Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has made a seven-figure donation to the SAG-AFTRA Foundation Relief Fund — a contribution the organization says will help support thousands of Hollywood actors currently on strike.
Johnson’s donation came after SAG-AFTRA Foundation president Courtney B. Vance and executive director Cyd Wilson sent a letter asking the union’s highest-earning actors for financial support, according to Variety.
Though the exact amount of Johnson’s seven-figure donation has not been publicly disclosed, Vance said Johnson “stepped up in a major, historic way.”
Wilson estimated the donation from Johnson, 51, is enough to provide financial aid to 7,000 to 10,000 members on strike.
“It’s the largest single donation that we’ve ever received from one individual at one time,” Wilson told Variety. “And what is amazing is that that one cheque is going to help thousands of actors keep food on their table.”
Story continues below advertisement
Johnson has not commented publicly on his donation.
Performers represented by the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) walked off the job on July 14 to join the already striking Writers Guild of America (WGA). The two strikes have brought most Hollywood productions to a screeching halt.
The SAG-AFTRA union represents about 160,000 Hollywood actors. The union declared its members would strike after negotiators failed to reach a deal with Hollywood’s biggest studios regarding fair pay and improved residuals for actors in today’s streaming age.
Canadian impact of the SAG/AFTRA strike
The SAG-AFTRA Foundation, a non-profit organization that collaborates with the union but is not a part, will use its Emergency Financial Assistance Program to support actors during the strike. Johnson’s donation will be added to the program.
“When we hit a crisis like this and we’re going to spend millions and millions of dollars in financial assistance, this is when we need our high profile talent who can afford it, who are in a situation to help others,” Wilson said.
Story continues below advertisement
She said the foundation’s financial assistance provides up to US$1,500 (nearly C$2,000) per individual member, unless there are extreme conditions or health issues, in which case a union member may qualify for up to US$6,000 (about C$7,900).
According to Forbes, Johnson was the fourth highest-paid entertainer in 2022. Though he was the highest-paid actor on the list, Johnson’s 2022 income — reportedly a whopping US$270 million (almost C$356 million) — was only surpassed by Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson, musician Bruce Springsteen and rapper Jay-Z.
The strain of Hollywood’s actors’ and writers’ strikes is being felt in productions all around the world, and film industry insiders say Canada is far from exempt.
Due to long-established industry ties to American unions and networks, most film and television productions in Canada have come to a screeching halt. Alistair Hepburn, executive director of ACTRA Toronto, says productions began slowing down in spring when rumours of the Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike began.
“There won’t be new shows recorded over the summer in time for a fall premiere.”
Story continues below advertisement
Summer is typically the film industry’s most lucrative season across the board, he said, but this year will be “relatively slow.”
A lot of Canadian productions work with American studios and SAG-AFTRA actors, but just under half of the work done in provinces like Ontario is domestic, which includes shows like Murdoch Mysteries and Run the Burbs.
“It’s all of those shows that are filmed here using Canadian talent, Canadian writers, Canadian directors, Canadian crews to do the work. Those shows continue,” Hepburn explained.
Impact of Hollywood strike on Canada’s film industry
SAG-AFTRA is also working on an agreement where independent Canadian producers – not affiliated with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) – will be able to engage the services of a SAG member through a waiver system for the duration of the strike.
Story continues below advertisement
Independent Canadian producers will have access to actors who are dual card holders as well, meaning they have both a SAG-AFTRA and ACTRA membership.
“We’ve been in constant contact with our colleagues at SAG-AFTRA and they are assuring us that they’re not looking to do harm to our industry,” Hepburn said.
Hepburn says he doesn’t know how long the strikes will go on and doesn’t see a resolution coming soon.
“This is going to have an impact for months, absolutely months on not just performance, but the entire industry as a whole.”
Hepburn emphasized that it’s not just performers that will be affected by the production drought. Directors, technicians, caterers and Mom-and-Pop hardware stores will feel the strain too.
“In Ontario, it’s 35,000 full-time equivalent jobs in the film industry. The trickle-down effect is real,” Hepburn said.
Shane Boucher, who is the founder of an Ottawa-based studio called 1Development Entertainment Services, says this is the first July in the industry where he hasn’t worked.
“It’s really an industry-wide shutdown. It’s a big deal,” Boucher said in an interview with Global News.
1Development is a service company, meaning they service other parent companies or networks. Almost all of the TV movies the company works with are American.
Story continues below advertisement
Implications of Hollywood strikes on Canadian Film Industry
Boucher says business started as usual at the start of the year with approximately 16 productions lined up. When rumours of the WGA strike started, Boucher found himself scrambling to finish as many films as possible by June. Now, he doesn’t have any projects in production.
Many productions gained buzz when it was announced they were set to film in Canada this summer, including the first season of Cruel Intentions, filmed in Toronto.
Stefan Steen, a producer on the show by Amazon, says production has stopped until the strike ends.
“It’s completely devastating to the local film industry. Everyone currently filming U.S. productions has had to stop and all local crews are immediately out of work. Most get one week’s additional pay but that’s it,” Steen said in an email to Global News.
Story continues below advertisement
‘We are the victims here’: SAG-AFTRA president says as Hollywood actors go on strike
Creative B.C., a program in British Columbia that supports the provinces’ creative sector, said in a statement on their website that they are “watching the situation closely” and “respect the process and all parties.”
“In our role as the economic development organization for motion picture in B.C., together with our local industry partners, we are concerned for the workforce, companies, industry, and people,” the group said.
“The industry is evolving rapidly, business models have changed, and addressing these changes is part of a necessary industry business cycle.”
Hepburn says anyone who wants to support the strike can vote with their wallets.
“It’s time to cancel your streaming account. That’s ultimately what is going to force the hand here. It’s going to be about financial hardships on the AMPTP companies,” he said.
Story continues below advertisement
“There needs to be action taken by the public.”
Hepburn also says he hopes other countries will show solidarity in what performers are fighting for.
“SAG’s fight is everybody’s fight,” he said. “It’s a righteous fight on behalf of performers worldwide.”
Canada’s film and television community is bracing for more job uncertainty amid a Hollywood actors’ strike that observers say has the potential to throw more people out of work, upend TV schedules and dim the wattage of celeb-studded events like the Toronto International Film Festival.
It also raised questions about the fate of celeb-studded tourist draws including TIFF, set for Sept. 7 to 17, and Fan Expo Canada, set for Aug. 24 to 27.
TIFF said in an emailed statement that a SAG strike would almost certainly impact its typically star-packed festival, known for fan-friendly red carpets and premieres, as well as A-list studded press conferences and junkets that draw journalists from around the world.
