Hollywood is heading for a possible shutdown. The Writers Guild of America and The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers are still in talks to get a new contract inked before midnight, or they could go on strike as early as 12:01 a.m. Tuesday.
Negotiations were taking place at the AMPTP headquarters in Sherman Oaks. They have less than six hours to make a deal, and it could come down to the final hour before any decision is made.
The WGA has already messaged their members telling them to prepare for a strike.
Even letting them know the locations for the potential picket lines.
Writers are demanding to be fairly compensated for their work and above all economic stability.
“These are still tremendously profitable businesses, and we want to share in them since we’re the original creators of them,” said Zack Stentz, writer and producer.
Stentz, whose work includes the films “X-Men: First Class” and “Thor,” says members are pushing for streaming to pay at a rate that is closer to what broadcast and cable pay to protect writers who work for the shorter streaming shows.
“Streaming by and large pays at a much lower rate than broadcast and cable reruns use to work or even films being sold to TV, so checks you use to get worth thousands of dollars are now worth hundreds of dollars and it makes it harder to earn a living,” Stentz said.
Stentz has been in the WGA for 22 years, and remembers the last strike in 2007 that lasted 100 days. That caused a $2.5 billion economic loss. He’s hopeful they can avoid a strike as long as the WGA members needs are met.
“A lot of these people on the other side are our friends. In some cases they are married to each other. I know writers married to executives. We all want to be in business together, we just want a deal to be made to keep making a stable living that makes movies and shows that make billion of dollars for these companies,” Stentz said.
Among their demands, the WGA is asking for an increase in streaming residuals, royalties for when shows re-air and standardized compensation for all content whether in theatres or streaming platforms.
The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers which represents the studios, issued a statement saying in part:
“We are all partners in charting the future of our business together and we are fully committed to reaching a mutually-beneficial deal.”
If a strike happens, the first shows that will go dark will be late night talk shows and daytime soap operas. If this continues it could eventually delay the release of scripted shows and movies.
Source: NBC Los Angeles
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