Cash Windfalls For WME Agents, Assistants 
A&E IndieFilms Sets ‘Happy Valley,’ … 
Hot Cannes Property: Natalie Portman, Lynne Ramsay Team On … 
Brad Pitt Hits Cannes With ‘Killing Them … 
CNN Hits 20-Year Weekday Primetime Low 
Longtime TV Exec Rod Perth Named NATPE President & CEO 
RATINGS RAT RACE: ‘House’ Ends Run On High-Ish … 
Does Cable News Clarify Or Confuse The Public’s … 
Mark Burnett’s Company Launches Scripted Unit, Taps … 
‘Mary Mother Of Christ’ In Lionsgate Deal 
Icon UK Group Joins ‘The Butler’; Forest … 
Best Buy Shares Up Pre-Market As Q1 Earnings Beat Estimates 
HBO Developing Comedy Series Starring Catherine Keener And … 
Will ‘Paperboy’ Heat Domestic Buying At Cannes? … 
Millennium Films Buys Spec Thriller ‘Playing … 
Will ‘American Idol’s’ Jessica Sanchez … 
Legendary’s Thomas Tull Among Just 3 Contenders … 
Harvey Weinstein Unveils ‘The Master’, … 
CBS’ ‘Rules Of Engagement’ Renewed For … 
Facebook Shares Fall Below Offering Price Even As Market … 
UTA Signs ‘Intouchables’ Star Omar Sy 
Marvel Studios has started a writers program. The goal is to put more than half a dozen film writers on staff, give them an office, and “work them like horses!” one of my sources says. I’ve confirmed this smart move. (Makes you realize how backwards
Warner Bros is by comparison on their DC Comics film development.) *UPDATE: Marvel comic book writers are not excluded from applying.* One source tells me the terms of the program “are apparently more onerous than the terms of the Disney Writers Program. Before the writers are even allowed to come in and meet, they must sign a non-disclosure agreement and a 70-page, non-negotiable contract. Among other things, the contract gives Marvel ownership over everything the writers create during the one year term of [the] deal, plus a first look and last refusal to any and all projects the writers have previously written or will write for 24 months in the future.” Egads! Unfortunately, with Hollywood feature development at a near standstill, I suspect Marvel could have its pick of film writers in exchange for $5 and a hot lunch.
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
Loading ...
First…this isn’t breaking news, people have known about this for the last 2 months.
2. The marvel job is not for peanuts and will pay in the low 6 figs for writers
3. The Disney program pays writers over 200k a year.
4. Most of the people being considered for this are young screenwriters with maybe 1 gig under their belt.
5. I know several of the writers in the Disney program, and they can’t speak more highly of the people involved. These are writers who are pros before they go in, and come out better writers when they come out.
Some of you need to realize that you come off bitter, and untalented by writing before thinking. Idiots.
Let’s see I tried ABC’s Daytime program. They didn’t like my comedy episode. I tried Nichol, they didn’t push me pass the growing crowd of “screenwriters” I signed releases, sent synopsis, loglines to several producers, actors etc. No bites. So when they announce this I have to ask myself, does it pay 1000 per week plus benefits, how about the studio cafeteria? Can I eat with Samuel Jackson? Can I try to steal the slimmed down Scarlet J from her husband who made her loose that great figure? What can Marvel give me? Do I have to sleep with someone to get in this program? Will Halle be in the next Spiderman movie? Questions Questions, and five dollars and hour is better than working at McDonalds.
This might be better than the sixty hours (mostly free) I’m putting in for my “clients” and book editing
Nice! Marvel films is learning from Marvel comics. Nobody fucks creators like Marvel Comics!
Deaf – DUMB – Indian Muslim Anarchist carped, “how about writing a FEMALE SUPERHERO FILM FOR ONCE, GUYS????”
Hello…. Elektra.
