Is there a reason Michael Bacall gets his name in the credits twice in The Running Man? #film #TheRunningMan #Scotland
Only spotted the Arnold Schwarzenegger “cameo” on a repeat viewing. #film #TheRunningMan
@jackyan he’s in the credits a bunch too.

@jackyan The rules for who gets writing credits on a movie can be complicated. See the U.S. Writer’s Guild West’s rules here to see what I mean: https://www.wga.org/contracts/credits/manuals/screen-credits-manual

My guess here is that Bacall wrote an early draft of the screenplay by himself, and then a later draft was produced in collaboration between him and Wright. Elements from both drafts made it into the final shooting script. Bacall and Wright are getting credited together for their collaboratively produced work, but the final shooting script retained enough of Bacall’s original draft to merit a separate credit for that work.

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This manual describes the Guild’s theatrical credits determination procedure and policy as well as writers’ rights and responsibilities when hired by a Guild signatory Company.

Writers Guild of America West
@jalefkowit Thank you, that was my guess, though this does seem to be a place where rules have overruled logic. Iʼm sure Michael would have been happy otherwise to have been credited once.