Writers Co-Op

From The Thinking Writer comes a tip to Variety's article on John Wells' fascinating, just-launched venture at Warner Bros. Participating screenwriters will forgo their upfront paychecks in favor of a cut of the gross, roles as producers, and writers' rights (writes?) such as ownership of the rewrite process and other production decisions.

Interesting experiment? Utopian folly? A sign of things to come?

If anyone can pull this off, it's Wells, co-founders Nick Kazan ("Reversal of Fortune") and Tom Schulman ("Dead Poets Society"), and their posse.

Check out this who's who: Ron Bass ("Rain Man"), Henry Bean ("Internal Affairs"), David Benioff ("Troy"), Scott Frank ("Out of Sight"), Robert Nelson Jacobs ("Chocolat"), Callie Khouri ("Thelma & Louise"), Richard LaGravanese ("The Fisher King"), Phil Alden Robinson ("Field of Dreams"), Bruce Joel Rubin ("Ghost"), Stephen Schiff ("The Deep End of the Ocean"), Ed Solomon ("Men in Black"), Dana Stevens ("For Love of the Game"), Robin Swicord ("Memoirs of a Geisha"), Michael Tolkin ("The Player"), Rafael Yglesias ("Fearless"), and the writing team of Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel ("City Slickers").

Excelsior, folks!