A full day of fresh talks with studios took place yesterday (Wednesday), helping to raise hopes of an end to the WGA standoff that has disrupted film and TV production for nearly five months. Talks continue later today and the whole industry is watching closely.
The WGA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), which represents Walt Disney, Netflix and other media companies, held talks for the first time in about a month on Wednesday.
Early on Wednesday evening, the two sides issued a joint statement saying simply: “The WGA and AMPTP met for bargaining today and will meet again tomorrow.”
To help spark a deal, Wednesday’s meeting was attended by the Disney CEO Bob Iger, the Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos, Comcast’s NBCUniversal Studio group chairman Donna Langley and Warner Bros Discovery CEO David Zaslav, according to a source close to the studios.
People in the room described the session as “encouraging”, the source said, and the four executives were expected to return to the talks on Thursday.
CNBC, citing people close to the negotiations, said writers and producers were near an agreement and hoped to reach a deal on Thursday.
But if a deal is not reached the strike could last through the end of the year, CNBC reported.
The WGA went on strike in May after negotiations reached an impasse over compensation, minimum staffing of writers’ rooms and the role of artificial intelligence (AI), among other issues.
The SAG-AFTRA actors’ union called a work stoppage in July, putting Hollywood in the midst of two simultaneous strikes for the first time in 63 years. No talks are currently scheduled between the actors and the studios.
Image: Mario Tama/Getty Images (September 18th)