Story continues below advertisement
“The impact of this strike on the industry and events like ours cannot be denied,” TIFF said moments after SAG announced job action.
“We urge our partners and colleagues to resume an open dialogue. We will continue planning for this year’s festival with the hope of a swift resolution in the coming weeks.”
Writer shares experience picketing at Paramount Studios during strike
Asked last week about the potential impact of a SAG strike on Fan Expo Canada, a vice president with Fan Expo HQ dismissed the possibility of no-shows at the genre-focused pop culture event.
“There will be no impact to the experience we have planned,” Andrew Moyes said in an emailed statement Saturday.
“We hope all parties affected by this are able to reach an amicable agreement soon.”
Story continues below advertisement
However, it was not clear Thursday if some SAG members might decide to sit out such events in solidarity, even if their appearance does not involve a studio project affected by the strike, said one Toronto-based SAG member who predicted TIFF would be “a quiet place this year.”
“I think they’re trying to do a hard no to everything,” Anthony Q. Farrell said of the strike’s intent when it comes to things like Comic-Con and Fan Expo.
“You definitely can’t go as someone who is trying to market a series, that is a SAG series. But they’re also telling you, if you don’t have to go then don’t go. Let’s cut them in the pockets where it really, really hurts.”
FILE – Actors and comedians Tina Fey, center, and Fred Armisen, right, join striking members of the Writers Guild of America on the picket line during a rally outside Silvercup Studios, Tuesday May 9, 2023, in New York. Unionized Hollywood actors on the verge of a strike have agreed to allow a last-minute intervention from federal mediators but say they doubt a deal will be reached by a negotiation deadline late Wednesday, July 12, 2023. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews, File).
BM
The U.S.-based battle is expected to send myriad ripple effects across the border, where more than half of Canadian-set film and TV shoots are U.S. productions that collectively employ tens of thousands of local talent and crew.
Story continues below advertisement
Farrell said he was happy to see his union stand up to the studios but predicted the move would put more Canadian crew members out of work if their shoot includes a SAG cast member.
Also a member of the WGA, Farrell hoped the twin strikes would accelerate deals for both unionized actors and screenwriters, and get everyone back to work soon.
“Things simply are not in a place where they are fair yet,” Farrell said from Winnipeg, where he was speaking to emerging showrunners.
“I feel like this will hopefully be a good thing for our cause, the WGA. I think we’ll have a strong contingent on the picket line and hopefully we’ll get to a resolution much faster because of it.”
Canada’s actors union, the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists, which represents 28,000 members across the country, expressed their solidarity with SAG.
What a U.S. writers’ strike means to BC’s film industry?
The U.S. dispute with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers — which represents employers including Disney, Netflix, Amazon and others — has largely centred on compensation, benefits and guarantees around the use of artificial intelligence.
Story continues below advertisement
“We recognize that their fight is our fight and is for the good of all performers,” ACTRA president Eleanor Noble said in a statement.
“Together we will continue working to ensure performers are respected and achieve fair compensation for the value we bring to every production.”
Shaftesbury Films CEO Christina Jennings said a SAG strike would not impact Canadian shows with Canadian casts, such as Shaftesbury’s “Murdoch Mysteries” and “Hudson & Rex,” both currently shooting.
But she said it could affect future unannounced Canadian projects with a SAG cast.
“This isn’t a great day but we’re lucky at Shaftesbury that it really has not impacted our business at all right now,” said Jennings.
“We have a couple of new shows coming and you know, we’re in no urgency, but we will watch this news carefully…. We may have to make adjustments to strategy.”
Hollywood writers strike: Screenwriters join picket lines to fight for fair pay in streaming era
At least one Canadian broadcaster acknowledged the chance of derailed fall TV plans, with Citytv noting that if the strike continues, it would delay the return of titles including “Law & Order,” “Chicago Med,” “Chicago Fire” and “Chicago P.D.”
Story continues below advertisement
Jennings said shifts like that could open opportunities for Canadian shows, believing that homegrown broadcasters would have holes to fill.
“I already know this from talking with them that they have been really, really looking at their schedules just because of the writers guild strike,” she said.
“They’re already moving shows. Often Canadian shows are moving up in the schedule because they need them to fill the fall hole.”
We are entering day 73 of the Writer’s Guild strike, where writers for all your favorite TV shows have stopped writing altogether in the midst of contract negotiations. Yes, that indeed means your fave shows are being delayed…you may as well say goodbye to Euphoria, which now is projected to be released in 2026 due to the strike. (Safe to say they could cancel it at this point.)
And if you thought, That’s okay! We still have movies! You’re wrong, dead wrong. Enjoy these last few blissful moments of Barbie press tours featuring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling still in character and new red carpet outfits. The Screen Actor’s Guild has been in talks with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers in an effort to re-negotiate contracts. As per usual, Hollywood needs more money and the studios won’t budge.
Things are getting serious, quickly. The members of SAG-AFTRA agreed to strike if the two entities couldn’t reach a fair agreement…and after a mediator was brought in as a “last ditch effort”, it’s not looking good. Christopher Nolan even informed the attendees of the Oppenheimer screening that the stars left in solidarity of the looming strike.
The Oppenheimer viewing was even moved up in anticipation for the strike, as all actors in the film agreed they would participate alongside the SAG members. They agreed that the minute the strike was called, they were going home to picket. So when we’re streaming Disney Plus, or any of those big platforms, remember what they’re taking from us right now.
“SAG-AFTRA negotiated in good faith and was eager to reach a deal that sufficiently addressed performer needs, but the AMPTP’s responses to the union’s most important proposals have been insulting and disrespectful of our massive contributions to this industry. The companies have refused to meaningfully engage on some topics and on others completely stonewalled us. Until they do negotiate in good faith, we cannot begin to reach a deal. We have no choice but to move forward in unity, and on behalf of our membership, with a strike recommendation to our National Board. The board will discuss the issue this morning and will make its decision.”
As I write this article, it has been reported that for the first time since 1960, both the SAG and Writer’s Guild are on strike at the same time. So say goodbye for now to your favorite shows and movies and get ready to say hello to re-runs and YouTube clips. Enjoy the Barbenheimer double feature on July 21 and buckle up…This could take a while.
And honestly, it’s always appalling to me that people even have to consider paying writers more money. It’s not because I’m biased, but because I’ve learned that they are the backbone of media. But the financial catastrophe this will eventually cause for these big corporations will show them in due time why writers need to be paid more.
Leaders of a Hollywood’s actors union voted Thursday to join screenwriters in the first joint strike in more than six decades, shutting down production across the entertainment industry after talks for a new contract with the studios and streaming services broke down.
Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, executive director of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Radio and Television Artists, said at a news conference that the union leadership voted for the work stoppage hours after their contract expired and talks broke off with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers representing employers including Disney, Netflix, Amazon and others.
“A strike is an instrument of last resort,” he said. Union leaders said at a news conference that they voted unanimously for a strike to begin at midnight. Outside Netflix’s Hollywood offices, picketing screenwriters chanted “Pay Your Actors!” immediately after the strike was announced.
It’s the first strike for actors from film and television shows since 1980. And it’s the first time two major Hollywood unions have been on strike at the same time since 1960, when Ronald Reagan was the actors’ guild president.
Story continues below advertisement
“Employers make Wall Street and greed their priority and they forget about the essential contributors that make the machine run,” SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher said. “Shame on them. They are on the wrong side of history.”
With a stoppage looming, the premiere of Christopher Nolan’s film Oppenheimer in London was moved up an hour so that the cast could walk the red carpet before the SAG board’s announcement.
The looming strike also cast a shadow over the upcoming 75th Emmy Awards, whose nominations were announced a day earlier.
Disney chief Bob Iger warned Thursday that an actors strike would have a “very damaging effect on the whole industry.”
“This is the worst time in the world to add to that disruption,” Iger said in an appearance on CNBC. “There’s a level of expectation that (SAG-AFTRA and the WGA) have that is just not realistic.”
Hollywood actors to strike, join writers on picket lines in 1st dual walk-off since ’60s
An extension of the contract, and negotiations, for nearly two weeks only heightened the hostility between the two groups.
Story continues below advertisement
Before the talks began June 7, the 65,000 actors who cast ballots voted overwhelmingly union leaders to send them into a strike, as the Writers Guild of America did when their deal expired more than two months ago.
When the initial deadline approached in late June, more than 1,000 members of the union, including Meryl Streep, Jennifer Lawrence and Bob Odenkirk, added their names to a letter signalling to leaders their willingness to strike.
The stakes in the negotiations included both base and residual pay, which actors say has been undercut by inflation and the streaming ecosystem, benefits, and the threat of unregulated use of artificial intelligence.
The group representing the studios, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), said earlier it was disappointed by the failure to reach a deal.
“This is the Union’s choice, not ours. In doing so, it has dismissed our offer of historic pay and residual increases, substantially higher caps on pension and health contributions, audition protections, shortened series option periods, a groundbreaking AI proposal that protects actors’ digital likenesses, and more,” the AMPTP said in a statement.
The actors’ guild has previously authorized a strike by a nearly 98 per cent margin. With the actors on strike, they will formally join screenwriters on the picket lines outside studios and filming locations in a bid to get better terms from studios and streaming giants like Netflix and Amazon.
Story continues below advertisement
Members of the Writers Guild of America have been on strike since early May, slowing the production of film and television series on both coasts and in other production centres. Issues in negotiations include the unregulated use of artificial intelligence and the effects on residual pay brought on by the streaming ecosystem that has emerged in recent years. Actors have joined writers on picket lines for weeks in solidarity.
An actors’ strike would prevent performers from working on sets or promoting their projects.
Attending a photo event on Wednesday, actor Matt Damon said that while everyone was hoping a strike could be averted, many actors need a fair contract to survive.
“We ought to protect the people who are kind of on the margins,” Damon told The Associated Press. “And $26,000 a year is what you have to make to get your health insurance. And there are a lot of people whose residual payments are what carry them across that threshold. And if those residual payments dry up, so does their health care. And that’s absolutely unacceptable. We can’t have that. So, we got to figure out something that is fair.”
The looming strike has cast a shadow over the upcoming 75th Emmys. Nominations were announced Wednesday, and the strike was on the mind of many nominees.
“People are standing up and saying, ‘This doesn’t really work, and people need to be paid fairly,’” Oscar-winner Jessica Chastain, who was nominated for her first Emmy Award on Wednesday for playing Tammy Wynette in George & Tammy, told the AP.
Story continues below advertisement
“It is very clear that there are certain streamers that have really kind of changed the way we work and the way that we have worked, and the contracts really haven’t caught up to the innovation that’s happened.”
“The impact of this strike on the industry and events like ours cannot be denied. We urge our partners and colleagues to resume an open dialogue. We will continue planning for this year’s festival with the hope of a swift resolution in the coming weeks,” said Alejandra Sosa, the director of communications with the Toronto International Film Festival.
Fifty days into a strike with no end in sight, about 1,000 Hollywood writers and their supporters marched and rallied in Los Angeles for a new contract with studios that includes payment guarantees and job security.
Speakers at the Writers Guild of America’s WGA Strong March and Rally for a Fair Contract on Wednesday emphasized the broad support for their cause shown by other Hollywood unions — including actors in their own contract negotiations — and labor at large.
“We’re all in it together, we’re all fighting the same fight, for a sustainable job in the face of corporate greed,” Adam Conover, a writer and a member of the guild’s board and its negotiating committee, told a crowd at the end of the march at the La Brea Tar Pits.
“We are going to win because they need us. Writers are the ones who stare at a blank page. We are the ones who invent the characters, tell the stories and write the jokes that their audiences love. They’d have nothing without us.”
Story continues below advertisement
Writer shares experience picketing at Paramount Studios during strike
Talks with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, the group representing studios in negotiations, have not resumed since breaking off hours before the writers’ contract expired on May 1. The strike began a day later, with more and more productions shutting down as it has gone on.
A similar deadline now looms for actors, whose union, SAG-AFTRA, is negotiating with the AMPTP on a contract that expires June 30. Members voted overwhelmingly to authorize guild leaders to call a strike if no deal is reached.
Streaming and its ripple effects are at the center of the dispute. The guild says that even as series budgets have increased, writers’ share of that money has consistently shrunk.
The AMPTP says writers’ demands would require they be kept on staff and paid when there is no work for them, and that its contract proposals have been generous.
Story continues below advertisement
“We are here for the sake of the profession we love,” writer Liz Alper said at Wednesday’s rally. “The industry we work in, our audiences, our fellow sister unions in Hollywood, and all the workers across America who have been hurt and disenfranchised by Wall Street and big tech.”
Actors represented by the Hollywood union SAG-AFTRA voted Monday evening to authorize a strike if they don’t agree on a new contract with major studios, streamers and production companies by June 30.
