JAKE DUNNO RESPONDS TO METRO LETTER RE: PLAGIARISM

EXCERPT FROM METRO: AND JAKE DUNNO'S RESPONSE

'Terminator' vs. TV: When cult culture gets hijacked
By Steve Palopoli

ONE OF the most time-honored staples of cult-fan culture is the "idea espionage" conspiracy theory. ..I'm not talking about Brian DePalma/Woody Allen-type homages here— I'm talking about heavy idea lifting that leaves someone or someones cut out of a success they deserved to be credited on.

We know that such wholesale theft goes on because sometimes people just flat-out admit to it. One of the most famous examples of that came after James Cameron finished The Terminator. According to Marc Shapiro's biography of the director, a visiting journalist asked where he had gotten the idea for it, and Cameron said, "Oh, I ripped off a couple of Harlan Ellison stories." Shapiro also quotes Ellison as saying he found the "smoking gun" in a Starlog article in which Cameron was quoted as saying he got the idea for The Terminator from "a couple of Outer Limits segments." The episodes in question had both been written by Ellison. He sued and received a settlement of $400,000, along with a story credit on all theatrical and home-video prints of the film.

... What didn't Cameron steal from this episode for his movie? It's about a man from the future who goes back in time to present-day Earth after humanity has been defeated in a future war by an alien race. The aliens send agents back in time to get him, aware that he is humanity's last hope. As if that wasn't enough (spoiler ahead), the guy turns out to be a cyborg. "Demon" is probably the best episode of the series, and it still hold up today. It's a little talky, but the tension is thick, Robert Culp is great in the lead and some of the ideas will blow your mind. It's hard to believe it was made over 40 years ago, which is all the more reason Ellison deserved to get credit for his ahead-of-its-time work (I'm pretty sure I saw seeds of Terminator 2, Buckaroo Banzai and even the set design of Blade Runner in there, too, but we won't get into that now).
It's stuff like the Terminator case that adds fuel to these fan-outrage fires. Personally, though, I don't have any idea-theft axes to grind. Well, OK, I would like to know if the writers of Galaxy Quest ever saw the 1985 Tales From the Darkside episode "Distant Signals," about an alien who comes to Earth to try to get a bad TV show revived because his planet picked up its broadcasts and got obsessed with it. Did those studio jerks think no one would notice?

Cult Leader is a weekly column about the state of cult movies and offbeat corners of pop culture. Email feedback or your favorite movie rip-off here.

MR. DUNNO RESPONDS:

