A tentative agreement has been reached between unionised screenwriters and filmmakers, streaming platforms, and production businesses that employ them, signalling the potential conclusion of the SAG-AFTRA Hollywood strike that has lasted almost five months. Here are the next measures for authors and performers who are still on strike.
The Writers Guild of America and the group of Motion Picture and Television Producers agreed on a contract Sunday night that is valid for three years, the industry standard, following five days of arduous negotiations that included the CEOs of Hollywood’s top studios.
The strike is still ongoing. For it to end, a few more formalities need to be taken care of. The final contract’s language still needs to be agreed upon by the two parties, and then it must be approved by the WGA’s leadership and its 11,500 members. But before the strike ends, there must be two electoral victories. The boards must first approve the deal of the WGA’s eastern and western branches. The 11,500 members must then vote to approve the proposal.
Even while they often don’t occur after the conclusion of a protracted strike, such votes are actually rather common among Hollywood unions, occurring every time a new three-year contract is signed. Board members voted following the 2008 writers’ strike two days later, and members followed suit two days later. With more than 90% of writers supporting it, the pact was overwhelmingly ratified.
That does not imply that the vote will undoubtedly pass. But other authors with conflicting emotions could choose to vote yes out of an impulse to get back to writing.
On Wednesday, September 27, negotiations between Hollywood studios and the striking screenwriters are scheduled to begin in the most recent effort to terminate pickets that have halted film and television productions. Concerns over salary, the number of writing staff on shows, and the usage of artificial intelligence in the creation of screenplays have caused disagreements between the two sides.
But what about the revival of the shows and their writers?
Some authors will get back to work more quickly after the contract is authorised than others. The earliest late-night talk shows to be impacted when the strike started may also be among the first to resume airing now. Within the next few days, Jimmy Kimmel Live on ABC, The CBS Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and The Tonight Show Jimmy Fallon on NBC all might return.
Since the actors’ strike is still going on, several of the shows’ regular guests won’t be appearing. And as it was with the planned-then-cancelled resumptions of daytime programmes like “The Drew Barrymore Show” and “The Talk,” the reintroduction of the shows under that second strike would cause controversy.
While those working on scripts or last-minute changes for previously scheduled films, such as “Deadpool 3” and “Superman: Legacy,” will undoubtedly be hurrying to break open their laptops and avoid more release-date delays, film writers will also resume their work on their slower timeframe.
How long will the writer’s strike go on for?
Before even starting to negotiate with actors, the studios that constitute the AMPTP chose to complete a deal with writers who had gone on strike two months previously.
SAG-AFTRA leaders claim that since the start of their strike on July 14, they have not heard from the AMPTP. This will likely be altered now, and another round of negotiations will start, though it is unclear how long they will last. The AMPTP reached out to start talks three months into the writer’s strike, but after just a few days, the initial discussions fizzled. The studios called once more a month later, but this time, the agreement was done less quickly. Also check out the story as well.