The strike authorization was approved by an overwhelming margin — nearly 98% of the 65,000 members who cast votes.
The guild, which represents over 160,000 screen actors, broadcast journalists, announcers, hosts and stunt performers, begins its negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers on Wednesday, over a month after the Writers Guild of America began striking over its own dispute with AMPTP. If the actors union ultimately moves forward with the strike, it would be limited to television and film productions; news and broadcast work would not be directly affected.
At stake is increased base compensation, which actors say has been undercut by inflation and the streaming ecosystem, the threat of unregulated use of artificial intelligence, benefit plans and the burden of “self-taped auditions” — the cost of which used to be the responsibility of casting and production.
Story continues below advertisement
“We are approaching these negotiations with the goal of achieving a new agreement that is beneficial to SAG-AFTRA members and the industry overall,” the AMPTP said in a statement Monday.
U.S. Congress holds hearing on risks, regulation of AI: ‘Humanity has taken a back seat’
The strike authorization vote, a tool at the bargaining table, comes at a pivotal moment for the industry as 11,500 writers enter their sixth week of striking and the directors guild reviews a recently reached tentative agreement with studios on issues like wages, streaming residuals, and artificial intelligence. Should the actors strike, the industry already hobbled by the writers strike would come to a near-standstill, from production to promoting completed projects.
The WGA, DGA and SAG-AFTRA have shown solidarity with one another since the writers began walking the picket lines on May 2. Many in Hollywood worried about the very real possibility that all three guilds would strike at the same time, as both the directors and the actors contracts were soon due to expire as well.
Story continues below advertisement
That scenario changed Sunday night when the directors guild, which represents 19,000 film, television and commercial directors, announced that they had reached a “truly historic” tentative agreement with studios. The terms, which have not been disclosed in detail to the press or the other guilds, will be presented to the DGA board on Tuesday for approval and then to the membership for ratification.
Representatives for both the writers guild and the actors guild congratulated the directors group for reaching a tentative deal, though neither commented on specific points of the DGA terms. The WGA also said that its bargaining positions remain the same.
The DGA deal did not sit well with some individual WGA members, some of whom remembered when the directors negotiated their own contract while the writers were striking in 2007-2008. That deal 15 years ago, some felt, set precedent that forced the writers to fall in line with the terms agreed to by the DGA and end the strike.
“Zero surprise. The AMPTP continues to use their tired old playbook. And the DGA sadly continues to toe the line, knowing that they can draft off of the WGA’s resolve to strike for a truly historic deal. Disappointing, but not surprising,” veteran television writer Steven DeKnight, who also wrote and directed “Pacific Rim: Uprising,” tweeted.
Seemingly anticipating a repeat, the WGA negotiating committee last week released a letter cautioning that the studios would once again pursue a “divide and conquer” strategy, pitting the guilds against one another.
Story continues below advertisement
“Our position is clear: to resolve the strike, the companies will have to negotiate with the WGA on our full agenda,” the WGA letter had said. “We will continue to march until the companies negotiate fairly with us.”
While the unions have appeared more united this time, their aims are also different in many arenas. For the directors, securing international streaming residuals that account for subscriber growth was a key component, as were wages, safety (like banning live ammunition on set), diversity and inclusion and the addition of Juneteenth as a paid holiday.
The WGA agenda includes increased pay, better residuals and minimum staffing requirements. One key area of overlap between all is artificial intelligence. The DGA said they’d reached a “groundbreaking agreement confirming that AI is not a person and that generative AI cannot replace the duties performed by members.”
Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, the chief negotiator for SAG-AFTRA, maintains the needs of the guild’s actor members are unique. Hollywood actors haven’t gone on strike against AMPTP since 1980, which saw a 95-day strike over terms for paid television and VHS tapes.
“Our bargaining strategy has never relied upon nor been dependent on the outcome or status of any other union’s negotiations, nor do we subscribe to the philosophy that the terms of deals made with other unions bind us,” Crabtree-Ireland said Sunday.
On Monday, he added that the vote was a “clear statement that it’s time for an evolution in this contract.”
This content can also be viewed on the site it originates from.
While delivering a speech to 2023 graduates and receiving an honorary degree, Zaslav paused at various points over the course of his 20-minute remarks, according to The Hollywood Reporter, due to interruptions from a crowd yelling “We don’t want you here,” “Pay your writers” and “Shut up, Zaslav.” Before he could even utter a word, an airplane banner with the message “David Zaslav Pay Your Writers” could be seen flying above the picket and commencement.
In response to the protests, the Writers Guild of America East tweeted: “The WGA is thankful to all the B.U. graduates for chanting ‘Pay your writers’ at Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav while he delivered the #BU2023 commencement address.”
Bernie Sanders retweeted the guild’s message, adding, “If Warner Bros Discovery can afford to pay its CEO David Zaslav $286 million in compensation over the past 2 years, it can afford to pay its writers much better wages and benefits. Mr. Zaslav: Listen to the Boston University students and the Writers Guild. Pay your writers.” Alexandria Ocasio-Cortezsimilarly showed her support on social media.
Twitter content
This content can also be viewed on the site it originates from.
When Boston University announced that Zaslav would give the commencement speech only two days after the writers strike began, the WGA East expressed its intention to picket and declared its “deep disappoint with the university over its poor decision,” adding in a statement to The Boston Globe, “Boston University should not give voice to someone who wants to destroy their students’ ability to build a career in the film and television industry.”
Both Zaslav and Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandosspoke out in support of a deal with the writers prior to the strike, but no negotiation could be agreed upon. “In order to create great storytelling, we need great writers, and we need the while industry to work together,” Zaslav said in a recent CNBC interview. “And everybody deserves to be paid fairly, so your number one focus is, let’s try and get this resolved.”
Penn addressed the ongoing Writers Guild of America strike in a press conference for his new film, “Black Flies”, director Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire’s harrowing, gritty drama about New York paramedics. Asked about the strike, Penn said “the industry has been upending the writers and actors and directors for a very long time.”
“There’s a lot of new concepts being tossed about including the use of AI. It strikes me as a human obscenity for there to be pushback on that from the producers,” said Penn, a veteran writer-director in addition to being an actor.
Film and TV screenwriters earlier this month began striking after talks with producers broke off. The WGA is seeking better pay, new contracts for the streaming era and safeguards against the use of AI-scripted work-arounds.
“The first thing we should do in these conversations is change the Producers Guild and title them how they behave, which is the Bankers Guild,” added Penn. “It’s difficult for so many writers and so many people industry-wide to not be able to work at this time. I guess it’s going to soul-search itself and see what side toughs it out.”
