Strike Out on December 7th?

If you’ve been following the blow-by-blow of the WGA strike then you’ll know all about United Hollywood, Deadline Hollywood Daily and Variety’s Scribe Vibe (is that the best name they came up with?!).

The latter site ran a story last week claiming the strike may come to an end on December 7th.

A top Hollywood manager told the trade that negotiations between the WGA and AMPTP - which began today - are expected to go smoothly. Add that to today’s Deadline Hollywood Daily report and it seems screenwriters might be firing up their copies of Final Draft sooner than expected.

Supposedly there’s already been some top secret negotiations last week with a tentative deal expected to be announced within a few days, followed by an official announcement on December 7th.

I hope the writers get what they deserve, but I can’t help but feel they put themselves in a bad position by going early instead of waiting for the other guilds to strike. Sure, they’re getting the attention they wouldn’t have if they’d gone with the DGA and SAG, but remember this: Hollywood can last far longer without writers than they can actors or directors. They’ve stockpiled enough material to keep going for a while yet and the writers’ mortgage payments will catch up with them long before the likes of Sony, Warner Bros and Fox have similar problems.

By waiting for the director and actor strike they’d have been able to bring the industry to standstill and perhaps have greater leverage in negotiations.

Variety’s predicted end date is 10 days away. I’m a bit doubtful it’ll come to pass but there’s but it’s probably way more likely to happen than somebody getting any kind of reliable JUSTICE LEAGUE casting news.

source - scribe vibe, deadline hollywood daily

1 Comment »

I think the writers struck at the right time. There were many producers who counted on both the guild’s striking at once, after the TV seasons had been completed and most of the movie script for Summer 2009 had been finished along with most if not all of the principal photography.

I knew something was up when the most writer un-friendly producer out there Don “Dickhead” Murphy was boasting that he was SO confident the writer’s would postpone any strike until June and then the actors and writer’s would strike together. Don Murhpy is a guy I hate, and have loathed for some time. He’s everything that’s wrong with the “suits” running the studios. When he sais he was expecting the WGA to stall that to me was three red flags that ALL the producers were counting on a strike NOT happening, so they weren’t on RED ALERT quite yet. They thought they still had time. And when the WGA struck the producers got caught with their pants down.
Now, if the WGA had waited until June the AMPTP would have simply said, “The TV season won’t start until January 2009 for ALL the TV shows, and we’ll just wait you writers and actors out…for the next SIX months! HAHAHAHA We’re so smart!” It wouldn’t have mattered if SAG and WGA struck together, there would have been enough material in the pipeline that the studio machines wouldn’t grind to an immediate halt. Worst of all, BOTH the guilds would have been out of work during this time.
Now who do you think would have won that fight? Bot the WGA and SAG would have HAD to settle for less.

But the WGA ruined all of that. And keep in mind the WGA contract has historically set the tone for the actor’s contract. So if the WGA gets more, then SAG gets more.
Having all the parties at the table may work for international diplomacy, but this isn’t diplomacy, it’s business –worse, it’s Hollywood.
The producers have the money and the power. If the WGA had postponed and went on strike simulaneously with SAG it would have weakened their collective position. The TV season would have been over, and you better believe the tentpoles for 200 would have been shot –at least all the live-action stuff. Then what would the guilds have had for leverage? Not much.
This way the actors got to take to the picket lines with the writers and the TV shows have begun getting cancelled now, instead of waiting 6 months, when all the episodes would have been completed and a work stoppage FAR less damaging.
The way things stand now the AMPTP isn’t being so smarmy about dealing with the actors strike now that they’ve alreay begun losing money and shows and no doubt millions in advertiser revenue. They’re feeling the pressure.
It may not have been quick, it may not have been organized, but in this case the WGA did this the right way.

Comment by JaySmack | November 27, 2007

The OWF Team