Writers and actors in Hollywood may be ready to head back to work. That’s according to CNBC reporter David Faber, who states that representatives of the Writers Guild of America (WGA) sat down with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) on Wednesday and they are “near agreement” on a deal.
Another meeting is scheduled for Thursday, according to a joint statement released by the WGA and AMPTP. Sources close to the talks told Faber that they’re optimistic Thursday’s session will lead to a deal, but if it doesn’t the strike that first began in May could continue through the end of 2023.
That strike has brought some of Hollywood’s biggest productions, like the final season of Netflix’s original series “Stranger Things” to a screeching halt. Streaming has a big role in the motivations behind the writers’ strike; one item writers have been fighting for is greater residual payments from streaming shows that can see billions of hours of playtime, but result in checks whose face value is lower than the cost of the paper they’re printed on in some cases.
Writers are also looking to create minimum staffing requirements for TV series through their entire production, and guardrails against the intrusion of artificial intelligence into their work. There was no word on how the potential deal that appears to be shaping up addresses these issues specifically, but this is as close to an agreement as the two sides have come at any point in the negotiations.
The Screen Actors Guild - American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) joined writers on the picket line in July, and while there was no word of progress in negotiations between that union and the AMPTP, its main concerns are similar to those of writers. That being the case, it seems likely that a deal between actors and studios would follow quickly after a resolution of the writers’ strike.
For some of the biggest production houses, the strikes have already begun to eat into their bottom line for 2023. Warner Bros. Discovery has estimated that it will have to shave $300 million to $500 million off its adjusted gross income for the year, and Sony has had to push back the release dates of several films including “Spider-Man: Beyond the SpiderVerse” thanks to the walkouts.
Studios have already had to make some major adjustments to their programming schedules as the fall TV schedule has begun with no new scripted series to put on the air. Disney has decided to shift 10 additional “Monday Night Football” games from ESPN to ABC, in a move that has made cable providers furious. CBS is now airing heavily-edited episodes of “Yellowstone” every Sunday night, and studios have been ramping up their productions of unscripted reality series in an attempt to at least have something to fill dead air.
Thursday could be a fateful day in Hollywood. A meeting between the WGA and AMPTP could end the writers’ strike, or it could ensure the strike goes on through the close of the year. Your favorite streaming series likely won’t be back for its originally-scheduled premiere date if the strike does end this week, but the countdown to its release can officially begin again.
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