quote=Consider that Whedon, an A-list screenwriter and script doctor...}}</ref> and ''[[X-Men (film)|X-Men]]'' (2000).<ref name="Robinson"/> In a September 2001 interview, Whedon said: "Most of the dialogue in ''Speed'' is mine, and a bunch of the characters," adding that he was [[WGA screenwriting credit system#Arbitration|arbitrated]] out of credit.<ref name="Robinson"/> He also spoke about ''Waterworld'' and ''X-Men'': "I refer to myself as the world's highest-paid [[stenographer]]. This is a situation I've been in a bunch of times. [...] ''Waterworld'' was a good idea, and the script was the classic, 'They have a good idea, then they write a generic script and don't really care about the idea.' When I was brought in, there was no water in the last 40 pages of the script. It all took place on land, or on a ship, or whatever. I'm like, 'Isn't the cool thing about this guy that he has gills?' And no one was listening. I was there basically taking notes from <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[Kevin Costner]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>, who was very nice, fine to work with, but he was not a writer. And he had written a bunch of stuff that they wouldn't let their staff touch. So I was supposed to be there for a week, and I was there for seven weeks, and I accomplished nothing. I wrote a few puns, and a few scenes that I can't even sit through because they came out so bad. It was the same situation with ''X-Men''. They said, 'Come in and punch up the big [[Climax (narrative)|climax]], the [[Three-act structure|third act]], and if you can, make it [[Film budgeting|cheaper]].' That was the mandate on both movies, and my response to both movies was, 'The problem with the third act is the first two acts.' But, again, no one was paying attention. [...] And then, in ''X-Men'', not only did they throw out my script and never tell me about it; they actually invited me to the [[read-through]], having thrown out my entire draft without telling me."<ref name="Robinson"/>
 ==See also==