Hauling Like A Brooligan

Stephen Gallagher

Category: WGA

  • Abroad Thoughts from Home

    This is probably the most niche blog post ever, but I wish I’d had access to something like it when the need first arose. It’s the Idiots’ Guide for a British writer joining the staff of a US TV show. How you land the gig is up to you. This is just about the admin.…

  • Crusoe Region 2

    This one sneaked by without my hearing about it… the full season is now available on a Region 2 3-disc set, presumably replicating the content of the Region 1 release. Which will mean no DVD extras, which is a pity. NBC had a behind-the-scenes crew covering just about every aspect of the show’s making, and…

  • The Writers’ Guild at 50

    Here’s a thing I didn’t know: if you’re a member of the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain and you sell a script in the US, the hefty WGA registration fee is waived. And WGA membership is a requirement over there, not an option. This just received from Tom Green: The Writers’ Guild of Great Britain…

  • Book into Film

    Inspired by the questioner mentioned in my previous post, who wanted to know how best to scan a novel into his computer before starting to adapt it, I’ve dug out some thoughts that I put together for a Writers’ Guild newsletter some time back. Harry Potter and the Lord of the Rings series had just…

  • New Gig

    When people ask me whether I prefer working on novels or screenplays, I tend to give the same answer. Whichever I’m working on at any given time, I always yearn for the other. Novel writing is all brooding and solitude, which I kind of like. Screenwriting on a ‘go’ project is all deadlines and pressure…

  • Those Cancelled Golden Globes

    “Sadly, it feels like the nerdiest, ugliest, meanest kids in the high school are trying to cancel the prom. But NBC wants to try to keep that prom alive.”

  • Lost, in Transition

    You know where I came across the pilot episode of Lost? The one with the graphic plane crash and everything? It was part of the in-flight entertainment on a Virgin Atlantic service to the US. I mean, it didn’t bother me, but, you know… Apparently eight episodes of the new season were shot before the…

  • Who Needs Them Golden Geese Anyway?

    The Chicago Tribune’s Maureen Ryan has written this astute analysis of the changing face of entertainment distribution, and the failure of the networks’ negotiators to grasp where their industry’s going. She writes, To put it bluntly, the corporations that control the entertainment industry need to wake up. In the digital age, content creators matter more…

  • WGA Strike: International Day of Solidarity

    The strike called by The Writers Guild of America to secure a structure for future revenues from digital media continues. Today sees demonstrations of support in London, Toronto, Montreal, Paris, Dublin, Sydney, Brisbane, and Perth. My favourite story so far is of the homeless person on Hollywood Boulevard holding a handmade sign that read, Bums…

  • The WGA Strike and the UK Writer

    Thursday’s Variety carries this article suggesting that American producers have been scouting the UK media scene with a view to using the services of British screenwriters to supply them with material during the WGA strike. Some people have interpreted this as a unique opportunity for a British writer to ‘break in’. Others – like, people…