well i doubt scabs can do worse than what we got...

what were the scaps storylines last time they wrote? did they actually do anything or was it all fluff.

Some major things were done--one of OLTL's goofiest stories--the wild West, Clint is in a paralel universe 200 years back story was always intended ot be sorta a dream--or at least left open to that interpretation but under the scabs VIcki traveled thru time to save him, etc. On AMC I know HJesse was killed by the scabs though I think that was the actors decision and apparantly the writing for his dieing scenes was pretty touching...

i do know there are other horror stories tho of soap plots going really odd

No Writer's Block in Hollywood

from Hollywood Reporter

There is no such thing as writer's block in Hollywood this week. Given the WGA contract deadline of midnight Wednesday, scripters are feverishly putting finishing touches on their projects and having them biked or messenger-pouched over to the studios.

One sigh of relief went up over at Sony late last week: Paul Haggis delivered his draft for the 22nd Bond installment to Columbia execs.

For many other projects, scripts are pouring in, getting a quick read and notes before being rushed back to the writers -- all in the hope of having the most advanced draft possible in order to beat the witching hour deadline.

"I'm getting drafts in, and I'm flipping them around like crazy," said an exec located over the Hollywood hill.

Fox's "X-Men Origins: Wolverine," which is being penned by James Vanderbilt ("Zodiac"), and "The Fast and the Furious 4" by Chris Morgan are among dozens of scripts that are being flipped, a process that actually is uniting execs and scribes in one goal: to get a script that is filmable.

"Normally, you'd give notes and they go off and they write, take their time, do some things in the notes and not others," another studio exec said. "Everyone is playing for the same team now. That way, we have our best shot at making a movie."

Brian Helgeland has been putting pen to paper for the Scott brothers, submitting "Nottingham," Universal's retelling of the Robin Hood story with Russell Crowe attached, for Ridley Scott's approval Monday; Helgeland is also under the gun to deliver Tuesday "The Taking of Pelham One Two Three," with Denzel Washington and John Travolta attached, to Tony Scott and Columbia.

Some writers are turning in multiple drafts of the same script with variations in scenes and endings in order to cover a project's potential demands.

Paramount in fact has asked for three different scripts from three different writers for "G.I. Joe," and will perhaps combine the best parts from each one. Those involved in the novel tri-partite draft effort are Stuart Beattie ("30 Days of Night"), John Lee Hancock ("The Alamo") and the writing team of Brian Koppelman and David Levien ("The Winter of Frankie Machine").

Some projects may turn to their acting talent to step in and do minor touch-up jobs.

New Line's Vince Vaughn-headlined "Four Christmases," which is still being worked on, could enlist the fingers of Vaughn, who has been known to work on his scripts and is not a member of the WGA. Disney's "Bedtime Stories," which has Adam Sandler on board to star, can't rely on that actor, even though he often writes his own movies: Sandler is a member of the WGA East.

And while the writers write, many execs are hunkering down.

"I'm canceling lunches and meetings, and all I'm doing is reading scripts," said one exec. "It's kind of exciting."

As for the TV biz, the programming schedules of broadcast networks would be hugely disrupted were a strike to be called soon.

A prolonged stoppage would lead to abbreviated 10-episode seasons of scripted series, forcing the networks to fill primetime with repeats, unscripted fare and occasional acquisitions. Already, webheads are prepping their alternatives: NBC, for example, is considering running the original British production of "The Office" as strike-replacement programming.

While fall series have already started their seasons, midseason shows have the option to air a short season or not.

Indications are that both Fox and ABC are sticking to their original plan to launch "24" and "Lost" in January and February, respectively. Fox's "24," which started production late and was affected by the recent wildfires, is working on episodes seven and eight, one-third of its 24-episode season. "Lost" has almost reached the 10-episode mark, closer to the show's 16-episode season order.

A strike in November would also hurt the networks' development for fall 2008. Only 30% to 50% of all commissioned scripts -- normally due by year's end -- have been turned in to date. So in the event of a stoppage, network execs will have to make their pilot picks from a smaller pool, and hundreds of writers who couldn't finish their scripts on time won't be paid or will be paid only a fraction for their efforts.

A strike longer than six to eight weeks also would trigger the force majeure clause in TV writers' deals, giving studios free rein to drop expensive contracts.

By contrast, a writers strike called in January would have a lesser effect on the networks, triggering 18-episode seasons of the existing series instead of the usual 22 installments.

Nellie Andreeva contributed to this report.

Edited October 30, 200718 yr by Sylph

Tick-tock-tick-tock.

Tick-tock-tick-tock.

indeed.

