An anonymous Hollywood screenwriter recently shared some inside details about what’s been happening in Hollywood over the last few years and why many of the films and television shows that studios have produced have been of poor quality.
(L-R): Charlie Cox as Daredevil/Matt Murdock and Tatiana Maslany as She-Hulk/Jennifer “Jen” Walters in Marvel Studios’ She-Hulk: Attorney At Law, exclusively on Disney+. Photo by Chuck Zlotnick. © 2022 MARVEL.
The anonymous screenwriter, who notes he has 20 years of experience in Hollywood, wrote a letter that was published in Film Threat that details what has been happening in Hollywood.
First, this anonymous source claims that much of the changes that occurred in Hollywood started in 2019. He shared, “Suddenly, sub-text and themes became the main point of discussing a project or IP. The first question in every meeting became, ‘What can we say with this project?’ or ‘What can we teach people with this story?’ Plot, character and audience were now secondary, and sometimes not even discussed.”
(L-R): Plazir-15 Security Detail, the Duchess of Plazir-15 (Lizzo) and Captain Bombardier (Jack Black) in Lucasfilm’s THE MANDALORIAN, season three, exclusively on Disney+. ©2023 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.
This is not new information, many of the Hollywood studios have been doing this since before 2019. Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy shared in 2015 during Fortune Magazine’s The Most Powerful Women Summit, “I think the interesting path we’ve had is the conversation that took place around consumer products. Because there were a lot of companies that were in place who frankly didn’t initially feel that Star Wars was for girls.”
She continued, “And when you have a company situation where between Lucasfilm and Disney, we were all looking at this situation saying, ‘No, with Star Wars we have to change this. We have to make sure that we create products that are in a sense appealing to both boys and girls.’ What’s wrong with that?”
Kennedy would go on to detail, “The fact that the company was bought by The Walt Disney Company has been amazing because they very much support the fact that we are trying to grow in the work force a number of women in executive positions and in all positions inside the company. And with the movies that we are making and with the protagonists that we are putting in the stories. So I get a huge amount of support with that.”
She added, “But we have 50% of our executive team are women. And six out of eight of the people in my story group are women. And I’m sure there’s a lot of people that would be surprised that we’re making Star Wars movies and the majority of the people involved in the development of those stories are women. And I think it’s making a huge difference in the stories that we’re trying to tell.”
(L-R): Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) and Bo-Katan Kryze (Katee Sackhoff) with the Darksaber in Lucasfilm’s THE MANDALORIAN, season three, exclusively on Disney+. ©2023 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.
Second, the anonymous screenwriter noted that senior level executives empowered a number of young executives who were “more concerned with taking down the patriarchy” than the Hero’s Journey when the streaming wars ramped up and Hollywood studios were chasing after any and all programs they could get to add to their streaming service.
Third, he shared these younger executives acted on their belief in taking down the patriarchy by engaging in racism, “The reality is that for the past five years, white, straight, male writers and directors with experience and successful track records have been sidelined.”
He explained, “We’ve essentially been told that because of our race and gender, we need not apply. At one point my agent told me that they couldn’t put me up for any OWAs (open writing assignments) or TV staffing jobs because the execs only wanted to hear takes on the material from BIPOC or female or LGBTQ writers. Some shows even started instituting staffing quotas that 40 to 50 percent of the writing staff had to be people of color.”
Anya Chalotra as Yennefer in The Witcher (2023), Netflix
The quotas are not new either. The Walt Disney Company has them posted to their Reimagine Tomorrow website. The company’s policy on content on the website previously read, “By 2022, 50% of regular and recurring characters across Disney General Entertainment scripted content will come from underrepresented groups.”
Reimagine Tomorrow Website
The site has since been updated and now reads, “We are committed to inspiring a more inclusive world by reimagining the way we tell stories and who tells them. Our intention is to broaden access and diversity in our industry by adopting inclusion standards across Disney General Entertainment* and live-action Studio productions by the end of 2022, with the goal of advancing representation in front of and behind the camera, in marketing and more.”
Reimagine Tomorrow Website
It then links to ABC Entertainment’s Inclusion Standards, which has quotas for “diversity” both onscreen and behind the camera.
For example one of the quotas states, “Characters: 50% or more of regular and recurring written characters come from Underrepresented Groups.”
Another reads, “Series Premise: Meaningful integration of Underrepresented Groups in overall themes and narratives.”
It also discusses behind the camera positions, “50% or more of producer & above on writing staff and 50% or more of Co-Producer & below on writing staff come from Underrepresented Groups.”
ABC Entertainment Inclusion Standards
Interestingly, the one thing this anonymous screenwriter does highlight is its not just the studios pushing these racist policies, but its been done by their own union, the Writers Guild of America.
He states, “No institution reinforces this more than the WGA. One glance at their monthly calendar of events shows a Latinx writers committee meeting, an LGBTQ+ writers committee meeting, a Committee of Black writers meeting, a Middle Eastern writers committee meeting, a women’s writers committee meeting and an Asian American writers committee meeting, to name just a few.”
Furthermore, he notes this focus on diversity and representation “was very present at the last in-house WGA meeting held before the strike of 2023.”
The writer explains, “In 2023 the meeting had a decidedly different tone. Very few complaints had to do [with] money this time around. There was a litany of complaints about not enough diversity in the ranks. Young writers asking, “How come I’ve worked for two years as a TV writer and I’m not a showrunner yet,” (a position that should take at least a decade of experience if not two to reach). “How do we make sure that the Guild will fight for staffing requirements?”
Morfydd Clark as Galadriel and Charlie Vickers as Halbrand in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (2022), Prime Video
The writer also seemingly shared WGA documents with Film Threat founder Chris Gore that requires writers self-identify themselves by sexuality, disabilities, gender identity, and more.
What do you make of what this screenwriter had to say about Hollywood?
[…] READ: Hollywood Screenwriter Asserts Studios Sidelined “White, Straight, Male Writers And Directors” […]