Big Meeting Has Been Set in Hollywood Writers' Strike

For the first time since announcing a strike three months ago, the Writers Guild of America is set to enter talks with studios and streamers. The guild will meet Friday with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which requested the meeting "to discuss negotiations," according to a Tuesday statement from the WGA negotiating committee, per the Hollywood Reporter. "We'll be back in communication with you sometime after the meeting with further information," the committee said in a message to members. The AMPTP said: "We remain committed to finding a path to mutually beneficial deals with both unions," meaning WGA and SAG-AFTRA, a union of 160,000 performers which joined the Writers Guild in walking off the job last month.

The WGA wants to establish "a minimum staffing level for episodic writers rooms depending on the number of episodes produced" and "a minimum guarantee of 10 weeks of consecutive work for writers during the development process and at least three weeks per episode after the series is greenlighted," Variety reports. It's also calling for regulations on the use of AI in writing work. "The discussions are centered on creating committees to examine the issues," a source tells Deadline, which reports media companies are especially eager to reach a deal. If the strikes extend beyond Labor Day, there could be big disruptions in the release of TV shows and movies.

"We're hopeful that they're starting to perhaps see sense in engaging with these two unions on strike and that without us, they don't have any product and their pipeline is drying up," Michele Mulroney, VP of WGA West, tells Deadline. Variety reports WGA leadership is "under pressure to deliver on key priorities" following "weeks of tough rhetoric from striking writers." One dual striker, writer and producer Katie O'Brien, has found "sort of a full-time job" in helping to create and sell custom embroidered hats carrying slogans including "ChatGPT wrote thus," with proceeds going to provide essentials to those on picket lines, she tells the Hollywood Reporter. About $3,500 has been raised so far and demand is "continuing to grow," O'Brien says. (More Hollywood writers' strike stories.)