10 Totally Confusing Hollywood Screenwriting Disputes

There were almost as many writers of X-Men: First Class as there are X-Men characters. The credits for the movie lists four writers of the screenplay (Ashley Miller, Zack Stentz, Jane Goldman, Matthew Vaughn) and gives “Story By” credits to Sheldon Turner and Bryan Singer. Gossip Girl and Chuck co-creator Josh Schwartz and Street Kings co-writer Jamie Moss also wrote versions of the screenplay but they both were uncredited.

The breakdown of the finished product is this; Thor writing team Miller and Stentz wrote the screenplay based on a treatment by Singer, while Vaughn and Goldman provided substantial rewrites. So what did Turner do?

Though credited for the film’s story, Turner didn’t write a word of the screenplay. Turner had written a screenplay for a Magneto origin script about his youth in a Nazi concentration camp that was never put into production. Because the first several minutes of X-Men: First Class involved similar material, the WGA ruled that Turner deserved “Story By” credit despite Singer arguing that no material from Turner’s script was used.

It wasn't the first time Turner was involved in a screenplay dispute. He previously received credit for co-writing the film adaptation of Up In The Air when it was revealed that co-writer/director Jason Reitman had used elements of a previous adaptation that Turner originally wrote. That script was later nominated for an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay.