You may not know the name Terry Rossio, but you definitely know his work. He’s one of Hollywood’s most prolific screenwriters, his name often buried in large writer clumps on many-tentacled blockbusters like Shrek, the Pirates of the Caribbean films, Disney’s original Aladdin, Déjà Vu, Antz, Small Soldiers, The Legend of Zorro, Little Monsters, and so on in that fashion. He’s also, apparently, what they call “anti-vax,” spreading the gospel that vaccinating kids is bad because of some stuff he read on Google or because he talked too long to Jenny McCarthy.
Rossio’s views are already controversial, and he did himself, or his “cause,” few favors Friday with a tweet that compared crusaders like himself to…well, he used the n-word.
In a response to some vaccination thoughts by The 100 writer Julie Benson, Rossio tweeted, “My heart goes out to all the parents of vaccine damaged children, who have to not only endure the sadness of their loss, but also the vitriol of ill-informed and insensitive people (such as those here). Anti-Vax is equivalent to calling someone a n—er and makes as little sense.” (Note: We censored the word, which he used.)
As of this writing, the tweet still stands, even after he’s been roundly criticized. The incident has even already made it to his Wikipedia page. The sharpest and funniest rejoinders have come from writer Jeff Grubb, who wrote many tweets mocking and attacking Rossio, including this one, which read, “God, this is such a good point. I remember how American founders and citizens enslaved vaccine skeptics for decades. And then, even after freeing them, the government enshrined laws to marginalize vaccine deniers and to deny them wealth and opportunity. That’s just history.” (He also Photoshopped Shrek getting vaccinated, and another that put it more succinctly: “Oh, and finally: eat shit, Terry.”)
Disney has not responded to reporters yet. Meanwhile, Rossio has credits on such forthcoming blockbusters as Godzilla vs. Kong, a sixth Pirates of the Caribbean which appears to be happening, and a Jonny Quest movie. Maybe if you study them, or his dozens of other major credits, really hard, you’ll notice their subtle anti-vax commentary.
(Via THR)