October 3, 2006

'Terminator' vs. TV
When cult culture gets hijacked

Dear Mr. Steve Palopoli,

I came across your recent article in the Metro, Sept. 27, 2006, concerning the hijacking of the "Terminator" concept by James Cameron and found it amusing to say the least. As one who finds this kind of behavior abhorrent- not giving credit where credit is due- I thought I'd fill you in on this little pearl o' wisdom.
For your consideration, Mr. Aaron Sorkin: a revered, highly paid, and talented writer for the hit NBC television series, The West Wing. As it turns out, Mr. Sorkin hijacked several drafts of a film script "The President Elopes" written by a respected Hollywood screenwriter, William Richert, and attached his name to the project without ever giving the original writer credit. In fact, in writing the finished screenplay, which he renamed "The American President", Mr. Sorkin actually holed himself up in the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills- smoking crack several times a day- and plagiarized the entirety of the script- based on several previous drafts written by the aforementioned screenwriter. He literally lifted scenes and dialogue right from the pages of the previous drafts and simply changed the character's names.
Wait a minute. Did you say crack cocaine? Yep, you got it!
Originally, William Richert wrote his screenplay, "The President Elopes" and developed a cast of characters for the imaginary "Executive Wing." The story tells of a widowed President bereft with sadness about his wife's untimely passing from cancer. The President embarks on an "everyman's journey" desperately trying to woo a lonely, attractive lobbyist and restore a semblance of family to he and his son's lives in the White House. But conflict in his Presidency seems to get in the way of his newly found relationship. Turmoil, turmoil, and at last resolution and redemption… Ahh…. The final kiss- fade to red, white, and blue!
Sorkin's plagiarized version, "The American President" stars Michael Douglas and Annette Benning. But it was Robert Redford's film company, Wildwood Enterprises, which was originally was slated to produce the story of the widowed President. And Redford, himself, intended on playing the role. However, due to acquisitions and mergers, the concept was bought and sold several times. At one point Disney held the rights to the concept. That is, until Rob Reiner and Castle Rock Entertainment signed on. Reiner had just finished a film "A Few Good Men" written by none other than Aaron Sorkin. Reiner approached Sorkin with drafts of the "The President Elopes" and asked him to revise the script to make the President's character more "Clinton-esque." With a country reeling from Monica-gate and the controversy embroiled in the Clinton administration, Reiner hoped to make this newer version of the President more friendly and approachable.
Redford wasn't impressed. In fact, he abandoned the project altogether and indicated to Reiner that he was no longer interested in playing the President. After Sorkin's crack binge at the Four Seasons, Sorkin reluctantly entered a drug rehabilitation center at the Hazelden Institute in Minnesota. It was there that Sorkin wrote the pilot for the "West Wing". He had simply changed Richert's "Executive Wing" to the "West Wing" and a bold, new television pilot was born. Blatantly and clearly, Aaron Sorkin simply stole the idea and ran with it.
The sad part in the whole misadventure of Sorkin's plagiarizing endeavors is that the original writer, Willaim Richert never received due credit in the film- to say nothing about the TV show. His concept was hijacked, and the Writer's Guild of America declared that Sorkin deserved full credit for the screenplay and needn't give anyone else screen credit. How can that be?
Well, guess who happened to be responsible for making the legal decisions at Castle Rock, the parent film company who owned the rights to "The American President" and the earlier drafts of "The President Elopes"? Could it have been Aaron Sorkin's mistress and sex partner whom he was shacking up at the Four Seasons? Immediately after the decision by Castle Rock was made, Sorkin and Julia Bingham married, and just a few months later, divorced amicably. Guess who happens to be one of the major stockholders and owners of Castle Rock? Rob Reiner.
Sorkin continued writing episodes for NBC's the "West Wing" and was later nabbed in a Burbank airport for attempting to board a plane bound for Las Vegas with cocaine, marijuana, and a large amount of hallucinogenic mushrooms. Apparently his stint at the recovery hospital didn't take. After the arrest NBC sacked Sorkin as head writer for the series.
So how was he able to avoid prosecution and never serve a moment in jail? As it turns out, Aaron Sorkin comes from a long family lineage of attorneys. He's one of the only few who are not! His mother, his father, and even his brothers and sisters are all attorneys. Essentially, he paid his way off. And that's not hard to do when you are talking about the kind of money Aaron Sorkin has at his disposal.
With his new NBC TV show, "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" Sorkin certainly doesn't have any financial woes. With the profits from "The American President" and the syndication rights for the entire seven seasons of the "West Wing" slated to be the highest grossing television show in history- expected revenues for the mythic Presidential empire are expected close to a billion dollars. That's "B" as in billion… Ca Ching!!!
And what of the original writer, William Richert? Well, because the WGA is essentially a union for writers, arbitration hearings and cases cannot be overturned, nor reopened- no matter what the given circumstances.
Richert's only other recourse was to file a civil suit against the WGA, which he has done. In what has become a class action lawsuit against the WGA, several hundred other writers have come on board protesting the means by which original writers are not given credit for their works by the WGA. The case is still pending legislation and residuals could result in payment of hundreds of millions of dollars to their respective writers.
An interesting sidebar to all of this is Robert Redford. Redford has long been known for his charismatic charm, and his pro-environment political stance. He's a representative for the underdog; a tough talking, no nonsense activist. So why didn't he simply stand up to the WGA and inform them that William Richert originally came up with the concept of "The American President" and the "West Wing"?
Money. That's why. After Redford backed out of the project and Rob Reiner took it over, Castle Rock Entertainment paid Robert Redford 5 million dollars! They paid five million dollars for no reason whatsoever. Castle Rock already owned the rights to the screenplay, and Redford was under no obligation to star as the President. Castle Rock Entertainment and Rob Reiner simply bought Robert Redford's silence. What kind of man is he? That's for you to think about. His continued silence keeps hundreds of millions of dollars in the pockets of thieves. I know I sure won't look at Robert Redford, Rob Reiner, nor Aaron Sorkin the same way again…