The tone of every soaps forum could be quite different at this time tomorrow.

So what's this I hear about a one week delay?

Anybody who seriously wants a future in professional writing for an entertainment medium (myself included) would not seriously consider going 'scab' for the soaps, as much as I'd love to write for one. It's career suicide, sorry.

Anybody who seriously wants a future in professional writing for an entertainment medium (myself included) would not seriously consider going 'scab' for the soaps, as much as I'd love to write for one. It's career suicide, sorry.

No doubt. From a purely selfish perspective as a viewer my knee-jerk reaction is to hope for talented scabs just to keep the genre on life support. But yeah, what happens if a few true talents emerge? We'd never hear from them again once the strike is over.

«Heartbreaking'» and «an interruption of hope»is how a possible strike is characterized

By Jay A. Fernandez

Special to The Times

October 31, 2007

What makes a writer distinctive is his or her voice. Beyond all the claims and counterclaims, policy arguments and negotiation strategies, it's important to remember that a writers strike would severely affect the lives, careers and dreams of a great number of aspiring and struggling writers -- a tiny portion of whom will ever fit any kind of A-list profile. With the guild's contract set to expire tonight at midnight, here are some of those personal voices -- worried but resolute.

Bruce Joel Rubin, 64, has been a WGA member since the early '80s and won a best original screenplay Oscar in 1991 for "Ghost." He has two sons, 35 and 27, who are also writers, one a guild member and one trying to attain membership.

"I went through the '88 strike, and that colors any writer at all who's in the business, because that strike was so painful. And the pain of it is lasting. Every time another potential strike happens, all of that stuff rears its head. And we're all brought back to that unbelievably deep frustration that has plagued many of us for our whole career.

"I watch it from my own perspective, and, of course, I can ride out a strike, and will. [My sons are] both doing well, but the younger one, his career is on very solid footing. And this will be very, very challenging to him financially and challenging to him in terms of momentum. His foot is very much in the door, and hopefully at the end of the strike that will all still be in place. I think that really is significant, that this strike does not in effect knock him out of the game. That's a concern only because nobody knows what the lay of the land will be when this is over.

"The world is changing so fast; it's changing in terms of the media itself. Everything is changing, and a strike always has the unexpected aspect: You don't know where you'll be standing when it's over.

"For me, it's not just my children, because all the young guys in the guild are in a sense -- it's a corny way to put it -- but my children. And it's really, really hard for me to see that kind of potential suffering, and to see careers that must happen, that need to happen, that should happen, not happen.

"Writing is a funny brotherhood because, you know, when I first became a writer in Hollywood I didn't know any other writer until the strike. It's on the picket line where you meet other writers, and the brotherhood really established itself. It was really powerful for me..."

Nathan Skulnik, 34, graduated from the American Film Institute in 2000, worked for two years in the Disney writing program and has been struggling to break through ever since. A Writers Guild member since 2001, Skulnik has spent four years trying to get a feature screenplay called "The Lion Man" made. In the last two months, the script has gained momentum, helping him to secure meetings for potential jobs.

"It's like the warmest response I've ever gotten. Everyone's like, 'We would love you to do this, and we have this and this, but we're not hiring anybody because the strike might happen.' I get it. I know there are really important issues at stake, and I do believe that if there's revenue to be shared, it should be shared. But by the same token, it is completely, as I'm getting started, just like dropping a brick in the middle of my career.

"I think of it like a wave. You gotta ride that wave. When I came out of the Disney thing . . . I didn't have the thing that kept that wave going. And that wave crashed. I'm confident that [the strike] is not going to kill ['The Lion Man']. But this is the same exact thing. You just feel yourself starting to paddle back in and you catch yourself starting to ride the wave, and all of a sudden it's like the beaches are closed and they're telling me, 'You can't go in the water anymore.' I can think of at least five jobs that people were like, 'We would love for you to do this, [but ] we're just not going to hire anybody.' Five. Jobs."

Edmond Stevens, 60, has been a WGA member for 30 years and has survived three strikes but hasn't worked actively as a TV and screen writer for four years. He now specializes in documentary "projects for the public good," including a film about the 2003-04 grocery labor dispute.

"A large part of our membership is not working, and a percentage of the writing community are trying to get in. The biggest thing that a strike represents is an interruption of hope.

"I've been really, really lucky. I've worked almost steadily. Even if you're not a member of the guild and you're hoping to get in, if there's a strike, there are no buyers. So it really does radiate out to affect everybody -- the dues-paying members and all the people who want to get in. To some degree, at least on an emotional level, it's every bit as heartbreaking.