After the press conference, Penn said in a statement that he meant to refer to the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), which is negotiating on behalf of producers, not the Producers Guild of America.
Penn’s comments come as the potential for a wider work stoppage in Hollywood may be growing. The Directors Guild is also negotiating a new contract with producers. The board of SAG-AFTRA, the actors union, this week voted to ask members for strike authorization as it prepares to enter negotiations for a new contract.
In Cannes, the strike has been a regular topic for American stars, filmmakers and producers. On Thursday, Ethan Hawke wore a shirt that read “Pencils Down.” On the festival’s opening day Tuesday, juror Paul Dano said he planned to join his wife, Zoe Kazan, on the picket lines soon.
“My wife is currently picketing with my 6-month-old, strapped to her chest,” said Dano. “I will be there on the picket line when I get back home.”
At the press conference Friday for “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny”, Lucasfilm chief Kathleen Kennedy, one of the top film producers, said “most people are in full support of the writers getting what they deserve.”
“The meta issue here is how that it’s being impacted by an industry that’s really changing, that is in the midst of change, both technologically and just basic aspects of how we work,” Kennedy said. “That’s going to take time. That’s what everyone is getting ready for.”
When you’re writing a story about an issue that affects a large group of people, whether it’s for a news outlet or a television show, you often pick one person as the anecdotal lead of the tale. That character serves a purpose: to make a specific thesis feel less nebulous and more, dare I say, human. Right now in Hollywood there are some 11,500 humans who could be the lead of this particular story. Writers who have spent their careers holed up in writers rooms or coffee shops, figuring out plots and characters and dialogue and stuffing them into 30- or 60-page scripts. But this past week, those same screenwriters have woken up, donned blue T-shirts that say “Writers Guild of America,” grabbed a red-and-black picket sign, and descended on the sidewalks of one of the big Hollywood studios. Then, as gangly palm trees sway nearby and rivers of cars flow along Los Angeles’ concrete canals, these writers have trudged back and forth on the pavements in front of Paramount Studios and CBS and Disney and Netflix—on strike as screenwriters for television shows and movies for the first time in 15 years.
But in reality, it isn’t just the 11,500 people wearing those blue T-shirts and chanting, “No contract! No content!”—or my personal favorite, “Here’s a pitch: Pay us, Bitch!”—who could be the lead of this story. It’s actually a much larger group; an estimated 375 million people worldwide, to be precise. “What?!” you’re saying. “There aren’t that many writers in Hollywood!” No, there are not. But there are many people who will be affected by what happens with one of the issues at stake between the writers and the studios. (This is where we cue the scary music.)
I’m referring to artificial intelligence. No, no…I know what you’re thinking, not another AI story, but wait! Stop! Keep reading, I promise you this will all make sense momentarily. AI in Hollywood could be a harbinger for what’s to come to everyone—and I mean everyone. It could be the issue that signals what will happen to almost all creative jobs (and many other kinds of white-collar vocations) in the not-too-distant future. That’s because, among the lists of demands the WGA is asking for, which include better pay and larger writers rooms, the most important topic (to me) is the demand that the studios agree not to use AI to write or rewrite stories (though the guild has said it’s okay for writers to use it as a tool). The AMPTP, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents the studios and networks, rejected this proposal, saying that the group representing the studios would be open to offering an annual meeting to discuss advancements in technology.
“The writers strike is too easily dismissed as coastal elites protecting their cushy gigs. Instead it should be seen as the first skirmish in a new war, one where more than half of all jobs are at risk as we lose control of language itself—and thus of being human—to large language models,” Paul Kedrosky, an investor and prominent thinker on how AI is going to change society over the next few years, told me when I asked if this is the first true battle in the humans-versus-artificial-intelligence war. “Too many people are trapped in the past, arguing that we have always had to adapt to new technologies. Yes, but we have never been chased by an all-encompassing technology whose DNA is evolving in real time so quickly. Our attempts to stay ahead are charmingly vestigial, like buying expensive carbon plate running shoes to out-run a rocket-powered steamroller.”
The irony of the AI debate is that six months ago, when the WGA and AMPTP were gearing up for these talks and negotiations, AI wasn’t even something they were discussing as part of the demands. ChatGPT was not released until November of last year, and it didn’t really show its true prowess until March 14 of this year—around 50 days ago—when GPT-4, the most advanced version of the platform, was released. And yet, at the end of the day, while all of the other negotiation topics by the WGA are incredibly important to writers—including being paid residuals for popular shows and the elimination of “mini” rooms, where shows are created with a skeleton staff—the requisition to put AI-written scripts at bay could prove to be the most important battle not just for screenwriters, but hundreds of millions around the world—which (most ironically) includes the hundreds of thousands of people who work for the studios the AMPTP is representing.
It isn’t that AI will simply write scripts in the future—it will do everything, and do it in real time. You can imagine a scenario a few years from now, you walk into your living room after a long day (not working because you’re out of a job), plop on the couch, and say to your TV, “Hey, Netflix, make me a 20-minute comedy set in New York in the 1980s starring Marilyn Monroe, The Rock, and Dave Chappelle. Oh, and throw in a few zombies and make one of them my ex-wife.” Your TV will go beepedy-beep-beep-beep and your customized show will begin. An AI has written the script, created AI actors (that look completely real), created an AI score (which sounds like it was written by Max Richter or Hans Zimmer and performed by the Vienna Philharmonic), and generated AI sound effects (you don’t think an AI can fake a broken bone?), and it’s edited, directed, and produced by the same software. (Cue even scarier music…this time, made by an AI.)
Then when you factor in the next era of televisions, which are starting to come with built-in cameras (like the ones in your phone and iPad) which will be able to watch you as you watch them. They’ll see if you’re laughing, or crying, or bored, and will be able to change the content in real time to make sure the show is all you ever asked for.
Pacific Press/Getty Images.
Now I know what you’re thinking: There’s no way AI could do that. Humans, with their human foibles and human creativity, are the only people capable of telling stories. But what people fail to realize is that AI is using human-written content, with all of its human-backed suffering and empathy, to tell new stories. An AI doesn’t need to have abandonment issues because its parents got divorced when it was 12 years old after its dad cheated on its mom in order to read and analyze every great script, novel, and story ever written about that specific human experience. And if you think an AI couldn’t make the next formulaic largely garbage Marvel movie, or John Wick 17, The Fast and the Furious 839,123, or most recently, The Super Mario Bros. Movie—which, let’s be honest, may have made $1 billion and counting at the box office, but was excruciatingly mimetic of every other video game turned movie—then you may have missed what’s been happening to culture and content over the past 40 years.
