America 1987

Chapter 75 The Screenwriters' Strike

David's aesthetic sense and sexual orientation are normal and quite common. Therefore, he would not date someone much younger or much older than himself.

The former is called a lover of that thing, and the latter is also called a lover of that thing. David only loves women close to his own age.

During the meal, through casual conversation with Mary, he gained a deeper understanding of the truth behind Cameron's reputation as a "tyrant on set" and the hidden dangers that came with it.

Not to mention being threatened with one's life, similar things happened in Titanic.

The deterioration of interpersonal relationships within the industry has the most negative impact—Winslet fractured her elbow and almost drowned in a pool, while Leonardo DiCaprio was nearly trampled by a horse.

The final result was that the former made it clear in public: "I will never work with Cameron again unless I can get a huge reward."

At the time, a T-shirt was even popular in Hollywood that read, "You can't scare me, because I've worked with Cameron before."

After filming The Big Ship, Cameron disappeared for a full 12 years. He later explained the reason himself: if he continued to film like that, "sooner or later I would die at the test screening of my own movie."

David never intended to fall out with his collaborators over making a movie. On the contrary, his purpose in making movies was to make friends, both men and women, not to become a lone hero like Stephen Chow.

Sitting on the plane, David turned his head to look at the scenery outside the window and fell into reflection on his lovemaking the night before.

He hadn't originally intended to fire the cannon, but in the end he broke his vow anyway.

After thinking it over, he felt it was fine if it broke. There were so many actresses in Hollywood, it would be impossible to recruit them all. Occasionally, it seemed like a good option to play friendly matches with them.

Novelty is a core resource for the human brain to combat burnout. Long-term monotonous repetition triggers the brain's "habituation" mechanism, leading to inattention and low mood.

The Coolidge effect in psychology also shows that even with existing interest in something, introducing new variables can reactivate engagement.

Therefore, what he did was in line with the laws of nature and brain science to some extent. Sitting at his desk, David completed his own unique set of logical self-consistency.

To temporarily divert his attention from women, David felt that directing a film himself would be more effective.

He didn't show an excessive preference for either commercial or art films.

He could only watch popcorn movies that rely purely on visual spectacle to attract attention and stimulate adrenaline, as a viewer to relax. He probably couldn't treat them as his work for the next few months and put all his passion into making them.

As for art films, firstly, they shouldn't put him to sleep; the story itself must have at least some dramatic tension.

He remembered watching an art film that had won some major award in his previous life—the whole movie was about a conversation between a customer and a technician with a special profession, and the two of them just sat there chatting for almost two hours.

He initially came for the awards, but by the end he didn't see anything worth watching.

From then on, he lost interest in film awards and would check the box office performance of any art film before deciding whether to watch it.

After thinking it over, he realized that only the classic Western film "Dances with Wolves" could satisfy his requirements for both commercial appeal and artistic merit.

But how would the guy on the other end feel knowing he's going to be making a Western movie?

"I thought you were too busy lately. Aren't you going to participate in this writers' strike?"

"I'm not a member of the WGA (Writers Guild of America), so I have no say in the strike."

Quentin, sitting on the sofa, explained with a hint of resentment.

However, his complaints were not directed at David, but at the Writers Guild of America.

The United States has many labor unions due to its national circumstances. The core function of the Writers Guild is to ensure that its members receive fair royalties, rerun fees, streaming revenue sharing, and authorship rights, among other things.

Therefore, in order to protect their legitimate rights and interests, Hollywood screenwriters usually try to join the association.

To become a member, one must accumulate at least 24 GPAs through paid writing work within the past three years. A one-time membership fee of $2500 is required, with an annual membership fee payable each year.

Actually, the fees are a minor issue; those who meet the membership requirements certainly don't mind spending a little money.

Quentin's complaints stemmed primarily from the fact that this membership requirement presented a "Catch-22" dilemma.

In other words, if you don't join a union, it's difficult to protect your rights if your script is stolen; but a hard condition for joining a union is to get credit as a screenwriter in the released works (only if you get credit can you get credit points) — and to get the right to credit, you need to join a union.

It's somewhat similar to the dilemma faced by college students trying to change their majors—the requirement for changing majors is that students who are doing well in their current major and have a high ranking are eligible to apply for the right to change. However, in reality, students who want to change majors are usually those who are not doing well in their current major, while those who are doing well generally do not.

It's a chicken-or-egg problem.

That's why Quentin has expressed some reservations about the membership requirements.

In fact, in the original timeline, he originally wrote the script for "Natural Born Killers," which he later sold to a producer. It was eventually heavily rewritten by Oliver Stone. When the WGA conducted the attribution arbitration, Quentin was only credited as the "story idea," not as the "writer."

Quentin was furious about the ruling, believing the union had failed to fairly assess his actual contributions. Therefore, when he later gained membership, he refused to join the writers' union.

This also prevented him from receiving a WGA award nomination; works such as "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" were not included in the WGA nomination list.

But this did not hinder his Oscar journey—he won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay twice for Pulp Fiction and Django Unchained.

As for the writers' strike that David mentioned, it occurred in April of this year and is said to last for 153 days, probably until September. It is likely the longest writers' strike in Hollywood history.

Even the major strike in 23, which was sparked by opposition to AI-generated content, only lasted 148 days.

"Alright, let's not talk about that anymore. How's the movie going? What's the current progress?"

"Well, everything went fairly smoothly, and Nicole's acting was excellent, with very few takes."

Quentin made a compliment to Nicole, saying, "I feel like the movie 'When Harry Met Sally' will be wrapped up in a while."