"Just because I'm not making a living as a screenwriter or television writer right now, I have the prospect of it. I still have an agent who's sending out material. We're still all invested in the community of screen and TV writing. And we all understand that we're a living legacy of the guys who a long time ago first pulled together as a union. I still have health coverage. That means a great deal to me. And I owe that to a couple other strikes that happened before I was a member."

Pursuing the craft amid the anxiety

With perverse timing that played like the Griswolds showing up to Wallyworld only to find it closed, this last weekend Creative Screenwriting magazine presented Screenwriting Expo 6.

Four days of seminars and pitch events spread between the Marriott and the Renaissance hotels near LAX were punctuated by Q&As with screenwriting luminaries such as Steven Zaillian ("Schindler's List"), Scott Frank ("The Lookout") and Stuart Beattie ("Collateral"). But the enthusiasm was dampened somewhat by the sobering reality of what the screenwriting life has lately become.

"I don't know if it's going to do me any good considering the writers strike coming up, but I did a couple of pitches," said Lakewood resident Diane Rothery, who after a 13-year hiatus to raise kids has returned to the ambition that once led her to pen more than a dozen original scripts. But, she adds, "if you're a writer and it's really what you want to do, you're going to write no matter what."

The conference rooms were filled with aspiring scribes bent over notebooks, scribbling, hoping to synthesize all the nuggets of wisdom from more than a hundred of the country's screenwriting gurus. People of all ages -- and when I say "all ages," I mean that at least one table of attendees at lunch Sunday looked as if they were brainstorming another "Cocoon" sequel -- had their laptops open, rewriting dialogue, tweaking treatments.

"I find it very moving, all these young people who want to be screenwriters coming from all over the country," says two-time Oscar winner and regular special guest William Goldman ("Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," "All the President's Men"). "When I started [in the '60s], the idea of being a screenwriter was inconceivable."

Later interviewed by Frank in front of a 300-strong crowd, Goldman, originally a novelist who didn't see a screenplay until he was 33, said: "What we [writers] do is feel failed all day long. Because we all know that what's in our head is dazzling and what's on the page sucks. You're all crazy to be here."

Thus, the screenwriting paradox in a nutshell.

And finally, a vision of the future: www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7vHxw6El0E.

If the strike does happen, don't be surprised if your next few waiters are unusually articulate and pretentious.

Edited October 31, 200718 yr by Sylph

Okay. This article from Variety mentions the possible delay.

http://www.variety.com/article/VR111797506...d=2821&cs=1

WGA may delay strike

Guild leaders could hold off until next week

By DAVE MCNARYAs might be expected from showbiz writers, the WGA is probably going to push back its deadline.

The emerging consensus is that WGA leaders won't start a strike until next week at the earliest -- even though the town's been fretting in recent days that scribes could walk out at 12:01 a.m. Thursday, when the current contract expires.

Both sides resumed negotiations Tuesday after a three-day break, as the town became utterly enveloped by fears of a strike hitting as early as this week. Talks recessed in the early evening and will resume Wednesday morning, with WGA set to present a new comprehensive proposal.

The town's strike fears have been fanned by a variety of troubling signals -- continued combative rhetoric from both sides, lack of progress at the bargaining table, battles over guild strike rules, the Teamsters' pledge not to cross picket lines and strike preparations by the WGA.

Additionally, companies are crying "foul" over a new flyer distributed by writers, claiming an eleventh hour rollback in pension and health fund contributions was submitted by studios. In fact, the studios and networks withdrew their major rollback proposal on residuals two weeks ago.

And the WGA's rhetoric has aroused animosity from other guilds, who point out the WGA has negotiated in an atmosphere of isolation. There has been zero contact with the DGA in recent weeks, insiders point out.

The WGA has given several recent indications it's ready to strike -- staging leafleting outside studios Tuesday morning, setting a membership meeting Thursday night and telling strike captains to be ready to picket Friday morning. But waiting a week to 10 days to go on strike has several advantages for the WGA:

During that period, the WGA's leverage at the bargaining table will be at its maximum since there will be an actual strike threat when negotiations take place.

Holding off on striking immediately will be good for the WGA's public image. The guild will seem somewhat reasonable, rather than rash, especially with federal mediator Juan Carlos Gonzalez having just joined the talks Tuesday.

More than one option(Person) Juan Carlos Ballesteros

(Person) Juan Carlos

Editor, Actor, Hair Stylist

(Person) Juan Carlos

Editor

A delay will give writers, many of whom have been scrambling to wrap up projects by today's deadline, badly needed extra time to put finishing touches on feature and TV scripts.

