No more than five producers will be listed in the main title credits of a feature film, and the total number of producers will be limited to eight, if new guidelines from the Producers Guild of America are implemented. The guidelines, in the works for a year and kept under wraps until now, are being distributed today to studio heads and reps from Hollywood's talent guilds. The proposed rules come close to culminating a long-standing effort by the guild to reduce the burgeoning number of producers' credits. The issue has been much debated in recent years, a period when actors' managers, partners, uncredited writers and, at least in one instance, a star's hairdresser, have been listed as producers.
Some companies give producers' credits to studio execs as a matter of course.
And directors often demand an additional credit as producer, even though many do not perform a producer s duties. The support seems to be there, at least in principle. A list of more than 500 producers who more than a year ago signed a statement saying they approve of the effort includes Paul Aratow, Lawrence Bender, David Brown, Denise Di Novi, David Foster, Kathleen Kennedy, Michael Mann, Lynda Obst, Irwin Winkler and David L. Wolper. Panel to be appointed The guild has set up a 15-member Producers Credit Board, which, once it becomes a going concern in about three months, will appoint an anonymous arbitration panel called the Claims Review Committee, similar to the Writers Guild of America s system. The guidelines, a copy of which was obtained late Wednesday by Daily Variety, set out the board s requirements for granting producing credits on motion pictures, and a means for adjudicating disputes.