But there is a way to stop this from happening. The Directors Guild of America, which represents more than 19,000 directors and directorial team members in Hollywood, is starting its own negotiations with the AMPTP on May 10, which will be followed by the Screen Actors Guild, which represents approximately 160,000 actors, radio hosts, recording artists, singers, and more and begins its own negotiations on June 7. It is especially worth noting that, like the studios themselves, these two unions also risk their representatives being replaced by AI—if you don’t believe me, go and watch AI Mark Zuckerbergtalking about scrunching his nose or the completely AI-generated Great Catspy trailer, or even the AI-created RNC attack ad against Biden. There were no directors, actors, grips, or directors of photography used to create that content. Just a few lines of text that an AI turned into video. In other words, everyone is fucked if they don’t all team up and give this story a Hollywood ending.
There are countless companies currently working in the video and film space, and what they are capable of today is astounding (and frankly, for a creative person, terrifying). Some of these startups are simply tools, while others are aiming to completely replace people in all forms of storytelling. And their company taglines say it. Synthesia.io, a text-to-video service bills itself as the tool that allows you to “say goodbye to cameras, microphones, and actors” because it can create all of that for you. Runway, a generative AI company that has an incredible text-to-video product—the company’s tagline is “No lights. No camera. All action”—is a place where you can create content from scratch in seconds. At the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills last week, this was the topic du jour, with Todd Lieberman, a movie producer, saying that in three years, a “good” movie will come out that will have been written and created by an AI, which was echoed by Fox Entertainment CEO Rob Wade, who noted that it won’t just be screenwriting, but it will be everything, from editing to storyboarding to directing. “AI in the future, maybe not next year or the year after, but if we’re talking 10 years? AI is [absolutely] going to be able to do all of these things,” Wade said.
It’s the perfect premise for a rom-com. Two TV writers looking for love find it in the most unlikely place: on a picket line, striking with their union. That’s exactly what happened to Stacy Traub and Hunter Covington during the 2007 writers strike, but no studio executives have been interested in bringing that scenario to the screen. “Anytime I write something slightly close, they never want my character to be a TV writer,” Traub says with a sigh. “People feel like it’s not relatable. But for me, it’s relatable!”
Less than a week into the 2023 writers strike, they’ve invited friends and colleagues to celebrate their 10th anniversary on the exact spot where they met and later got engaged. A number of people gather on a windy corner in front of Fox Studio’s Galaxy Gate, holding up their picket signs to make a tunnel for the couple to run through. Traub wears a white sash with the word “BRIDE” ironically slung across her fuschia blazer. Covington sports a bushy beard, tattoos, and a T-shirt that says, “If my wife can settle, then so can the AMPTP”—referring to the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, the organization that represents the industry’s studios.
The two originally met in the fall of 2007 at a singles-themed picket that Covington organized. He was writing for My Name Is Earl at the time, and egged on by a few fellow singletons, he decided to look for a silver lining in a potentially grueling strike. This was an era before modern-day dating apps, he points out; it was worth a try. His Earl colleague Danielle Sanchez-Witzel brought her friend Traub, who was then the showrunner of a show called Notes From the Underbelly. The mother of an infant and a toddler, Traub had recently gone through a divorce. “Being in a writers room is such a safe space, and if your life is gonna fall apart, it’s kind of a great place for it to happen—you know, I had people around me making me laugh,” she recalls. When the strike hit, she looked to the picket lines for a sense of community.
The singles picket was low pressure. “I thought there’s a chance that this [fix-up] could work,” says Sanchez-Witzel. “It would be so, so casual, because we’re always walking in a circle. So we could walk by and say hello, and kind of loop back around.” Afterward they went out together for a meal that cemented their interest. “That was the start of a beautiful union within our beautiful union.”
Not that their romance ran smooth: There were enough bumps in their relationship to fill a six-episode streaming series. “I had an almost three-year-old and a four-month-old, and he didn’t have kids,” says Traub. “I came with a lot of baggage and he was like, I don’t know if I can handle this. So we broke up.” A year later, though, they found their way back to each other, began dating and had a child together. In 2012, Covington came home one night suggesting that they head to Culver City to buy a sofa that was on sale. He took a weird route, and suddenly Traub realized where they were: the Galaxy Gate. “Hunter takes off his jacket and he’s wearing his Writers Guild strike T-shirt. He gets down on one knee and he proposes exactly where we met.” They married in May of 2013.
Their strike romance is now legend in the community, according to Sanchez-Witzel. She was talking about the anniversary to a young writer picketing at Amazon this week. “She said, ‘I heard that story that someone got married, but I didn’t know it was actually true!’ I think there was some optimism in her eyes, like, ‘maybe we should do a singles picket.’”
For Covington, this strike feels different than the 2007 one—and not just because he’s 10 years older with a wife and kids. Back then, writing for television and film felt like a more stable career. “Now I think most people are hurting,” he says, “especially when you adjust our earnings for inflation…. ln 2007, we were fighting about what TV on the internet was gonna be and getting a foothold in that. And now it’s that television as a career seems like it’s not a sustainable thing…. I feel like we are really fighting for the future in a way that we weren’t in 2007.” He pauses as more well-wishers with picket signs arrive, then continues. “A group existential crisis about a career is kind of a weird place to be. But that’s why we’re in a union, and that’s why we have each other.”
The most lively moments in an otherwise lethargic MTV Movie & TV Awards came early Sunday night, and featured ersatz host Drew Barrymore—who dropped out as live emcee in solidarity with the writers’ strike that began last week. Barrymore starred in a few pretaped—and, notably, prewritten—segments that proved exactly why awards shows require writers in the first place.
At the top of the show, Barrymore inserted her Josie Grossie character from Never Been Kissed into several of this year’s nominees, including Wednesday, M3GAN, and Cocaine Bear. In another, she played younger sister Skipper in an effort to cameo in the upcoming Barbie movie. She was otherwise largely missing from the broadcast, which was also devoid of a red carpet or any in-person speeches after Paramount announced Friday that the show would go completely virtual.
Twitter content
This content can also be viewed on the site it originates from.
The MTV Movie & TV Awards, a delightfully bizarre awards show with colorful category names (Stranger Things won “best kick-ass cast,” by the way) including a Cheetos-sponsored best kiss (“Cheetos popcorn congratulates Outer Banks for Best Kiss” a faceless announcer bellowed), felt subdued, even downright snoozy without any written sketches or star power. In fact, watching Sunday’s ceremony was a throwback to the pandemic-era awards show, complete with glitchy Zoom speeches and overstuffed clips packages. The only difference? It didn’t have to be this way, as multiple winners acknowledged in their speeches.
