How often are the stories of a comic, novel, play, TV series, movie, or song conceived by the writer's friend, relative, acquaintance, neighbor, mailman, dog, etc? [more inside]
posted by TheSecretDecoderRing on May 28, 2009 - 14 answers

The IMDB entry for Donnie Darko says: "The script initially called for Donnie's fantasies to be about Alyssa Milano. This had to be changed however when Richard Kelly was denied the legal rights to reference her in this manner." Does anyone know what laws are operating in this situation?
posted by lbergstr on Oct 24, 2004 - 13 answers

Speaking of movie scripts, recently a concept for one barged it's way into my head - without even wiping it's feet. There it was. I assume that, in such cases, it's who you know that is important. So - not knowing anyone - I wonder if I should bother (more inside), but I do feel like developing it a bit. Should I noodle out the minutia of dialogue or simply focus on the broad concept ? [more inside]
posted by troutfishing on May 19, 2004 - 19 answers

In modern screenplays written for movies and television is it acceptable to include a fair share of Direction? I understand it used to be more common but has fallen out of vogue. (more) [more inside]
posted by dhoyt on Jan 17, 2004 - 7 answers