Any veteran of the film and television industry is well aware that getting credit for one’s work can be a long, confusing, and frustratingly bizarre process. While some credits are fairly cut-and-dried — it’s not too difficult for actors to be recognized for their appearances, since they can be clearly seen — the behind-the-scenes folks involved in making film and television can potentially be rendered invisible, as far as official credits go. When it comes to writers attempting to gain credit for their work, they have it the hardest of anyone. That process of arbitration for writing credit, particularly when the rules of the Writers Guild of America (WGA) are involved, can be so protracted and mysterious that, in some cases, the people who end up with the final credit can be debated.
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This game of musical chairs with regards to credit (and with it, such important perks like visibility and financial royalties) has only extended to other forms of media as the IP craze that Hollywood has been on for the last decade and change continues. For instance, although the Marvel Cinematic Universe still enjoys a large amount of success, it has always had issues concerning giving the creators of the comic books themselves proper credit for the films adapted from their work. The adaptation of video games into films has a similar issue, too. Yet this isn’t a mere black and white problem, for while artists who were involved with a work should get their due credit, it’s become common for sequels, spin-offs, remakes and adaptations to end up having little resemblance to that original work, meaning that the people more primarily responsible for this new version should get the lion’s share of credit.
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It’s precisely this problem that’s facing this month’s film version of “Until Dawn,” a cinematic iteration of a video game of the same name that was released in 2015. As filmmaker Ted Geoghegan pointed out on BlueSky, the game’s writers are not receiving any credit for the movie version. Yet, as screenwriter C. Robert Cargill and others have pointed out in response, this is common practice, frustrating as it may be. Furthermore, in this particular instance of “Until Dawn,” it’s hard to say just how much credit the game’s writers should be getting for a film that deviates a great deal from that original game. As one can see, there are a lot of factors and nuances involved, meaning there’s no easy solution to this long-standing issue.
The WGA rules for video game material may be imperfect, but they’re also impersonal
As Geoghegan stated, the original writers of the “Until Dawn” game, Larry Fessenden and Graham Reznick, are not credited along with Gary Dauberman and Blair Butler for the “Until Dawn” film. On the face of it, this would seem like a massive insult, especially when one considers the fact that, due to the game’s branching characters and narratives, Fessenden and Reznick wrote the longest script for a graphic adventure game, ever. No, really: they even received inclusion in the Guinness Book of World Records for it. Given this, plus the duo’s history with making indie horror movies and TV shows, it makes sense why their lack of credit could feel like a remarkable oversight.
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However, as Cargill correctly states in his response to Geoghegan, this approach for video game-to-screen credits has existed “for over 30 years,” and is sadly par for the course. The “Sinister” screenwriter went on to explain how the WGA methodology for video game credit has never actually been writer-friendly at all:
“Having adapted a video game for the screen in the past, the WGA rules surrounding them are very different from ‘literary’ material. If anyone gets a credit, it’s the studio, not the writing team.”
Yes, thanks in part to the fact that most video games aren’t or can’t be attributed to a single auteur, the WGA long ago decided that any credit for an adaptation should go to the studio that produced the game, rather than any individual writers or creators themselves. It’s only in the instance of game makers who’ve made a career out of singling themselves out (like Hideo Kojima) where the individual might be credited instead of a studio. Heck, even Max’s “The Last of Us” series credits the game’s co-creator, Neil Druckmann, as a showrunner and show creator (because he is), but attributes the “based on the game by” credit to the studio Naughty Dog instead. These rules are the rules, and while they may be imperfect, they’re also impersonal.
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‘Until Dawn’ is significantly different from the original game — and one writer seems to agree
Even if the “Until Dawn” movie was a direct lift from the video game’s story, it would still be subject to those long-established rules for video game adaptations. Yet the fact is that the film version of “Until Dawn” does bear very little resemblance to the game, deliberately so, as it tells a totally unique story with completely different characters. There are really only two elements from the game that carry over into the film: the presence of actor Peter Stormare (who may or may not be playing his character from the game, depending on your interpretation of both the game and the movie), and the involvement of a variation on the mythical Wendigo creature. While this would be enough to lend Fessenden and Reznick a courtesy credit, it’s hardly a substantial portion of the picture, the rest of which involves settings, characters, and monsters unseen in the game.
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For his part, Reznick seems to agree with this assessment, despite having not yet seen the film version himself. As he replied in the discussion on BlueSky, he didn’t expect any credit because the game “was such a group effort and singling Larry and I out in the first place always felt odd.” He went on to say that the movie’s deviations from the game’s story seem “smart for a bunch of reasons,” likely referring to the near-impossible task of taking a branching narrative like the game’s and attempting to whittle it down into a film script. So, at least on Reznick’s part, it doesn’t seem like there’s much bad blood between the game writers and the filmmakers anyway.
In my opinion, “Until Dawn” is one of the most intriguing horror movies and video game adaptations to come along this year, a film which works on both levels and promises some further ingenuity to come within game-to-movie adaptations. While it would be a very kind gesture to give Fessenden and Reznick some on-screen credit, at least their credit is still properly attributed where it’s due, and they’ve even got a genuine world record to show for it. Navigating the weird branches of the film and television industry is hazardous enough; ultimately, what matters is that the artists involved with the entertainment we love be recognized and duly rewarded for their work. In the instance of “Until Dawn,” both the game and the movie, we at least know who’s who.
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