Varietyexamines
the state of Hollywood one year after the writers' strike and the conclusion is that times are tough. After the writers' strike the global recession hit. The perfect storm of events has left many screenwriters out of work or taking much lower salaries.
At the outset, the strike starved the major nets and some cablers of original scripted programming at the worst possible time for a disruption to primetime's status quo. Even top-tier shows -- think "CSI," "Grey's Anatomy," "House" and "Heroes" -- haven't recovered from the ratings hit they took after being MIA for most of the second half of last season. As any network skedding exec will tell you, when viewers break a given habit, even for just a few weeks, it's next to impossible to get them all back.
Nonetheless, WGA leaders and many members remain resolute that the sacrifices of the strike were well worth it. The hard-fought contract set a template for residual formulas in new media on which the guild hopes to build in future deals. Most importantly, from the WGA's perspective, the deal prevented a repeat of the reviled homevid compensation battle of the 1980s, in which scribe residuals were based on only 20% of revenues generated by vid sales.
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Most painfully for the town, the strike gave the congloms the force majeure cover to make deep, immediate cuts without fear of losing competitive advantage in the creative community or appearing as if they were retrenching. In the space of a few days in mid-January 2008, NBC Universal, Disney, News Corp., Time Warner and CBS Corp. wiped many millions of dollars in overall deals and other development obligations off their books.
In the year that has passed, series budgets have been hacked; ABC and CBS asked for cuts of 3%-10% from all scripted series even before the worst of the financial crisis hit last year. It's understood that several established drama series on the Big Three are under pressure to cut budgets by double digits or they will not be returning even though they deliver respectable ratings.
Now that there are fewer studios due to corporate mergers, budgets are even tighter than they ever have been. When the economy rebounds -- whenever that might be -- things will recover. But in the meantime, things are very tough for everyone but the biggest stars and producers.
The Screen Actors Guild talks are not going well. Just when we thought they could have things wrapped up, the talks fell apart again.
Hopes for a last-minute breakthrough in negotiations between Hollywood studios and the Screen Actors Guild were dashed Tuesday when contract talks ended on a bitter note, fueling anxiety over the prospect of another strike.
After three weeks of talks, studios walked away from the table, saying that negotiations were "thrust into reverse" by what they called "unreasonable demands."
SAG accused the studios of turning their backs on the guild to focus on contract talks with the smaller actors union, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.
"It's deeply troubling because we said we wanted to stay in the room and make a deal and our pleas were ignored," SAG President Alan Rosenberg said Tuesday night.
Actors are considering the studios' offer to resume talks May 28, about a month before their contract expires.
Although they made some headway in negotiations, the parties could not bridge significant differences over how much money actors would receive from shows streamed online, the types of Web programs that would be covered under the contract and the use of clips on the Internet without actors' consent. Studios also balked at SAG's demands for higher pay for guest stars and other performers and for improved DVD residuals.
This is not good. Many writers, producers and union workers are already feeling the pinch of a Hollywood slowdown that began during the writers' strike. If the actors go on strike, it's going to get very grim.
The Screen Actors Guild and the major producers are still negotiating
over a new contract: the current contract ends in June.
The Screen Actors Guild and the majors have completed four days of bargaining with vague indications of progress as both sides remained cordial -- despite the tough issues facing negotiators.
SAG and the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers issued a joint statement early Friday evening that said negotiations had concluded for the day and would resume Saturday.
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Both sides have stressed that their primary concerns have to do with paying actors for work performed or re-used in new-media platforms. And SAG president Alan Rosenberg has emphasized that the new deal must take into account the unique concerns of actors.
We're hopeful that the two actors' unions, SAG and AFTRA, will reach a deal and avoid a strike. The last thing anyone needs in Hollywood right now is another strike.
French writers have launched a new international script market to help gain exposure for their work.
The Union-Guilde des Scenaristes (UGS) has teamed up with the Ile de France Film Commission to launch the Script Market, a website aimed at selling French scripts to international producers, directors and actors. Project was unveiled before an audience comprised mostly of European and American producers during a breakfast at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Monday.
"We want to develop our talents and develop them with overseas producers in order to (make) films that are local stories rooted in France with an international appeal," said Jerome Soubeyrand, UGS co-president.
The website fits the commission's agenda to attract more overseas productions to shoot in France. The Gallic organization is also planning to team with the French Alliance Marseilles Provence to centralize its marketing strategy and coordinate shoots, since so many foreign productions are filmed in both regions.
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Luc Besson's project to build a full-service production facility in the Parisian suburb of Seine St. Denis is also expected to attract international productions.
The commission hopes their push to get the French government to offer foreign shoots bigger tax breaks will help them compete globally.
In other screenwriting news, the writer's strike is just about over. The members are voting today on whether to end the strike based on the deal reached between the WGA and the AMPTP. That means writers will probably be back to work on Wednesday. It also means that there will be some decent television on this fall.