The guy behind this is Kevin Feige, the guy groomed by Avi Arad to empty his spitoons and deposit his Depends. He was the one that wanted to reboot the Hulk, a great move which cost them most of their Iron Man profits. Now they find themselves trying to make movies out of public domain Norse Gods like Thor. And the terms of the loans from Merrill Lynch means they lose the rights to the characters if the film bombs. Avi may have been a rug merchant without any trustworthiness and he may have plugged his vagabond son into the company for shits and giggles but at least he knew the characters. Feige doesn’t even know that. He wouldn’t know an AntMan from an Atom if you introduced them. Why would any writer want to do this and work with these jackasses is beyond me.
Yeah, Marvel tried an equivalent writer-enslavement program back in 2003 with their comic writers, too, creating a new line called Marvel EPIC that anyone, including their fans, could submit their best revamps of old crap Marvel characters to.
Marvel’s plan was to ramp up development of their deep back catalog on the cheap, and hopefully find a few old characters with good modern takes that they could test-market in comics and then spin off into TV & Film. Problem is, throwing open the doors to just anyone invites in a lot of dummies without the necessary skills, and that’s not always clear on first impressions. Marvel were swiftly buried in 2000+ amateur submissions inside the first week without the staff necessary to wade through them, and the pile just continued to grow and grow and grow.
Worse, no professional comics writers would accept the onerous terms of the contract (which, similar to this one, owned your entire creative output for years).
Worst of all, though, is the fact that Marvel didn’t (and still doesn’t) give their creators a permanent ownership percentage for creating new characters the way DC does, so few creators were (or are) willing to give Marvel their best new material, even if it’s just a reimagined version of Marvel’s old stuff… it’s more worth it to a creator to redesign the Marvel idea further away from whatever Marvel character gave them the inspiration and then self-publish it… that way the comics guys own their Intellectual Property and can license it to the movies themselves.
Marvel’s EPIC “line” of comics eventually published something like 3 books, none of them lasted past issue #3, and the whole experiment became a life lesson in how not to conduct comics business.
And THAT was the trainwreck which resulted from offering wannabe writers $50/page to sit and revamp old junk. Imagine how many MORE applications they’re going to get for this mainstream Hollywood program… and they most likely won’t be any better, for the most part, than the wannabe comic writers were. Every geek in town and out of town will turn out to pitch their “awesome” take on Cloak & Dagger, no working professionals will stand to have their entire output monopolized by Marvel for a year + 2 year option, the smart people with good ideas for revamps of Marvel’s old junk will just keep it to themselves, and Marvel will most likely end up quietly shutting this whole thing down… just like they did with Marvel EPIC.
What was Einstein’s definition of insanity again? Oh, right… repeating the same actions again and again and expecting a different result.
are the studios no longer developing simply to punish the writers for the strike?
Hello… The sooner Elektra is forgotten, the better.
“No good writer is going to give away a year of his time for a non-negotiable deal”. Typical BS attitude toward everything. Instead spend that year trying to sell ONE (which you probably won’t because that’s usually how it goes) script for WGA minimum that never gets made anyway. People are so paranoid of “bad” deals and/or plaigiarism that they never release a single thing out of FEAR. IF you’re in the minority that actually is working as a writer, shut up and enjoy it. If you’re not, shut up as well…hopefully you realize that it’s YOU at fault for lack of work…too many excuses and chill on the narcissism it’s bad for your career.
Has anything actually ever come of one of these first look/last look/writer’s program deals? I have heard far and few mentions of scripts that actually ended up getting purchased by Disney/ABC/whoever out of one of these programs and none that have ever been made.
This is how Marvel held onto all the rights from the Martin Goodman days forward, and the “work for hire” provision of U.S. Copyright law makes it allllll possible. Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, John Buscema, John Romita — all of them were cut out of owning their creations because they either took a salary or signed freelancer releases. The subject is Marvel in this thread, but all the old studios owned every word their employees turned out whether shot or not. You think Billy Wilder and the Estate of Charles Brackett got paid for the Broadway’s “Sunset Boulevard”? You think Joe Mankiewicz got a dime from the musical “Applause”? They were lucky to get opening night tickets. Work for hire.
Actually, Josh, yes several people have come out of the Disney writing program and have gone on to very lucrative careers.
As a matter of fact the Disney program has paid off for Matt Lopez in particular. Another writer currently in the program just had her project greenlit by the studio (all of which involves more money going to the writer).
