A script doctor is a writer or playwright hired by a film, television, or theatre production company to rewrite an existing script or improve specific aspects of it, including structure, characterization, dialogue, pacing, themes, and other elements.[1]
Script doctors generally do their work uncredited for a variety of commercial and artistic reasons.[examples needed][1][2][3] They are usually brought in for scripts that have been almost "green-lit"[4] during the development and pre-production phases of a film to address specific issues with the script, as identified by the financiers, production team, and cast.[5]
To receive credit, the Writers Guild of America screenwriting credit system requires a second screenwriter to contribute more than 50 percent of an original screenplay or 33 percent of an adaptation.[5] Uncredited screenwriters are not eligible to win the Academy Award or the Writers Guild of America Award.
^ abJones, Sarah (2004). Film. North Mankato: Smart Apple Media. pp. 14–15. ISBN 158340256X.
^Hyman, Paula E.; Moore, Deborah Dash, eds. (1998). Jewish Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia. New York: Routledge. p. 444. ISBN 0415919363. Currently [Fisher] works in that great uncredited Hollywood profession of script doctor—or, as Fisher calls it, script nurse.
^Hurd, Mary G. (2007). Women Directors and Their Films. Westport: Praeger Publishers. p. 150. ISBN 978-0275985783. She [Elaine May] then became a script doctor, one of a small group of writers who are paid handsome fees by studios to do uncredited work on a script.
^Appleton, Dina; Yankelevits, Daniel (2010). Hollywood Dealmaking: Negotiating Talent Agreements for Film, TV and New Media (2 ed.). New York: Allworth Press. p. 303. ISBN 978-1581156713. A writer hired to 'spruce up' or 'fix' a script, usually by inserting jokes or otherwise adding some 'juice'. These highly paid writers are often hired by studios for brief periods of employment, most often to work on scripts that are very close to being 'green-lit'.
^ abAbramowitz, Rachel (October 27, 2002). "To the rescue?". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved August 17, 2012.
A scriptdoctor is a writer or playwright hired by a film, television, or theatre production company to rewrite an existing script or improve specific...
capability were provided in separate "scripts", represented in a lisp-like representation. The most famous script, DOCTOR, simulated a psychotherapist of the...
huge box office success and cemented Mankiewicz's reputation as a "scriptdoctor." He next performed a similar function on The Cassandra Crossing, starring...
"special consultant", he began to earn a reputation in Hollywood as a top scriptdoctor. Towne was credited on Villa Rides (1968), which he later said he did...
impressed Bill Bell, the creator of the show, with her on-set skills as a scriptdoctor. He asked her to write for the show in 1981, and thereafter she began...
Doctor Who, which followed the production of the 25th anniversary story Silver Nemesis. Andrew Cartmel script edited the series. Season 25 saw script...
episode of Doctor Who for 15 years, until the show was revived in 2005. John Nathan-Turner produced the series, with Andrew Cartmel script editing. Sylvester...
Walk and The Monkey, neither of which he ever adapted. Darabont was a scriptdoctor for the Steven Spielberg films Saving Private Ryan and Minority Report...
of Manhattan's theater crowd. She would spend her later years as a scriptdoctor and observing particularly salacious crime trials from the benches in...
The following is a list of script editors on the long-running British science fiction television programme Doctor Who. This list makes no distinction between...
closely with the producer, if the script writer is not a producer. Scriptdoctor Story editor Showrunner Shumway, Kyler (2020). "Supercharge Your Presence:...
Many screenwriters also work as full or part-time scriptdoctors, attempting to better a script to suit the desires of a director or studio. For instance...
by Luke Fildes The Doctor (play), a 2019 play by Robert Icke Doctor (cocktail), a family of mixed alcoholic drinks DOCTOR, a script for Joe Weizenbaum's...
with writing and working with voice actors. Similarly, to screenplay scriptdoctors, video game writers can be brought in to assist with writing-related...
Fisher worked on other writers' screenplays as a scriptdoctor, including tightening the scripts for Hook (1991), Sister Act (1992), The Wedding Singer...
Cartmel (born 6 April 1958) is a British script editor, author and journalist. He was the script editor of Doctor Who during the Sylvester McCoy era of the...
Coburn while he was part of the BBC Script Department and considered for the second serial of Season 1, in which the Doctor faces a self-aware robot which...
2015 – April 2016) ScriptDoctor's 100 Writing Tips For TV and Film (Lulu.com, February 2010, ISBN 1-4452-7777-8) ScriptDoctor's 100 More Writing Tips...
had anything else ready we would have made that." Nation's script became the second Doctor Who serial – The Daleks (also known as The Mutants). The serial...
Doctor Who's twenty-fifth anniversary season "with a bang", a story with the Doctor's most famous adversaries, the Daleks. Nathan-Turner and script editor...
rewrite portions of a script late in the development process, they are commonly referred to as scriptdoctors. Prominent scriptdoctors include Christopher...
Though uncredited, Katz and Huyck edited Lucas's Star Wars script as they acted as scriptdoctors for Lucas. Katz and Huyck are responsible for much of the...
days later. The Five Doctors was written by Terrance Dicks, who had been the script editor for the entirety of the Third Doctor's era and had written for...
Seven, he is the corpse near the very beginning of the movie. Writer Scriptdoctor Event Horizon (1997) The Game (1997) Fight Club (1999) Stir of Echoes...
1926 – 22 September 2013) was an Italian screenwriter, known as the "scriptdoctor". He wrote for some 65 films between 1954 and 2000. Vincenzoni was born...
Global Information