With a Hollywood Writers Strike Looming, Heres What to Know

[Sedona]

Source: New York Times


MONICA ALMEIDA / THE NEW YORK TIMES
By BROOKS BARNES
APRIL 17, 2017
LOS ANGELES — The threat of a Hollywood strike is getting real.

On Wednesday, television and movie writers — roughly 12,000, all members of the Writers Guild of America — will begin voting on whether to authorize a walkout. The online vote will end on Monday. If members approve a strike, as they almost certainly will, and no pact with studios has been reached by May 1, fingers will stop typing and picketing will begin the next day.

A strike would have serious implications. When writers walked out a decade ago, the impasse cost the Los Angeles economy an estimated $2.5 billion. As production halted, income dried up not only for writers but also for set decorators, caterers, limo drivers and florists. Fans were not thrilled, either, as television schedules became a sea of reruns.

Longtime Hollywood power players — agents, studio executives, labor lawyers — put the chance at roughly 51 percent. But it changes by the day.

Tempers have cooled (a bit) over the past week, as negotiators for the Writers Guild and an organization that represents studios, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, have made progress on pay increases. But at least one radioactive issue remains unsettled: health care.

Read more: https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/04/17/business/media/with-a-hollywood-writers-strike-looming-heres-what-to-know.html

[mainer]

1. Writers are treated like dirt in Hollywood

The studios have exploited them forever. And Writers Guild is a studio enabler, giving away far too much.

[Javaman]

15. +1 nt

[TexasBushwhacker]

22. Yup, and if it's not on the page it's not on the stage

Carrie Fisher was an uncredited script doctor for many years, but she quit doing it because the studios were asking to "do us a favor" and punch up their dialogue FOR FREE.

Ultimately, strikes are always for the little guys. The writers making millions for their movie scripts will do fine, just like the actors who make big bucks. This is about the junior writers working on shows that don't get big ratings or limited run cable shows.

[hlthe2b]

2. the last strike heralded the disgusting rise of "reality tv"--which gave us Trump, among other

horrors. Quality scripted tv became a rare commodity thereafter--damned near disappeared outside premium cable.

Just pay the writers what they are deserving! Enough.

[FakeNoose]

5. Yes that's what I remember

To this day I refuse to watch any "reality" show - they're all garbage.
But the previous writer's strike is what enabled that development.
What horrible things will come from this strike? I shudder to even think about it.

Why can't the writers raise the cash and buy their own network?
If they're in charge then they can pay themselves decently. The rest can go to hell.

[DK504]

19. "Reality" shows are massive money makers for studios.

To bad they can't throw the studio heads out the windows. How many f-ing 'Transformer" movies do we need to see? Seven 'Fat & Furious' movies, 'Beauty and the Beat' Spiderman' so on and so forth.

I haven't seen an original thought from these leeches in 20 years.

[mainer]

20. Writers should do what Mary Pickford did

and start their own studio.

(Fed up with studio power, Pickford founded United Artists.)

Unfortunately, sociopaths always rise to the top and even companies that started with the best of intentions eventually get bought up by the sharks who own the larger, more powerful studios.

[christx30]

24. Heroes was going on during the last strike.

It's why Peter Patrelli's pretty Irish girlfriend is still in the horrific timeline to this day (RIP, pretty irish lady).
The strike basically killed a promising show, and turned it into nonsense. I didn't even watch the "season" that was released last year. It was garbage.

[Orrex]

3. THE WRITERS' STRIKE KILLED T:TSCC!

[genxlib]

6. Had to look up what you meant by that acronym

Man, my wife and I loved that show (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Cronicles)

Surprisingly well done sci-fi TV based on a classic movie series.

Worth a binge if anyone has not seen it.

[Orrex]

7. I enjoyed it and found it surprisingly credible despite mopey emo John Connor

More than a few misfires in the course of the series, but overall it was ambitious and entertaining.


Also, I like Summer Glau, but is it possible that she carries the Ted McKinley series-killing curse?

[genxlib]

8. Never thought about it

But she has been in several cult hits that came to an early demise.

The real surprise of that show was Brian Austin Green as Reese. I had very low expectations of him as a 90210/Melrose alum. But I thought he was great.

Spoiler alert





To this day, his onscreen death is one of the most shocking and memorable.

[Orrex]

9. Yes!

I never watched 90210, and I didn't have a strong opinion about him one way or the other before this series, but holy moley he was great! Better by far than the supermodel they hired to stand in for his brother Kyle in Terminator:Genisys.

[shenmue]

4. I remember the strike 30 years ago

It messed up a lot of shows.

[Baclava]

10. Fire them all and get new writers! Movie remakes is all they do, they suck! TV shows suck!

Can I say that here?

[Adrahil]

11. There is some amazing TV these days...

I recommend:
The Americans
Fargo
Better Call Saul
The Expanse


...those are just a few. Many more out there.

[Baclava]

12. OK - I confess - I watch The Americans, Mr Robot, The Expanse

None are network tee-vee - I stopped watching that decades ago

[christx30]

25. Also, Archer has amazing comic writing and

great voice work.

[Ilsa]

26. I think The Americans is on Netflux. I need to watch that.

Hubby and I love The Expanse.

[dixiegrrrrl]

27. Well, since you put The expanse in with the others, I will check it out

and also will raise you...Billions.
The Good Fight is another extraordinarily written series.

[mainer]

17. You do know that it's the studios that decide which movies get made

and if the studios think a re-make of "Gilligan's Island" will be profitable, that's what they'll order the writers to write.

I say fire the stupid producers and bean counters and put the writers in charge.

[Baclava]

18. OK - I'm in - Fire the producers!

Let the writers write!

[TexasBushwhacker]

23. The issue is the studios who make the decisions

There are probably plenty of movie scripts and TV shows that are pitched and turned down because the studio heads don't know how to market them. The edgier stuff is on cable or streamed. Independent studios still make edgier stuff.

But the big studios and TV networks are publicy traded companies. They don't just care about annual results. It's all about the quarter. Decent movies get shelved and released straight to DVD because the studio decides to spend their marketing budget elsewhere. That's a shame.

Studios will continue to produce action and comic book movies because they spell FRANCHISE and that spells profits.

[hatrack]

13. So, more "Reality TV" if the strike happens

[Equinox Moon]

14. Great opportunity for women to demand equal pay!

[mainer]

16. There's really no one defending the rights of writers in Hollywood

When Art Buchwald sued Paramount for stealing "Coming to America," (Buchwald won), the Writers Guild did NOTHING for him during the lawsuit. Buchwald later spoke about how worthless they were. They are so completely bought by the studios that they have become a studio mouthpiece.

And they held onto millions of dollars that should have been paid out to their members:

In 2005, he brought a class-action lawsuit against the Writers Guild of America, West, alleging the union was improperly holding on to money that belonged to writers. Guild officials disputed the allegation, citing the difficulty of tracking down recipients, many of whom are deceased. Similar cases were brought against other unions, including one filed by “Leave It to Beaver” star Ken Osmond against the Screen Actors Guild.

“They had all these millions of dollars sitting in the bank and gathering interest, and if nobody forced them to do something it wouldn’t have gotten done,” Osmond says. “They were high and mighty and he [Johnson] just knocked them down a peg.”

http://www.jjllplaw.com/2015/06/25/go-to-l-a-lawyer-says-hollywood-studios-are-shortchanging-his-clients/

[ileus]

21. In other news I'll be fishing with or without a strike.