With credits ranging from Captain Phillips to The Hunger Games, plus several stints in WGA contract negotiations, Billy Ray knows as much as any screenwriter about the realities of working writers and the turmoil in the industry. He joins us to talk about his new Amazon pilot, The Last Tycoon, which charts the behind-the-scenes drama at a 1930s Hollywood studio.

From there, we look at how much people get paid for a $200 million movie, the wild success of Warcraft in China, and how great television is doing financially.

The 250-episode Scriptnotes USB drives are back in the store, so be sure to grab one before they sell out.

Links:

• Billy Ray on Wikipedia, IMDb and Twitter
• The Last Tycoon pilot is available now on Amazon Prime Video
• F Scott Fitzgerald’s The Last Tycoon
• Shattered Glass on Wikipedia
• Secret in Their Eyes and STX Entertainment on Wikipedia
• The Producers Guild of America
• How Much Everyone Working On a $200 Million Movie Earns from Vanity Fair
• Wired on how World of Warcraft changed blockbusters forever
• Fin-syn on Wikipedia
• Under the Dome and TV’s New Ad-less Ways to Make Cash from Vulture
• Scriptnotes, 246, in which John and Craig discuss WGA Amendment 1
• TV Tropes on Mary Sues, and “Too Good To Be True”: 150 Years Of Mary Sue by Pat Pflieger
• You Must Remember This podcast
• 250-episode Scriptnotes USB drives are now available for purchase from the John August Store
• Email us if you want to build John and Craig bots
• Outro by Fantastic Negrito (send us yours!)

You can download the episode here.