Studios will reopen negotiations with striking Hollywood writers

Well, well, well.

Well, well, well, well, WELL, well wellllllll.

Well.

It’s been nearly 100 days since the Writers Guild of America (WGA) went on strike, shuttering the production of many TV shows and movies and guaranteeing that no new ones get off the ground for a while. In summary, the writers are trying to secure better pay, increased job security, and guardrails on the use of AI in entertainment, among other things. The entertainment industry has changed in the past decade, and writers have lost a lot of revenue and security they had before the streaming revolution came along. They want to establish a way for them to live and work under this new normal.

The studios, represented by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) looked like they were ready to settle in for a long fight. There was a lot of dust kicked up early in July when anonymous studios executives revealed that the plan was basically to keep going with the strike until writers started to lose their homes or go hungry, at which point the AMPTP would resume negotiations.

Hollywood studios want to resume negotiations with striking writers (no mention of actors)

But now, according to Variety, the AMPTP is ready to come back to the bargaining table. “The AMPTP, through Carol Lombardini, reached out to the WGA today and requested a meeting this Friday to discuss negotiations,” reads a note sent to WGA members. “We’ll be back in communication with you sometime after the meeting with further information. As we’ve said before, be wary of rumors. Whenever there is important news to share, you will hear it directly from us.”

There was never any hard and fast expectation about when negotiations would resume, but I think this is earlier than a lot of people expected? Why is it happening?

Well, it probably has something to do with the fact that SAG-AFTRA, the screen actors guild, is also on strike, marking the first time since the 1960s that writers and actors are on strike at the same time. If they had completed scripts, studios could still shoot some movies and TV shows without writers. But without writers or actors, much of Hollywood has basically shut down. Maybe the studios want to build back up before they start bleeding too badly.

I also wonder if the recent smash successes of Barbie and Oppenheimer, two movies with clear visions penned by human writers, didn’t put the fear of god into the studios. Everyone loves making money, studio executives most of all. And there won’t be any more Barbenheimer-sized success stories unless writers and actors get back to work.

Or maybe the studios just want to meet with the writers to reject all their demands again. We’ll see what happens on Friday.

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