Although most of the year’s victors, including Adam Sandler,Elizabeth Olsen, and the Kardashians were no-shows, a few winners addressed the writers picketing for a new and fair contract with the industry’s major studios. While accepting best Ssow for HBO’s The Last Of Us,Pedro Pascal said he and the show’s creators were “standing in solidarity with the WGA that is fighting very hard for fair wages.” Drag performers from RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars, which won best competition series, expressed similar support, as did Stranger Things’ Joseph Quinn, who won best breakout performance.
Jennifer Coolidge, who received the Comedic Genius Award (and was set to host the Saturday Night Live finale before the strike forced the show to go dark) was perhaps the most effusive in her stance. “Almost all great comedy starts with great writers, and as a proud member of SAG, I stand here before you tonight side-by-side with my sisters and brothers from the WGA, who are fighting for the rights of artists everywhere,” she said. “I think of the words of Shakespeare where he once said, ‘The play is the thing.’ Well, I don’t want to put words in his mouth or anything, but I think what he really meant was it’s everything.”
In another universe, Pete Davidson would have spent Friday night in the writers’ offices at 30 Rockefeller Center, making last-minute adjustments ahead of his planned first time hosting Saturday Night Live. The comedian was a cast member of the show for eight seasons, officially leaving the show just last May. Instead of taking his victory lap on the show as a graduated senior with a brand new sitcom of his own, the Bupkis star spent last night handing out pizza to striking Writer’s Guild members on the picket line in Brooklyn.
“Gotta support the writers,” Davidson said in a clip captured from the drizzly scene, precious pies in hand. “No shows without the writers, man.”
Twitter content
This content can also be viewed on the site it originates from.
Davidson arrived in a dark hoodie with the hood up bearing stacks of pies from L&B Spumoni Gardens, an 80-plus-year-old Brooklyn institution in the Gravesend neighborhood. It’s a jaunt, but well worth it—Sbarro could never. Spumoni Gardens’ square grandma pies are a slice that demands respect.
Saturday Night Live is among the shows that have halted production amidst the writers’ strike, and will air a rerun tonight instead of Davidson’s show as planned. The strike has halted nearly 12,000 writers’ work as they stand with their union, the Writers Guild of America, in the group’s first strike in nearly 15 years.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – MAY 5: Pete Davidson joins members of the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and its supporters to picket outside Silvercup Studios on May 5, 2023 in New York City. Writers Guild of America members have gone on strike in a contract dispute with studios and streaming services over lowering wages, residuals and the future of AI in entertainment. (Photo by Bruce Glikas/Getty Images)Bruce Glikas/Getty Images
Earlier this week, Davidson was spotted with signs showing SAG-AFTRA union solidarity with the WGA.
Last week, in an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon before the strike was authorized, Davidson told host Jimmy Fallon that he’d been working on his episode for two or three months, and that if a strike led to the cancellation of his hosting debut, “it just feeds my weird story I have in my head, like, ‘Of course that would happen to me.’”
Since the Writers Guild of America began striking on Tuesday, they’ve been driving the narrative about the work stoppage. Thousands of writers have spread out across Los Angeles and New York to picket outside the biggest entertainment studios, including Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, and Netflix. The famous faces who have joined the picket lines and their clever signs—they are writers, after all—have dominated headlines. So, too, has their long list of demands.
After the WGA announced plans for the strike on Monday night, it released a document outlining just how far it was from a deal with the studios. According to the two-pager, WGA’s proposal for the regulation of AI on Hollywood projects was met with a rejection from the group negotiating on behalf of the studios, which instead offered to hold “annual meetings to discuss advances in technology.” WGA said that the studios also outright rejected its proposal to establish minimums for the size and duration of writers rooms. The document had its intended effect, riling up writers as they headed out to the picket lines. “When the Writers Guild said here’s what we proposed and here’s what their responses were, it was like, oh my God, we were miles apart,” said showrunner David H. Steinberg from the picket line outside Fox on Tuesday afternoon.
Beyond issuing a statement as negotiations broke down, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers remained rather quiet during the first two days of the strike. And the studios it represents have followed suit, directing press inquiries back to the AMPTP. Now they’ve issued a response.
In a four-page document dated May 4, the AMPTP—which is led by Carol Lombardini—laid out its argument for why negotiations with the WGA broke down. On the issue of the writers room and the WGA’s request for mandatory staffing and minimum duration of employment—which seems to be a key negotiating point for the WGA—the AMPTP said, “If writing needs to be done, writers are hired, but these proposals require the employment of writers whether they’re needed for the creative process or not….We don’t agree with applying a one-size-fits-all solution to shows that are unique and different in their approach to creative staffing. Some writers are the sole voice of a show and others work with only a small team. The WGA’s proposals would preclude that.”
The AMPTP also clarified its position around the use of AI, which has become a hot-button issue in the early days of the strike. “We’re creative companies and we value the work of creatives. The best stories are original, insightful and often come from people’s own experiences,” it said in the document. “AI raises hard, important creative and legal questions for everyone. For example, writers want to be able to use this technology as part of their creative process, without changing how credits are determined, which is complicated given AI material can’t be copyrighted. So it’s something that requires a lot more discussion, which we’ve committed to doing.”
The studios are taking issue with writers’ complaints that their jobs have essentially become “gig economy” work thanks to the shrinking size and duration of writers rooms, which has forced them to seek jobs in multiple rooms in one year. The AMPTP said that working as a Hollywood writer “has almost nothing in common with standard ‘gigs’ jobs. For one thing, most television writers are employed on a weekly or episodic basis, with a guarantee of a specified number of weeks or episodes. It’s not uncommon for writers to be guaranteed ‘all episodes produced.’ Plus, writing jobs come with substantial fringe benefits that are far superior to what many full-time employees receive for working an entire year, including employer-paid health care, employer-paid contributions into a pension plan and eligibility for a paid parental leave program.”
As if to illustrate just how generous the studios have already been, the AMPTP pointed out that its most recent offer to increase minimum wages would equate to an extra $97 million annually for writers. (The WGA had previously said it would increase writers’ pay by $41 million per year.) And it noted that the 46% increase in streaming residuals negotiated three years ago only recently took effect, meaning that writers might not be feeling the full effect of those bigger checks just yet. Vanity Fair has asked the WGA for a response.
