Writers and Studios Restart “Encouraging” Talks to End WGA Strike With CEOs Involved, New Meeting Set for Thursday
As we moved past Day 140 of the 2023 WGA strike, the writers and studios have gone back to the bargaining table to try to hammer out a deal that will get everyone back to work as soon as possible. The meeting was announced last week, and it’s been regarded as a beacon of hope that an agreement will be made before the end of the year (on the flip side, if there is another fallout, it’s unlikely this will be wrapped up before 2024).
Deadline is reporting that the meeting started at 10am PT at the AMPTP’s Sherman Oaks offices, and, in an unexpected move, it included the CEOs of the four main studios: Bob Iger from Disney, David Zaslav from Warner Bros. Discovery, Ted Sarandos from Netflix, and Donna Langley from Universal. A studio insider told Deadline that there’s real momentum behind this meeting, which led the four moguls to get their hands dirty. Another source from the studios’ side told The Hollywood Reporter: “CEOs have cleared their calendars and want to sit and have a real conversation.”
Apparently, the WGA sent in a list of issues to the studios in order of importance, prior to the meeting, which led the AMPTP members to Zoom before Wednesday to present a united front. This is also in light of recent reporting that some companies had gone rogue and told the writers in private they would agree to most of their demands. Above the Line reporter Jeff Sneider said earlier this week on The Hot Mic podcast that he’d been told this was actually Netflix, who had gone behind the other studios’ backs and tried to cut a deal. The strategy is not entirely new to Netflix, a company that has its own contract with SAG-AFTRA that was renewed in 2022 and called by Fran Drescher “A darn good deal”.
Michael Pachter, entertainment analyst and managing director at Wedbush Securities, has also been arguing all summer this could be a viable angle, first on Matt Belloni’s podcast “The Town” and later talking to IndieWire via emails. The point is that Netflix can afford most of the demands the writers are asking for, mainly because it has so much business internationally, and the move could potentially force everyone else’s hand. However, the argument is a little more questionable when it comes to streaming data transparency, especially as they are one of the few companies that should be very much against that idea, so that Wall Street doesn’t find out how much money they are throwing down the toilet on programming nobody watches.
Cutting a deal under the table seems to be a move that companies like Amazon, Apple, and Sony could potentially explore. The first two are tech giants whose entertainment operations are but a rounding error, and they pride themselves in their relations with their creatives — how many overall deals does Apple sign every time they have a successful show? Even Sony, which thinks has won the Streaming Wars by not engaging in them, shouldn’t be interested in streaming data transparency or other similar issues.
As of the posting of this story, there are no exact details on what was discussed during the meeting, though an insider told Deadline that the talks were “encouraging”, with another source saying there was “incredible progress”. The fact that another bargaining session has been set for Thursday should be a good enough sign, but it remains to be seen whether an actual offer will be studied or if they are simply talking bullet points. Another promising sign is that both sides issued a joint statement coming out of the session: “The WGA and AMPTP met for bargaining today and will meet again tomorrow.” Not a lot, but it’s more about optics than actual content.
Of course, the meeting also happened after some internal disagreements inside the WGA, with top showrunners setting a meeting last Friday with the guild’s negotiating committee, led by Ellen Stutzman, though that was ultimately canceled in light of today’s session. This is something that still hasn’t been fully addressed — after reports of internal divisions at the AMPTP, studio heads met and agreed to hold a united front. But the WGA didn’t engage with those showrunners, who were apparently concerned that the guild wasn’t holding the writers’ best interests in mind when trying to put an end to the strike — this apparently turned into a yelling contest.
It’s a valid point on paper, as the guild’s leadership is intent on fighting every single issue they are arguing for, yet that’s not how negotiations work. Both sides will have to give up on something, and low-level writers will probably be satisfied they get to earn another paycheck and not lose their house at this point. After all, that’s the whole reason why Drew Barrymore and other daytime shows decided to go back to work — to make sure their staff got paid. Yet the guild believes that, while it was promising that the studios extended an offer on August 11 (their first since the WGA strike began on May 2), there were many loopholes on several issues, and it wasn’t enough.
The meeting also happened as more and more people have been calling for the involvement of political figures on both the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, including the mayor of LA, Karen Bass, and the Governor of California, Gavin Newsom. After all, this is no longer just about some writers asking for more money, or Tom Cruise asking for his voice not be replicated by a generative AI algorithm. The stoppage has had a severe impact on the LA economy, with thousands of jobs on the line and people at risk of losing their houses, caused indirectly by the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strike because there is no money coming in. Newsom did not join either side in the bargaining session on Wednesday but said in a recent interview on CNN that he’d talked to both sides recently and that they would be meeting again soon. Newsom is currently in New York for a global warming summit at the UN.
More information will certainly come to light in future days, so stay tuned.
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.