These programs work out very well for the writers involved. Stop all the madness, this is a good thing for writers…especially younger ones.
This has been a very interesting commentary; much more so than anything regarding, say the SAG situation of late. Thank you all for that!
I’m not a Writer, but if this Marvel deal is like the Disney program, it seems that it could be very good for young and developing talent, but not, of course, not for you seasoned pros.
From another perspective one might note that in the world of actual film production, Marvel is standing almost alone as a production entity committed to making movies in Los Angeles. They’ve put up and apparently they have a slate of big dumb fun movies in the pipeline which are going to keep a lot of people employed for some years to come.
So don’t sign the 70 page contract.
Disney pays 50K a year and they’ve staffed everyone from the last two groups to one of their ABC/Family shows. Still sound like a scam to you?
Haters, keep hating. The rest of us will go for it and risk whatever perils await. Probably the same perils that EVERY writer faces with every studio all the time.
I have a question:
Why would they hire a bunch of beginners and/or semi-professionals, or whatever you want to call them, and lowball them on the pay….to produce what exactly?
Scripts for $200 million comic book epics?
Really?
You wanna pay some writer next to nothing, and then bet your entire company on the project?
Is that how it works?
Maybe their calculation is, ‘big writers, small writers, big names, no names, you still get the same mediocre shit at the end of the day. So why pay the big bucks?’
This is very much a continuation of Marvel’s COMIC BOOK practices, which, as been pointed out, have screwed a couple of generations of cartoonists out of owning their creations. But (and this is true of the copmics themselves these days),Marvel doesn’t WANT you to create anything new; they just want you to squeeze a few more drops of blood from their existing stable of properties…
Does ANYONE have info on how / where to submit?
“that it’s YOU at fault for lack of work…too many excuses and chill on the narcissism it’s bad for your career.”
“So don’t sign the 70 page contract.”
This all sounds so much like the tone before the writers’ strike. Question does Disney get to keep the digital rights, or will you ever get residuals like REAL WGA writers? Somehow we are not worried about are careers. We just want to write and see our names on IMDB.COM. Personally I just want one check for 500k. As for narcissism you clearly haven’t went to Script Expo or any other writer’s convention. WE LOVE TO TALK ABOUT OURSELVES. Especially if we have a few million in the bank.
As for not signing the contract. Hell, most writers will skip to the back page or may have a computer stamp just to get the pain over.
I hope whomever gets in this program gets a better deal than those eliminated in the last writers contest at Bravo’s Situation: Comedy and Project Greenlight ( 2 movies, 1 movie, 8 movies ( not me) mostly Saws) Because even if our greatest works are paperweights, at least we are not slaves, who like in pre WGA days had bosses standing over us cracking the whip, saying faster type faster, no white out for you newbie.
Be interested to know if they are just going out after talent or are they accepting open submissions. If it’s open, when will they make contact information available?
RE: Put a Sock In It
It’s not about being a hater it’s about SELLING OUT to the lowest bidder. If you or anyone else that supports this program were talented enough, you wouldn’t need to defend SCHLEPPING for the studios. There is NOTHING fair about this deal. And that is true for the Disney deal too.
My agent laughed at the Marvel underling who phoned him to ask if any of his clients wanted to apply. Writers are not automatons working in some dream, ah, nightmare factory. And ANYONE who participates in this program is either A) Desperate B) Pathetic C) Lack the skills to make things happen for themselves and/or the talent to make on their own merits.
This is yet another attempt but yet another “studio” to take advantage of the schmucks with underwoods who long to suck at the teet of the Hollywood machine. It is no different then a young girl from Kansas just off the bus in LA with stars in her eyes only to end up as supporting figure in three of four porn films shot in the valley. ANY writer who agrees to these terms is WILLFULLY exploiting themselves, quite simply, they are WHORES.
What’s most interesting about this whole deal is the assumption many have here that this is a “good” deal. This job pays $100,000 according to Variety, or about double what the Disney Fellowship pays… but without the immense career push that the Disney Fellows get (Disney gets them pitches and meet & greets all over town, Disney can get them in to see most any producer, Disney helps them get management & agents, etc. etc.).
