Tracking Down ‘Sign’s’ Elusive Writers

An ominous sign? An April Fool’s Day prank? Who really wrote “The Seventh Sign”?

A source who worked on the film said of credited writers W. W. Wicket and George Kaplan: “Those aren’t the names that were on the script when the movie was shot.”

Movie trivia buffs may recognize George Kaplan as the name of a character who doesn’t exist in Alfred Hitchcock’s “North by Northwest.”

Writer George Kaplan does exist, according to the Writers Guild of America. Then again, some writers are listed under pseudonyms (as well as their own names). This according to a guild representative who could find no previous credits for Kaplan. (Wicket, however is credited with co-writing 1986’s “SpaceCamp.”

But a production source recalled that it was Ellen and Clifford Green whose names were on the original script of “Seventh Sign”--which was then called “The Border”. The Writer’s Guild wouldn’t say whether the Greens are actually Wicket and Kaplan. Coincidentally, all four “writers”--the Greens, Wicket and Kaplan--are represented by the same William Morris agent.

The agent also declined to speak for the record about whether the Greens--whose only credit is 1985’s “Baby . . . Secret of the Lost Lagoon”--are Wicket and Kaplan.

“What’s the point? Why don’t you just print the names that are on the credits?”

But a source who worked on the production told The Times: “There were problems (during filming). The writers want to distance themselves from the project.”