In 1979 a quiet but career-altering battle over authorship erupted around Being There, the Hal Ashby-directed film based on Jerzy Kosiński's novel. Robert C. Jones — an established editor who had stepped into screenplay work and who had reportedly rewritten large portions of the script — was originally granted screen credit by the studio (United Artists–Lorimar Productions). That studio credit was short-lived: the Writers Guild of America reviewed the matter in arbitration and reversed the studio's decision, awarding sole screen credit to Jerzy Kosiński, the novelist. The reversal was not merely bureaucratic hair-splitting; Jones later said the loss of credited authorship was devastating — “a dark day in my life” — and he believed it materially altered the trajectory of a promising writing career that had just seen an Academy Award with Coming Home. The episode illustrates how WGA arbitrations and studio credit decisions could make or break secondary careers in Hollywood, and how a single ruling could erase a writer's public claim on work they had retooled for production.
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AI concept artworkArchive Record · 1970s
The Writers Guild Arbitration That Wiped Robert C. Jones Off the Being There Screenplay Credit
Being There (film) / Robert C. Jones / 1970s
In 1979 a quiet but career-altering battle over authorship erupted around Being There, the Hal Ashby-directed film based on Jerzy Kosiński's novel. Robert C. Jones — an established editor who had stepped into screenplay work and who had reportedly rewritten large portions of the script — was originally granted screen credit by the studio (United Artists–Lorimar Productions). That studio credit was short-lived: the Writers Guild of America reviewed the matter in arbitration and reversed the studio's decision, awarding sole screen credit to Jerzy Kosiński, the novelist. The reversal was not merely bureaucratic hair-splitting; Jones later said the loss of credited authorship was devastating — “a dark day in my life” — and he believed it materially altered the trajectory of a promising writing career that had just seen an Academy Award with Coming Home. The episode illustrates how WGA arbitrations and studio credit decisions could make or break secondary careers in Hollywood, and how a single ruling could erase a writer's public claim on work they had retooled for production.
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