Writers To Go On Strike After the Studios Refuse To Meet WGA Demands
After being unable to reach a deal by the end of May 1st, the Writers Guild of America has announced they will be on strike starting May 2nd, at 12:01am. This is the first time a strike has been called by the WGA in 15 years, and it’s likely to have a major influence on the entire entertainment industry if it’s not solved quickly.
The situation became unsustainable after a negotiation between the WGA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) that lasted six weeks and eventually got nowhere. It was motivated by the expiration of the contract between the Guild and the AMPTP on May 1, and after seeing a deal wouldn’t be struck immediately, the WGA held a vote in mid-April seeking approval to strike on May 2 if the AMPTP wouldn’t budge, which is exactly what happened.
Among their list of demands, they included a significant increase in the minimum compensation, addressing the abuse of mini-rooms, they want an increase of staff in TV writers’ rooms, and committing to regulate the use of artificial intelligence to create scripts, among many others. In the statement announcing the strike, the WGA included some of the demands the studios wouldn’t accept:
“From their refusal to guarantee any level of weekly employment in episodic television, to the creation of a “day rate” in comedy variety, to their stonewalling on free work for screenwriters and on AI for all writers, they 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.”
The impact this writers’ strike will have on the industry and its pipeline of projects will depend on how long it lasts. The writers’ strike that was started in 2007 lasted for three months and went into early 2008, and had many casualties, including under-written seasons of TV shows that wouldn’t have on-set rewrites, seasons of TV shows cut short because the scripts weren’t done for the latter part, movies axed because the scripts weren’t finished (a famous example being George Miller’s Justice League Immortal movie), and so much more. Notice that this has a ripple effect across the entire spectrum, because if writers won’t work, actors don’t have anything to do, and those who were building some momentum might not recover from lack of work, especially if their projects don’t move forward.
The effects of this writers’ strike won’t be noticed for at least a year, if not more, but if it lasts as long as the last one, this could be another tipping point for an industry that has been in continuous flux for three years now. What’s more, studios looking to set up shop elsewhere are not going to have it easy either — the Writers Guild of Great Britain has announced they have ordered their members to stop working on any project that goes under WGA jurisdiction, and we wouldn’t be surprised if Canada followed suit soon.
As an example, on Monday, Deadpool 3 was supposed to start shooting in London. Marvel is now famous for going into production with uncompleted scripts and heavily relying on on-set rewrites. In fact, Deadpool 3 had a major overhaul late last summer when Hugh Jackman decided to join the party last minute and return as Wolverine. He will have a co-lead credit on the film, so unless they had a near-ready script featuring Wolverine and Deadpool in case Jackman changed his mind last minute, it must have been an intense few months of keyboarding for Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick. Ryan Reynolds famously paid for the two of them to be on the set of the first film, so it’s not like there is not a history of them being needed on the set of a Deadpool movie.
Also staying in the Marvel camp, we just learned a few days ago that the studio commissioned a rewrite of the Blade script by Nic Pizzolatto earlier this year, and it’s unknown if he’s finished by now, or if he had a few more weeks of work to do. But that film is supposed to go into production later this month, so unless they are willing to go into production with yet another lackluster script, or Pizzolatto is willing to cross the picket line, Marvel is about to receive another major setback.
The WGA has already set their picketing plans for Tuesday in New York and Los Angeles, which you can check out here. This is going to be an evolving story and one upon whose shoulders the fate of the industry in 2024-2025 may lie. It could very well be the single most important entertainment story of the year. Late-night shows have already announced full stoppage, with networks expected to air re-runs during their respective time slots.
No date has been set for when the parties will sit at the table once again. In the meantime, here is some food for thought:
If these eight guys took 50% paycuts, that’s close to $400 million of the $600 million the WGA is asking for. https://t.co/xtk6fy9NzC
— Jeff Sneider (@TheInSneider) May 2, 2023
Miguel Fernández is a Spanish student that has movies as his second passion in life. His favorite movie of all time is The Lord of the Rings, but he is also a huge Star Wars fan. However, fantasy movies are not his only cup of tea, as authors like Scorsese, Fincher, Kubrick or Hitchcock have been an obsession for him since he started to understand the language of filmmaking. He is that guy who will watch a black and white movie, just because it is in black and white.
