Hollywood strike: Screenwriters will walk out for first time in 15 years.
Thousands of Hollywood TV and movie screenwriters will strike on Tuesday, after last minute talks with major studios over wages broke down.
A Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike, the first in 15 years, will see more than 9,000 writers – nearly 98% of voting members – walk out.
The strike becomes effective at 12:01am on Tuesday, the Guild said on Twitter.
It could affect Tuesday’s late-night shows, while forthcoming shows and films could face delays.
Picketing will begin on Tuesday afternoon, the Guild also said.
In 2007, writers went on strike for 100 days, at a cost of about $2bn.
This time around, writers are clashing with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers – which represents the major studios, including Disney and Netflix – in demand of higher pay and a greater share of the profits from the modern streaming boom.
How a Hollywood strike could affect your TV
In a Tweet on Sunday evening, the WGA said the decision was made after six weeks of negotiations produced a “wholly insufficient” response to “the existential crisis writers are facing”.
Key issues in the talks have been how writers get paid for shows which often remain on streaming platforms for years, as well as the future impact of artificial intelligence on writing.
For their part, the studios have collectively said they must cut costs due to financial pressures, while noting how the overall “residuals” payments to writers hit an all-time high of $494m in 2021.
On Sunday evening, the Deadline Hollywood outlet reported that production on late-night shows including The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel Live! and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon will all come to a halt.
Late Night host Seth Meyers expressed his support for the strike on the corrections segment of his show on Friday.
“I also feel very strongly that what the writers are asking for is not unreasonable,” Meyers said. “As a proud member of the Guild, I’m very grateful that there is an organisation that looks out for the best interests of writers.”
Stars of the TV series The Bear, including Jeremy Allen White.
Alex O’Keefe, writer on the comedy-drama series The Bear and a member of that union, told the BBC that half of all writers were paid the minimum by studios.
He said the creative output of his writing colleagues was better than ever, matching the demands of the streaming age, but writers are paid less than ever.
“And writers like me, especially young, black writers, indigenous writers, writers of colour have brought a whole new wave of creativity to the process.
“But we are finding ourselves unable to survive in places like New York City and Los Angeles, where we need to be to be in writers’ rooms.”
O’Keefe went on to note how while there are some writers who are “doing very well”, many writers, including showrunners on big shows, were not.
“I wouldn’t classify all writers as being poor or broke, but I can say myself I have $6 in my bank account,” he said.
He said that when he and his colleagues won best comedy series at the Writers Guild of America Awards, he went to the ceremony in a suit bought for him by his friends and family.
“The bowtie was bought on credit, I didn’t have any money, I had a negative bank account,” he explained.
When he worked on The Bear, he did so from his “tiny” Brooklyn apartment.
“My heat was out, I had a space heater, I plugged in the space heater, [and] sometimes all the lights would go out. I’d end up in the public library, writing this show that has now become a huge hit and made lots of money for some people… a couple of people.
“But not for the people who were the creators, who really poured their hearts and their souls into the characters and into the stories and the moments that you remember.
“So there is a huge underclass right now in Hollywood.”
The actors’ union SAG-AFTRA and the directors’ union DGA have voiced solidarity with striking writers.
Source: BBC News
Richard Koomson| mediacentralonline.info |Ghana
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