Coppola Verdict

I’d like to clarify some of the issues related to the recent jury verdict regarding the Warner Bros. “Pinocchio” trial. Your July 10 coverage stresses that the case was mainly about the short, informal memos that Hollywood uses regularly to do business. The real argument here was about an overreaching and abusive studio action hiding behind claims of an oral deal. I worked with Warner for over a year and a half (for a total of $3,100 advance), for which they claimed to own any and all creative work on this project that I had done in the past or ever will in the future. The issue wasn’t about the validity of short-form agreements, but about studio misuse of them.

Although your coverage clearly reflects a bias toward the big studio (which no doubt provides much more revenue to you than I do), any fair review of the facts would conclude that Warner Bros. expected far too much control over the creative work of an individual for almost nonexistent compensation--which is illegal. That is what the jury found, not as you state, that they “liked” one person more than another. Also, you neglect to clarify, when you mention the three bankruptcies I was involved in, that they were all phases of the same single incident: the loss of my studio in L.A.

FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA

San Francisco