It’s unclear when the WGA and the AMPTP will resume their talks. WGA negotiating committee cochair Chris Keyser said earlier this week that the writers are prepared to strike as long as it takes to “get the deal that we need to make sure that writing is a viable profession.” AMPTP seems to be arguing that it already is—which means Hollywood might want to settle in for a long work stoppage.
When Hollywood writers went on strike in 2007, the late-night shows were forced to go dark for about two months. During the hiatus, Jay Leno famously delivered doughnuts via motorcycle to the picket lines, and Jimmy Kimmel and otherhosts paid staff out of pocket. “The strike basically wiped out all my savings,” the Jimmy Kimmel Live! host told The Hollywood Reporter for a retrospective on the strike’s 10th anniversary. The late-night shows eventually returned to the air; David Letterman even made his own deal with the studios so that his writers could return to work.
Fifteen years later, writers are striking again—and the late-night shows are the first to feel the impact once more. Leno is no longer the host of The Tonight Show, but he’s back delivering doughnuts to picketers. And some hosts are supporting their crew amid the chaos. Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon and Late Night’s Seth Meyers are both reportedly dipping into their pockets to help pay their crews for the missed work. According to sources and Hollywood trade reports, NBC will pay staffers’ salaries for two weeks, with Fallon and Meyers personally stepping in to help extend their pay for a third week. The network is also paying for employees’ health care through September. An NBCUniversal spokeswoman declined to comment.
Sarah Kobos, who describes herself as a senior photo research coordinator for the Tonight Show in her Twitter bio, posted to the social network that Fallon attended a Wednesday morning production meeting to let staff know that he’d helped negotiate for them to receive more pay. The previous day, she had tweeted angrily that staff wouldn’t get paid after this week. “Please support your staff,” she wrote, publicly appealing to the host. “Had fun bowling with ya last week, but a fun party won’t pay my rent.”
Seth Meyers walks the picket line during the 2007 writers strike.
Joe Kohen/Getty Images.
Paying writers is a gesture of solidarity from Fallon and Meyers, both of whom are listed as members of the Writers Guild of America East branch. In a clip from his Monday show, Meyers—who picketed in 2007 when he was working on Saturday Night Live—expressed support for the guild, saying, “I feel very strongly that what the writers are asking for is not unreasonable.” While on the red carpet for the Met Gala, Fallon said, “I wouldn’t have a show if it wasn’t for my writers. I support them all the way.” His announcer, former SNL co-head writer Steve Higgins—whose son John Higgins is currently an SNL writer—was spotted on the picket line on Tuesday.
If the current strike plays out like the last one, crew members on the late-night shows could be out of work for a lot longer than three weeks. The 2007 strike lasted for 100 days; in 1988, writers stopped working for 153 days. During the last strike, most of the late-night shows eventually chose to resume production without their writers, welcoming them back only once the work stoppage finally ended. In that Hollywood Reporter interview, Kimmel said he felt he had to go back on the air because he couldn’t afford to support his crew any longer: “I also felt if we stayed off the air, it was going to do permanent damage to our shows.”
Vanity Fair will update this story as additional information emerges about how the other late-night shows are supporting their crew during the hiatus.
Hollywood writers are putting down their pens and grabbing picket signs. After weeks spent negotiating a new contract with Hollywood’s biggest studios, the Writers Guild of America said Monday that it has failed to reach a new deal. Now, for the first time in 15 years, nearly 12,000 scribes plan to walk out on Tuesday in a strike that threatens to grind Hollywood to a halt.
“The WGA Negotiating Committee began this process intent on making a fair deal, but the studios’ responses have been wholly insufficient given the existential crisis writers are facing,” the WGA said in a statement shared with Vanity Fair. “The companies’ behavior has created a gig economy inside a union workforce, and their immovable stance in this negotiation has betrayed a commitment to further devaluing the profession of writing.”
The WGA called for its members to begin picketing on Tuesday afternoon.
The WGA spent six weeks in negotiation with Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers—which bargains on behalf of 100-year-old studios like Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery, as well as streamers like Netflix and Amazon Studios. The guild said in the statement that the studios would not meet certain demands, including guaranteed weekly employment for TV writers or protections against an AI incursion. The studios, the guild said, “have closed the door on their labor force and opened the door to writing as an entirely freelance profession. No such deal could ever be contemplated by this membership.”
WGA’s contract renegotiation was complicated by the tough economic climate for the studios, which have been cutting budgets and laying off thousands of employees as they face pressure from Wall Street to turn their streaming services into profitable businesses. AMPTP said in a statement that it “presented a comprehensive package proposal to the Guild last night which included generous increases in compensation for writers as well as improvements in streaming residuals. The AMPTP also indicated to the WGA that it is prepared to improve that offer, but was unwilling to do so because of the magnitude of other proposals still on the table that the Guild continues to insist upon.” It added that its primary sticking points are “Guild proposals that would require a company to staff a show with a certain number of writers for a specified period of time, whether needed or not.”
The group continued, “The AMPTP member companies remain united in their desire to reach a deal that is mutually beneficial to writers and the health and longevity of the industry, and to avoid hardship to the thousands of employees who depend upon the industry for their livelihoods. The AMPTP is willing to engage in discussions with the WGA in an effort to break this logjam.”
Conversations with Hollywood sources in the weeks after negotiations began indicated that no one was jonesing for a strike. Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav and Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos both spoke out in support of a deal with the writers, but hand-wringing about a potential work stoppage mounted as the contract expiration date loomed closer with little signal that the groups were nearing a deal. On April 17, the WGA announced that 98% of its members had voted to authorize a strike if a new contract was not in place by midnight on Monday.
This will be the writers’ first work stoppage since late 2007, when they went on strike for 100 days over a cut of studios’ digital sales, among other issues. The strike led to years of bitterness between the two groups. Though writers won key concessions, they also lost jobs and lucrative deals with the studios. Meanwhile, productions were delayed, and the LA economy took a hit.
The upcoming strike could be similarly devastating, depending on how long it lasts. (The longest strike on record was in 1988, when the work stoppage lasted for 153 days.) Sources indicate that there’s little incentive on either side to let the upcoming strike stretch for months. But regardless of its length, it will have an immediate impact on day-to-day business in Hollywood. Writers won’t be able to pitch new projects or work on existing ones. Late night shows will be the first to go dark, because they are often written mere hours before they are taped. Broadcast shows like Abbott Elementary—which was scheduled to start the writers room for its third season this week—could also be delayed in returning to the air this fall.