The WGA writers strike could end as soon as Monday reports the Associated Press. Writers are gathering for meetings in Los Angeles and New York this weekend to consider a proposed contract.
Ordinary writers on the picket line at NBC Studios in Burbank talk about the writers' strike and how it is affecting them. They also have some strong opinions about the myth that all screenwriters are wealthy. Nothing could be further from the truth. Unfortunately, the talks aren't going very well.
Australian Writers Rally in Support of U.S. Writers
The Australian writers are rallying
in support of the U.S. writers' strike on Wednesday. The show of solidarity was organized by the Australian Writers Guild (AWG) and will take place in Sydney, Perth, Brisbane and Adelaide.
Other demonstrations are taking place on Wednesday in New Zealand, Canada, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Mexico and France, supporting the strike by the Writers Guild of America (WGA).
WGA members began their strike on November 5 over payment for work broadcast on new media platforms.
Writers want more money when TV shows and movies are sold on internet sites such as iTunes, or via mobile phones.
Wednesday's rallies in Australia coincide with re-opened contract negotiations in the US aimed at settling the dispute.
The executive director of the AWG, Jacqueline Woodman, said Australian scriptwriters shared the concerns of their US counterparts.
"The independent film and television industry in Australia needs to fight hard to preserve an Australian screen culture," Ms Woodman said in a statement.
"Standing up for the principle of sharing the massive profits of multinational media conglomerates with the people who create the products they profit from is an essential part of that."
Speakers at the Sydney rally, to be held at 4.30pm (AEDT) at Town Hall, will include Oscar-nominated screenwriter Jan Sardi (Shine, The Notebook), Craig Pearce (Strictly Ballroom, Romeo+Juliet, Moulin Rouge) and AFI-nominated writer Rick Kalowski (Comedy Inc, The Honourable Wally Norman).
The studios have been absolutely shocked at the outpouring of support for striking U.S. writers. The Internet has allowed the top comedy writers for such shows as The Daily Show, The Colbert Report and the David Letterman show to use their skills to illustrate the writers' points and to poke fun at the six giant corporations that control virtually all of U.S. media. The Australian writers' support is a wonderful show of solidarity which is much appreciated by the striking writers.
Actors are Speechless In Support Of Writers' Strike
Actors, directors and musicians have all pitched in to make videos in support of the writers' strike. In this short, Susan Sarandon and Chazz Palminteri show how difficult it is to do a dramatic scene without the benefit of screenwriters.
The writers are still on strike. The Daily Show is in reruns. And the writers of The Daily Show are really bored, walking in circles in a picket line. Which explains this hilarious short video by The Daily Show writers, featuring a cameo by John Oliver. The video explains the studios' position on why they can't afford to pay writers residuals for Internet use of their work.
More movies bit the dust, as studios have canceled the feature films Shantaram and Nine. The film version of Dan Brown's Angels and Demons has also been temporarily scuttled because of the writers' strike.
Warner Bros. called off a February production start on "Shantaram," the Mira Nair-directed adaptation of the Gregory David Roberts novel that was to star Johnny Depp.
The Weinstein Co., meanwhile, postponed "Nine," the Rob Marshall-directed musical that was slated to start production in March with Javier Bardem, Penelope Cruz, Sophia Loren and Marion Cotillard starring.
Delays were caused because the scripts weren't ready. Sony previously delayed the Ron Howard-directed "Angels & Demons," and United Artists halted the Oliver Stone-directed "Pinkville," citing the same reason.
In all four cases, the sponsoring studios decided they couldn't overcome logistical and script problems exacerbated by the Writers Guild strike that is preventing rewrites, along with the looming expirations of the Directors Guild and Screen Actors Guild contracts in June. Other films are struggling to avoid the same fate.
Depp, who is producing "Shantaram" with Graham King, planned to spend the winter in India, playing an Australian heroin addict who escapes a maximum-security prison, reinvents himself as a doctor in the slums of India and eventually uses gun-running and counterfeiting skills to fight against the invading Russian troops in Afghanistan. Abhishek Bachchan was also set to star.
The WGA and the AMPTP have agreed to start talks again on Monday, November 26th, so that's promising. But the parties are still very far apart on the crucial issues of payment to writers for new media.
You can find full coverage of the Writers' Strike (What's it all about? What's the current status of all my shows? Where can I find breaking news to read instead of working?) at our sister site WritersWrite.com's comprehensive Writers' Strike Section.
The L.A. Times reports that WGA officials have confirmed the the Writers' Strike is on. Details will be released tomorrow. The Timessays these are the hot issues for writers and for producers.
Writers want:
Residuals for shows and movies streamed over the Web and on cellphones.
A doubling of residual payments from home video sales.
Extension of guild pay and benefits to writers on reality TV programs.
Producers say:
DVD sales are needed to offset rising marketing and production costs.
It's too early to lock into pay formulas for online shows because technologies are changing rapidly.
No pay for streaming of TV shows on the Web because it is a form of promotion.
More background on the writers' strike can be found on The Writer's Blog's Writers' Strike section.
