New York City filming permits declined 53% year over year in August, which marked the first full month of the year during which both the Writers Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild/American Federation of Television and Radio Artists were on strike against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.
In a leaked email that has been shared widely in the creative community, Linda Montanti, chair of the guild’s Western AD/UPM Council, urged a bloc of DGA voters to not support the board candidacies of a number of multihyphenates who are members of both the DGA and WGA — some of whom have been outspoken about strike issues. The list includes writer-producer Boots Riley, Oscar-winning CODA writer-director Sian Heder, actor-filmmaker Justine Bateman, actor-writer Paul Scheer and Chernobyl creator Craig Mazin. The unorthodox move prompted DGA president Lesli Linka Glatter to contact the members affected to assure them that Montanti’s move was not condoned by top DGA leaders.
“I write with deep concern regarding your failure to end the ongoing strike,” Fiona Ma said in letters dated August 30 to Disney chief executive Bob Iger, Comcast CEO Brian Roberts, Paramount Global CEO Bob Bakish (pictured), Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav, Netflix co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters, Apple CEO Tim Cook and Amazon CEO Andy Jassy.
IAC mogul Barry Diller thinks that the Hollywood studios need to “reorient” their businesses, and fast, or else face potential “catastrophic” consequences. The former studio executive, speaking to journalist Kara Swisher for her podcast, also expressed pessimism about the ongoing SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes, and suggested that the legacy Hollywood studios should split with Netflix and their tech counterparts at the AMPTP.
The writers of MTV’s Ridiculousness are coming closer to being unionized. The show’s writing team, which was behind over 230 episodes last year, has been going through the process to unionize over the last few months, hoping to join their scripted peers, who have been on strike since May, in the WGA.
Exclusives
Amid Hollywood’s summer of strikes, the Directors Guild Foundation is pledging $100,000 in financial assistance to the Motion Picture & Television Fund for crew members affected by strike-related production halts. “Our film crews are our work family. We need to help everyone who’s suffering,” said Todd Holland, Directors Guild Foundation film chair.
Trustees of the SAG-AFTRA Health Plan have unanimously agreed to a one-calendar-quarter extension of health coverage for certain qualified participants who would otherwise lose coverage on Oct. 1, 2023. The extension accounts for jobs that may have been lost in May and June of this year due to the Writers Guild strike. The WGA has been on strike since May 2, SAG-AFTRA since July 14.
In a memo to members released to the media late Tuesday night, the Writers Guild of America accused Hollywood studios of not negotiating in good faith, and urged members to continue striking after studios released the details of their latest offer to the public.
WGA West released a report raising concerns about the streaming services and studios consolidating power and undercutting writers as its members remain on strike.
Advertisers spent less on broadcast and cable in the 2023-2024 upfront, despite media companies touting overall pricing and volume growth in negotiations.
“We’re ready and waiting for that to happen for us,” NY local chapter president Ezra Knight told The Wrap.
One The Wrap source says there’s “cautious optimism” that a strike-ending deal may be near.
The Writers Guild of America responded Tuesday to the latest proposal from the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, but any hopes for an easy resolution of the 106-day strike were quickly dispelled. The WGA did bend slightly on a few items, according to sources familiar with the talks. But the union negotiators did not offer the significant concessions that the studio side was looking for in response to its own offer.
Yesterday’s sit-down at the Sherman Oaks office of the Carol Lombardini-led organization concluded with “mixed results,” according to a well-placed Deadline source. No details have yet to emerge as to whether the parties will meet for further talks or if more proposals will be offered.
In its most recent proposal to the Writers Guild of America, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers offered some concession on the top issues leading to a strike, including so-called artificial intelligence, staffing, and data on streaming service viewership.
After their first day of bargaining since the Writers Guild went on strike May 2, the AMPTP and the WGA have recessed their negotiations until next week after the companies made a counterproposal to guild’s proposals. The WGA told its members Friday evening: “Your Negotiating Committee received a counterproposal from the AMPTP today. We will evaluate their offer and, after deliberation, go back to them with the WGA’s response next week.”
With the strikes by writers and actors making original scripted entertainment content increasingly scarce, a larger share of ad dollars is going to repeat programming, according to Guideline, formerly known as Dreamscape, which bought spending trackers Standard Media Index and SQAD.
As WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes persist and tens of thousands of people withhold labor in pursuit of equitable streaming residuals, fair compensation, proper staffing of writers’ rooms, protections from the use of artificial intelligence, and more, a surprising series is emerging as the show of the summer: Suits.
“We need to enter an era where people of color… are given the same kind of chance to find their voice and find the show’s voice and find that audience,” WGA member Greg Iwinski says.
The WGA informed members Thursday that the AMPTP requested the meeting in response to the guild’s proposals that were outlined Aug. 4 in the so-called talks about talking.
Meeting for the first time in more than three months, the Writers Guild and the AMPTP on Friday failed to reach an agreement to resume contract negotiations. Their inability to agree on terms for returning to the bargaining table comes after their much anticipated meeting to discuss a possible resumption of talks. “As of now, there is no agreement on these items, because the AMPTP said they needed to consult with their member studios before moving forward,” the union said in a statement late Friday.
The Writers Guild of America is continuing to downplay expectations for Friday’s meeting with the studios, and is telling members that it will not be pressured into accepting a bad deal.
On Tuesday night, the Writers Guild of America sent an email to members saying that the head of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents major studios, streaming services and production companies in negotiations, requested a meeting on Friday to discuss the resumption of contract talks.
Just this year, a slew of female actors from nearly every genre either made the jump to the unscripted space or reaffirmed their place in it.
The ongoing writers’ strike has interrupted quite a few industry shindigs since it began on May 2, and the latest is one that hadn’t even been formally announced. On Tuesday night, the Critics Choice Association told members that a planned Celebration of LGBTQ+ movies and TV has been postponed indefinitely.
The creator of the Disney+ series, singled out on social media for performing non-writing duties, tells The Hollywood Reporter that he has stopped all such functions.
Negotiations for a new WGA contract have made “a little bit of progress” on feature films, but otherwise the two sides remain “far away” from a deal. That’s the word coming out of tonight’s WGA strike authorization meeting, which was “very persuasive if you needed persuading,” said a member who attended.
The Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers exchanged proposals on Monday, as they prepare for face-to-face bargaining next week. Last week, the guild membership voted 98.4% in favor of the “pattern of demands,” a high-level summary of the guild’s top issues for a new basic agreement. The items include addressing “the abuses of mini-rooms” and increasing streaming residuals, among a dozen other issues. The proposals are far more detailed, and are not expected to be made public so as to preserve the confidentiality of negotiations.
Members of Writers Guild of America have ratified a new, three-year deal with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers with virtually no opposition. The WGA membership overwhelmingly voted in favor of ratifying the contract by 98% with 4,068 “yes” votes and 87 “no” votes. The term of the agreement is retroactive from May 2, 2020, through May 1, 2023.
