Studios allegedly delaying negotiations until WGA strikers desperate

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Hollywood executives are allegedly delaying talks with the Writers Guild of America until screenwriters are cash-strapped in order to hold sway over negotiations, insiders told Deadline.

“The endgame is to allow things to drag on until union members start losing their apartments and losing their houses,” a studio executive told the publication, with another source calling it a “cruel but necessary evil.”

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WGA went on strike on May 2 and has not met with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). Studios have no plans to meet with the WGA until the fall, another source, a top producer, told Deadline: “Not Halloween precisely, but late October, for sure, is the intention.”

AMPTP has since denied the allegations, telling Deadline “these anonymous people are not speaking on behalf of the AMPTP or member companies, who are committed to reaching a deal and getting our industry back to work.”

Some writers seem to believe the report is a negotiating tactic intended to create a rift within the WGA.

“They were planning for a three month strike — not Halloween,” writer Joe Russo wrote on Twitter. “They need projects up again or they’ll get killed after their quarterly earnings calls (at the) end of July.”

“After 70+ days with no writers to create their product for them, the pipeline is running dry. Their stock price isn’t tanking yet,” wrote writer David Slack. “If they don’t make a deal with us, it will.”

“What an inept attempt to scare WGA members into turning on each other,” wrote journalist Mark Harris.

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On July 13, the Screen Actors Guild, Hollywood’s actors union, voted to join screenwriters on the picket line. The two guilds have similar issues with studios and streaming services.

They are concerned about contracts keeping up with inflation and about residual payments, which compensate creators and actors for use of their material beyond the original airing, such as in reruns or on streaming services.

The unions also want to put up guardrails against the use of artificial intelligence mimicking their work on film and television.

According to Deadline, studios hope to bring actors to the negotiating table within a few weeks.

Additional reporting from Associated Press

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