Amazon’s new deal for writers

Craig and John answer questions about specificity, television and what to do when your great idea sounds too much like a movie that’s already been made. The big news this week is potentially very big news: Amazon Studios has completely revamped their business model, ditching the terrible parts and transforming into something potentially very good for writers. Notably, Amazon is now a WGA signatory, which offers the promise of residuals and credit protection for screenwriters. Will it work? It’s too early to say. But when a new player with deep pockets enters the film industry, it often helps loosen the purse strings. More importantly, the Amazon deal sets a precedent for other tech companies considering taking the plunge. Along the way, Craig talks about directing and John takes his daughter to work. All this and more in this episode of Scriptnotes. LINKS: Presbyopia Lena Dunham’s Girls is brilliant Tiny Furniture on Amazon Nerdist Writers Panel My pilot scripts for D.C, Alaska and Ops John’s 2010 post on the first Amazon deal Craig’s 2010 post on Amazon’s bad deal Amazon Studio’s new development process INTRO: PM Magazine intro OUTRO: We Found Love covered by Chris Harris You can download the episode here: [AAC]http://traffic.libsyn.com/scriptnotes/scriptnotes_ep_32.m4a). UPDATE 4-12-12: The transcript of this episode can be found here.The post Amazon’s new deal for writers first appeared on John August.