You’ll be working on Marvel’s C-grade material; Black Panther, Dr. Strange, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, & Nighthawk are the characters being bandied about. Blechhh. Having run out of classic characters created by geniuses like Steve Ditko & Jack Kirby (both cheated out of the millions and millions of dollars their characters have generated), Marvel’s dredging the worst of their 70′s dreck. What’s next, an “Angarr the Screamer” movie?
Lastly, read Nikki’s article again. Marvel has first dibs on EVERYTHING you’ve ever written, own outright anything at all you write while you’re working for them for $2,000/week, and has first dibs on everything you write for TWO YEARS after you leave their employ. WTF? How is this a good deal for any serious, creative writer? Everything you’ve previously written? For $100,000? That’s barely above WGA minimum for a single spec sale.
Good comics writers make about $100 to $150 a page for writing comics. 21 pages x $100 = $2100, 21pp x $150 = $3150. The best comics writers can crank 3 to 4 books a month. That means it’s entirely within the realm of possibility that a comics writer like Geoff Johns will out-earn you by 50% just by writing comic books during the same year that you’ve given Marvel direct access to everything that you’ve EVER written, ownership of everything you write in your spare time at night, and an option on everything you write for two years after you leave their employment.
This isn’t a job… it’s an empty seat next to Ben Hur in the Roman galley.
The sad thing about this whole program is that if Marvel treats writers right, they wouldn’t need to contractually obligate them to give Marvel first look.
One of the first rules of showbiz is that people will tend to stick to people or companies that treat them right, and not screw them over. It’s just that simple.
I get the feeling that this program was developed by Marvel’s lawyers rather than anyone who works with writers.
The terms do seem tough, but they make sense to me. It sounds like Marvel just want to cover their backs. And as Marvel Studios focuses on making movies based on Marvel properties, they’ll likely only option scripts that are based on stuff they own, or are too close to something Marvel want to release.
Anyway, you could just sit on a script until your 24 months is up.
That said, Marvel are offering to give a dozen screenwriters work for a year with a regular and decent paycheck ($100,000 is over double the average annual wage in LA), provide them with a way to break into a tough industry, develop their skills, develop a work record, and build up contacts in LA’s film industry.
That doesn’t sound like such a bad deal.
Just wanted to correct Comic Scribe – Steve Ditko created Dr. Strange with Stan Lee in the ’60′s. Maybe more comics today would be worth reading if the writers knew their history…
FOOM: Your assessment of Marvel’s EPIC line is about 90% wrong, and really not analogous to what is described above. I should know. I was one of the writers who was published under Epic.
None of the writers or artists who were published under Epic were “dummies” or lacking in skill. In fact, all of them are still working comic writers today: Robert Kirkman, John Jackson Miller, Jason Hendeson, Mark Millar, myself.
There was no enslavement. Marvel did not “own your creative output for years.” We signed contracts around the books we were doing. Did Marvel own their pre-existing characters? Yep. Did Marvel own anything else we were doing outside of the books we were writing for them? Nope. In fact, Mike Sangiacomo took his Epic book and published it as a creator-owned book after the line buckled. Daniel Way was also able to withdraw his book when it was decided they weren’t doing creator-owned stuff.
No professional comics writer would accept the terms? Hmmm…Robert Kirkman was already doing WALKING DEAD and INVINCIBLE when he signed up with Epic. Mark Millar seemed to be doing well before his Epic time as well.
Two epic titles ran for six or more issues. The rest were cut short when Bill Jemas was ousted and the line was shuttered. Regrettably, I was caught in that slamming door.
Your payment number is off too. I’m not saying I was making top dollar, but my page rate was considerably better than what most non big-2 pay.
I’m not trying to say Marvel is all butter and cookies. Plenty of creators have been hurt by them over the years.
But there’s little or no analogy between the above and the Epic line, except maybe this: being a Marvel Studios staff screenwriter could prove a valuable stepping-stone for a young up-and-comer, just as Epic proved so for me.