Latest Writing News, Headlines and Blogs from Writers Write:

Pulitzer Prize-winner David Auburn Turns Screenwriter
From: www.writerswrite.com

" Variety reports that Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright David Auburn has been hired by Paramont to write an "off-kilter adventure version" of the classic story of "St. George and the Dragon."

ParPar's paid high six fugures against low seven figures for Auburn's deal. " 'St. George and the Dragon' is the enduring myth of a knight's struggle to save a feudal princess from a fearsome beast," producer Gary Wick said. "In Auburn's retelling, the knight will be not so chivalrous, and the princess not so chaste."

Wick told Daily Variety he first developed the idea three years ago after viewing a painting of St. George and the dragon in London's National Gallery. "On further investigation, I was really struck by the staying power of this myth," he added. Wick said Auburn's take will personalize the principals and focus more on the rust rather than the shiny armor.

*****

Auburn recently scripted "The Lake House," starring Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves, for Warner Bros., and is at work on "Black Bird," which Tobey Maguire is developing at Sony.

The publisher of the New York Times, the International Herald Tribune and the Boston Globe is to cut 500 jobs amid declines in sales and ad revenues. The New York Times Co said 80 editorial jobs would go at the Times and the Globe. Bill Keller, executive editor of the Times, said he hoped to make the cuts through voluntary redundancies and fewer temporary staff.

About half of the cuts are expected to be made among the group's regional newspapers, TV stations and corporate staff. They follow a warning on third-quarter earnings, which the company said would be well below forecasts.

"We regret that we will see many of our colleagues leave the Company; it is a painful process for all of us. We have been tested many times in our 154-year history as we are being tested now. We know that our collective talent and commitment will ensure our long-term success. Over the course of the past year we have taken many steps to improve the performance of our Company, including creating new products and services, acquiring and investing in existing and new businesses, and finding ways to lower costs. These are important steps that position us well to meet the challenges we face and we will continue to invest in our businesses as we move forward."

In August, Mountain View, California-based Google said it planned to temporarily scale back plans to make the full text of copyrighted books available on its Internet site.

Google has said it will respect the wishes of copyright holders who contacted the company and asked for their books to be withheld from the project. Meanwhile, it said it was working with publishers and librarians to scan books in the public domain that are not covered by copyright.

Critics of the program said that Google's plan to allow copyright holders to opt out of the project switches the burden of upholding copyright from infringers to copyright holders.

"This is a plain and brazen violation of copyright law," Nick Taylor, president of the 8,000-member New York-based Authors Guild, said in a statement on Tuesday. [Authors], not Google, have the exclusive rights to ... authorize such reproduction, distribution and display of their works," the complaint said.

According to guild officials, about $6 million had been classified as undeliverable as of April, and as much as 40 percent of an additional $18 million then held in trust was expected to eventually fall into that category.

How that unclaimed treasure piled up at the Writers Guild - and whether the guild is doing enough to find the rightful owners, many of whom are not members - has become the latest controversy roiling a Hollywood union that in the last two years has weathered strife over its screen credits arbitration process and the resignations of two presidents under pressure.

On Friday, the writer-director William Richert, whose credits include "A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon" and "The Man in the Iron Mask," filed suit against the guild in Superior Court in Los Angeles, seeking class-action status and contending, among other things, that the union had fraudulently collected and kept money intended for others.

*****

Interviewed before the suit was filed, guild representatives said that the surplus funds - which mirror a similar buildup at the Directors Guild of America, where the Web site offers no mechanism for connecting the lost with their money - simply reflected a surge in collections, matched by an unintended delay in the process for finding those due it.

"Subscribers to TimesSelect will have exclusive online access to many of our most influential columnists in Op-Ed, Business, New York/Region and Sports. In addition to reading the columns, TimesSelect subscribers can also engage with our columnists through video interviews and Web-only postings."

"All of our news, features, editorials and analysis will remain free to readers of NYTimes.com, as will our interactive graphics, multimedia and popular video minutes."

"As part of TimesSelect, The Times is also opening up its vast archive of articles reaching back 25 years and eventually back to the paper's founding in 1851. TimesSelect subscribers can read up to 100 articles from the archive a month. For many years our readers have asked for seamless access to The Times's historical archive, and we are now making this available as part of TimesSelect."

"Subscribers can also benefit from several online services. Readers can save and organize Times articles -- and any pages from around the Web -- in a personal Times File. News Tracker is a powerful e-mail alert service that keeps readers abreast of the articles they most want. And if you can't wait until Sunday, Times Preview offers early delivery of articles from the magazine, book review, Arts & Leisure, automobiles, real estate and travel before they are published."