I am a television producer who has just recently come across this story and I plan on producing an expose bringing to light Sorkin's shady deals and misgivings. Apparently this one story isn't isolated either. He has done this to several other writers but has the manpower of legal giants behind him.
I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,
Jake Dunno

SO SORRY, MR. HOBERMAN

RESPONSE TO SLATE ARTICLE: DOES PLAGIARISM MATTER?

Dear Megan O’Rourke,
Cc Jack Shafer, Mickey Kaus

You ask does plagiarism matter. What if I said to you that it was a plain act of a writer’s plagiarism that led to the world as we know it today, the Bush presidency, Iraq war, loss of habeas corpus and castration of U.S. Civil Rights.

A while back I read a column by Village Voice critic J. Hoberman that set me to wondering if it was “The American President” that fired up a conservative electorate that and put G. W. into office, the only U.S. president to wage a foreign war after a direct conversation, as he put it, with Jesus Christ.

Sorkin was awarded credit as the sole writer on the Michael Douglas movie after a phony Writer’s Guild of America arbitration concealed the existence of a letter wherein Sorkin told about meeting his producer Robert Redford and hearing my original story, which triggers automatic “Story by” credit under the WGA constitution.

The leaders of the WGA arbitration board, in secret meetings, accepted Sorkin’s lawyers statement to the Guild as truth when they all knew it was a lie.

The screenplays written by my collaborator and me were never read by other WGA writers, by any "jury of our peers" as the studio claimed.

I include my producer Robert Redford as an accomplice in this theft because he sold the screenplay I wrote with Kyle Morris for Disney in 1981, along with my subsequent scripts, to Castle Rock Pictures for 5 million dollars, then refused to disclose that these screenplays, which I wrote for him and his company and Universal pictures from 1984-1991, were the basis for just about every aspect of “The American President” and “The West Wing,” which used my own script “The Executive Wing” as its template.

Think I’m exaggerating? Read the scripts, they are on the Internet at www.williamrichert.com.

Not only Mr. Redford, but Julia Bingham, Rob Reiner, Alan Horn and others connected by greed and staggering amounts of money were aware of this theft of credit and their “critical failure to act can only be described as collusion.”

So Aaron Sorkin plagiarized my original screenplay and my subsequent draft entitled THE EXECUTIVE WING, which is the basis of THE WEST WING. Does this matter except to squabbling writers?

If THE WEST WING led to millions of avid, devoted, fanatical and slavish fans thinking this was a “real” president when this president was actually filtered through the brain of Aaron Sorkin, the plagiarized hit show could have shifted the evangelicals or other conservative catholic voters (like my mother) away from the Democrats by a small percent – enough to elect George W. Bush – and then, of course, the rest is history.

My president, like Sorkin’s in THE AMERICAN PRESIDENT, was a widower, with a young child studying music, who falls in love with an politically “unacceptable” woman, sends her flowers, diverts a motorcade, asks her to dance at a state dinner, speaks to his child about wardrobe – the similarities go on and on – not a coincidence, since it was my screenlay Sorkin was re-writing up until shortly before Redford quit.

Even so the men differ in fundamental ways, like Abel and Cain. What if Abel had survived? Would the world be different?