Jonathan Handel, a former WGA counsel who's an entertainment attorney at the TroyGould law firm, believes striking right away -- either on Thursday or Friday -- would be a PR disaster for the WGA.

"It's necessary for the guild to appear that it's operating in good faith at negotiations," he said. "If they were to strike in the next three days, the mediator would read them the riot act. A high-profile labor negotiation is a lot like a high-profile lawsuit in that a lot of it gets played out in the public arena."

Both sides have blasted each other for the lack of discernible progress during three months of negotiations. The WGA's accused the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers of resorting to scare tactics and coming to the table with 72 rollbacks; AMPTP president Nick Counter has contended the guild's leaders are stonewalling, strike-happy and unwilling to recognize the impact of new media.

"We will not agree to any proposals that impose unreasonable restrictions and unjustified costs," Counter said Tuesday. "We will not ignore the challenges of today's economic realities, the shifts in audience taste and viewing habits and the unpredictability of still-evolving technology."

Veteran showbiz labor attorney Norman Samnick of Bryan Cave believes the WGA won't get serious about negotiating until Thursday -- when it has an actual strike threat.

"It feels like the WGA's just going through the motions," Samnick added. "I've been dealing with them since 1973, and this is the first time that they have not bargained."

Labor attorney Ivy Kagan Bierman of Loeb & Loeb said Gonzalez can move both sides past posturing. "He can get them to stop talking in broad generalities and rhetoric," she said.

Samnick contended the presence of Gonzalez is a plus in terms of giving both sides the ability to assert they made every effort to reach a deal. "Having a mediator is very useful in terms of explaining to your constituency that you didn't cave in," he added.

As for what's at stake at the negotiating table, a significant number of issues offer daunting challenges -- particularly since much of the time's been devoted to presentation of the proposals rather than actual negotiation.

The key issues:

Homevideo residuals. The WGA's seeking a doubling of the base rate for calculating payouts, from 20% to 40%; the AMPTP's resisting. Handel believes the WGA's put so much stock in this issue that it will achieve an increase to 25% or 30%; Samnick predicts the companies won't give in, since the increase would have to be included in the new pacts for the DGA, SAG and IATSE.

New-media residuals. The WGA's seeking 2.5% of receipts, while the AMPTP wants to expand the definition of Internet residuals, which are currently set at 1.2% for limited use, with the homevid formula for permanent use. "I think this may be the single toughest issue to resolve," Bierman said.

Made for new media. The WGA's seeking jurisdiction, with TV minimums applying -- pro-rated in one-minute increments with a two-minute floor -- with residuals paid for even the first use. The AMPTP's asking for the status quo, which includes pension and health contributions.

Promotional use. The WGA's asking for residuals on any use of streaming video; the AMPTP's put up especially strong resistance, asserting promotional use of its property is essential to keeping the biz healthy and for maintaining TV audiences.

Reality TV. The WGA's asking for coverage of reality, and the AMPTP's resisting. The WGA has insisted that this remains a key issue, but its strike rules don't bar members from working in reality. "The Guild has signaled it will not press this issue," Handel said. "I think reality is dead as a matter of WGA jurisdiction."

The CW. The WGA's seeking network minimums and residuals for the CW, while the AMPTP wants to keep the current lower rates. Handel believes little increase is likely, though some kind of intermediate rates -- much like the gradual rate increases granted for work done for Fox in the 1990s -- could be imposed.

Term of the agreement. The WGA is seeking three years, and the AMPTP wants four. Handel believes it will be a three-year deal to keep the WGA expiration aligned with the DGA and SAG deals -- both which expire June 30.

Why is WGA seeking residuals for Reality Show Writers? Isn't the point of the show that its supposed to be REAL?! Unless WGA is aligning with them to make sure that the networks don't overdominate TV with reality after the new deal.

Anybody who seriously wants a future in professional writing for an entertainment medium (myself included) would not seriously consider going 'scab' for the soaps, as much as I'd love to write for one. It's career suicide, sorry.

Wasn't Donna Swajeski(ex-HW of AW) discovered as a result of the '88 Writer's Strike? They kept her after that too, I believe.

Anybody who seriously wants a future in professional writing for an entertainment medium (myself included) would not seriously consider going 'scab' for the soaps, as much as I'd love to write for one. It's career suicide, sorry.

You mean, it'll be possible to have a career in the genre after 2008?

Soaps could make a comeback. Look at Game Shows!

Soaps could make a comeback. Look at Game Shows!

In my opinion, it's like bell bottoms and afros....styles change all the time. Just wait awhile and they'll be back in style again.