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British Writer Jack Thorne Puts His Pen Down In Solidarity With WGA Strikers

EXCLUSIVE: His Dark Materials and Enola Holmes scribe Jack Thorne, a “proud” member of the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain, has paused work on two projects in solidarity with the WGA strikers.

The multi-BAFTA winner, who is based in the UK, told us: “For me the crucial issue of the strike is about writer minimums and protecting young writers. We need to be looking after these young writers to ensure they have a career and can run their own shows and be the generation that does even better with television.”

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Thorne spoke to us a couple of times this week, including at London’s National Theatre for the opening night of his acclaimed new play The Motive And The Cue, directed by Sam Mendes.

However, the in-demand writer wouldn’t be drawn on which projects he has paused work on, only noting that one is a film and one a series. It’s not clear whether they are WGA jurisdiction projects or not. Among high-profile projects known to be in development for Thorne is the BBC’s recently announced Lord Of The Flies series.

Fellow Brit Patrick Marber, the Oscar-nominated screenwriter of Notes On A Scandal, echoed Thorne’s sentiments of solidarity this week. “I’m in solidarity of the WGA, absolutely,” the writer told us.

Multi-hyphenate Marber received a Tony Award nomination on Tuesday for his direction of Tom Stoppard’s masterpiece Leopoldstadt which is now playing at the Longacre on Broadway. The production was cited in five other Tony Award categories including best play.

As we revealed last week, Marber is currently teaming with Martin Scorsese and Studiocanal on an adaptation of novel What Happens At Night.

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