Sorkin’s President was a secret prescription drug user who hired a pot smoking secretary and was fine with it. Nothing against prescription drugs or pot, but I have plenty of issues with a President who keeps secrets of a certain sordid (Sorkin) kind.

My President was honest to his core, a fundamental difference between these Presidents and these screenwriters.

In the Biblical metaphor, Cain won again. Aaron Sorkin is the God of the Beltway for Millions, THE WEST WING is his Bible. Laurence O’Donnell nominated Sorklin’s President for TIME’S Person of the Year. But he is a false god. Sorkin plagiarized many things (with the help of 17 other writers) but he left out a kind of character with decency, a quality we now see almost wholly gone from the current White House, where they also “think outside the box.”

Along with other serious financial crimes and misdemeanors by WGA officials, the scope of this deceit, and its chilling effect on other writers as well as on our times, is the subject of an ongoing investigation by the distinguished screenwriter Eric Hughes (“AGAINST ALL ODDS,” “WHITE KNIGHTS,” who has been conducting a tireless investigation into the conduct of the WGA in hiding foreign levies from its own members, as well as falsifying credit arbitrations. His findings are due out momentarily. Presently I am leading a class action lawsuit on the guild’s malfeasance in RICHERT V. WGA.

To examine the evidence for yourself, please go to my website at www.williamrichert.com and click on WEST WING UNAUTHORIZED.

Like all forgers and high-class counterfeiters, plagiarists are smart and facile.

Jason Blair fooled a lot of intelligent readers at the NY TIMES, but nowhere near the number of TV viewers bamboozled by Aaron Sorkin, who stands to earn half a billion dollars off the deal.

Aaron Sorkin lifted the story, characters and plot from my original THE PRESIDENT ELOPES while re-writing my screenplay for Robert Redford at a Beverly Hills hotel in 1994 while having sex with Julia Bingham of Castle Rock, smoking crack cocaine, and waiting for Rob Reiner to get him into rehab.

When Redford quit in disgust, Bingham, Castle Rock’s head of business affairs – who Sorkin dutifully married then divorced – put forth Aaron Sorkin as sole writer, and the Writer’s guild accepted this based on contracts that said Sorkin was hired to write a separate script, but no such script was ever shown to exist.

One of the producers of THE AMERICAN PRESIDENT, Barbara Maltby, writing in THE AMERICAN SCHOLAR, says she never heard of such a screenplay until Sorkin showed up when the movie was made “to claim the inheritance.”

Your piece is perhaps the only article I’ve examined about plagiarism these past fifteen years that has aptly applied the word “labor” to describe the act of writing.

Many people think that writing like drawing is a talent and thus a gift and not a real job or a basic right, something unnecessary to the “real” world, which therefore can pass from one person or another with no real loss or harm, even if stolen.

“My kid can do that,” says the gallery goer about modern art. “When I get the den finished, I’m going to write my screenplay,” says the movie writer.

How hard it is to justify screaming about the loss of anything as common as an idea or sequence of words, or characters, or story lines, or philosophies, when everybody has one he/she isn’t using.

Outsiders view plagiarism in Hollywood as a kind of mercenary political act, with money grabbing and opportunism and exaggeration on all sides, with the wronged and wounded writer cast as a whining wannabe, as if he/she were the true plagiarist, instead of the accused.

This changes when the aspect of actual “labor” is introduced, as it was introduced in your Slate essay, directing attention to the labor of writing as actual “work,” with a factual effort involved, meaning hours or days or years, as a writer labors over a sequence of words that portray a character or evoke a certain, specific situation. This writing is as labor-intensive as any that put forth in any kind of patentable invention. The “Eureka” factor comes from science, not literature.

Paradoxically, the thieves and plagiarists in my were protected by “labor” laws, letting them get away with it (until now.)

And yet, as J. Hoberman seemed to suggest, the damage has already been done.

I am so sorry, Mr. Hoberman.

In response to the question “does plagiarism matter?” one can say that it does, and to all the world.