Deadline: Warner Bros Discovery’s Fix Of Insulting “Creator” Credits On Max Finally Begins Rollout

Story from Deadline:

Jesse Armstrong and Danny McBride will have some individual independence to celebrate this holiday weekend.

Over a month after launching with botched “Creator” credits on its movie and TV content, Max has finally gotten around to fixing the insult to the Succession and The Righteous Gemstones chiefs, The Sopranos’ David Chase and many writers, directors and producers.

Earlier this week, the Warner Bros Discovery streamer quietly started to roll out correct credits across various platforms. The reset should take about another week or so to be complete, I’m told.

Earning the wrath of creators and rightfully seen as a slap in the creative face by striking Writers Guild members, Max’s initial approach in late May had almost every producer, scribe and more included as a “Creator” on series and films. So, while the recently wrapped Succession was created solely by Armstrong, EPs Will Ferrell and Adam McKay were among a cauldron of non-alphabetical “Creators” for the acclaimed satire.

The revised credits will fall into several pretty standard categories for scripted programming, I’ve learned. Those slots will be Created By, Director(s), Writers, Producers, Developed By and, in relevant cases, Based on Source Material.

Max had no comment on the ongoing correction when contacted today by Deadline.

Widely derided and mocked as a smoke screen for corporate arrogance, the smorgasbord approach was said to be an IT error that was never noticed nor blocked by executives in the David Zaslav-run company. Regardless of who was responsible or what the intent was, the faceplant quickly earned scathing responses from DGA and WGA leaders, as well as Guild members online.

“For almost 90 years, the Directors Guild has fought fiercely to protect the credit and recognition deserved by Directors for the work they create,” said DGA President Lesli Linka Glatter on May 24 as her Guild was in the middle of ultimately successful contract talks with the studios. “

Warner Bros. Discovery’s unilateral move, without notice or consultation, to collapse directors, writers, producers and others into a generic category of ‘creators’ in their new Max rollout while we are in negotiations with them is a grave insult to our members and our union,” Glatter added. “This devaluation of the individual contributions of artists is a disturbing trend and the DGA will not stand for it. We intend on taking the strongest possible actions, in solidarity with the WGA, to ensure every artist receives the individual credit they deserve.”

“Warner Bros. has lumped writers, directors and producers into an invented, diminishing category they call Creators,” a blunt WGA West President Meredith Stiehm stated at the same time.

“This is a credits violation for starters,” Stiehm went on to say. “But worse, it is disrespectful and insulting to the artists that make the films and TV shows that make their corporation billions. This attempt to diminish writers’ contributions and importance echoes the message we heard in our negotiations with AMPTP— that writers are marginal, inessential, and should simply accept being paid less and less, while our employers’ profits go higher and higher. This tone-deaf disregard for writers’ importance is what brought us to where we are today — Day 22 of our strike.”

A shamed Max responded: “We agree that the talent behind the content on Max deserve their work to be properly recognized. We will correct the credits, which were altered due to an oversight in the technical transition from HBO Max to Max and we apologize for this mistake.”

Yet, many were puzzled as to why the fix was taking so long. Surely all that was needed was a flick of a switch or two, right? 

Well, no

The explanation given in the ensuing days was that the “Creators” fiasco required a platform-by-platform fix.

It also seems that in that process, extra eyes were put on the project to make sure there was no new mistakes made in said fix. “There’s literally 1000s of films, TV shows and specials that need to be fixed and reviewed,” a Warner Bros Discovery insider told Deadline today. “It just took time.”

Speaking of time, as the clock ticks toward the June 30 expiration of SAG-AFTRA’s current contract and the union continues negotiations with the AMPTP, today marks the 58th day the WGA, the bedrock of all that scripted content on Max and all the other streamers, networks and studios, has been on strike.

© 2023 Deadline Hollywood.