https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/actors-writers-strike-gallup-poll-1235578339/

AMTP is cracking.

As the blowback intensifies from the disastrous August 22 meeting with Iger, Sarandos, Langley, Zaslav, the AMPTP’s Lombardini and WGA negotiators, and subsequent release of the studios’ latest proposal, there are no new talks set with the guild. Add to that the WGA rejection the deal and on August 24 calling it “neither nothing, nor nearly enough,” mistrust between the parties is at an all-time high, we hear. That translates into the WGA and the AMPTP being nowhere near a deal to end the 121-day scribes strike — not to mention the SAG-AFRTA strike, which is in Day 48.

The AMPTP said it is waiting the official response from the WGA to the August 11 offer. The guild says it made a counter on August 15 and that the ball is in the studios and streamers’ court.

All of which means, newly hired crisis PR firm the Levinson Group might find that its principal task right out the gate is handling the tension between studio CEOs as the writers strike goes deep into its fourth month.

“Before some wanted to blame Carol, accused her of being stuck using a pre-streaming playbook,” an individual familiar with the divisions among the studio and streamers bosses. “Now that have only themselves to blame for how bad things look. That’s why they brought in the Levinson Group, and that’s why they are squabbling.”

According to several sources, for instance, it was streaming kingpin Sarandos who lectured WGA leaders at that gathering last week about why they had to take the AMPTP’s latest offer. Others say that, while Sarandos certainly wasn’t pliant, it was Iger who was “the loudest voice in the room” with the other CEOs and the WGA brass on August 22. “That approach spectacularly flamed out, and then they made it worse by putting their offer out in public the same night,” one industry vet states of the outcome of the studio bosses’ browbeating meeting with guild leaders and the attempt to go around the WGA negotiating committee directly to members.

In particular, “thin skinned” Iger and Zaslav are “stunned,” according to one insider, that they have been so vilified by the guild and its members over the past several months. “Almost everyone is looking for someone to blame,” another insider says of the backbiting among the core CEOs. “They’re paralyzed, even as the clock is ticking, and it’s Ted’s fault, Iger’s fault, even Tony Vinciquerra’s fault, depending on who you ask,” the source added, name-checking the Netflix co-CEO, the Disney CEO and the Sony Pictures chair and CEO. “It’s not helping the situation, or anyone.”

Following a weekend where a number of top tier showrunners were contacted by agents unsuccessfully urging them to support the latest AMPTP proposal, today’s get-together is in part to ensure that CEOs don’t stumble into a position where they’re negotiating against themselves. While there have been reports out there that Netflix could be willing to bend toward the WGA on a number of points, others say that Hollywood’s top brass are on the same page when it comes to their approach with the guilds.

Additionally, the fear for some major studio leaders is that if even if there is a deal in the coming weeks and production resumes on movies in the new year, a dry spell in the theatrical release calendar will exist, much in the way it did last year between August and October due to the post-production logjam created by Covid. Some movies on the near horizon for Q4 and Q1 are in need of ADR and, if the strikes continue, could get pushed. For Hollywood’s top leaders, the longer the strikes go on, less product in both film and TV is apt to be made in the next calendar year. Less product means fewer jobs. 

“These guys are worried about what comes next, after the strike,” another well-placed source states. “Remember, they’re competitors, they’re always thinking about how to best each other. The strikes don’t change that.”

Barry Diller, a former studio executive, has been making the interview/podcast rounds. He thinks that the studios need to cut the streamers out of the negotiations and cut deals with the unions. He has other thoughts about the possibility of things to become catastrophic for the studios if they continue on this path.

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/08/31/barry-diller-hollywood-strikes-netflix.html

 

4 hours ago, DramatistDreamer said:

Barry Diller, a former studio executive, has been making the interview/podcast rounds. He thinks that the studios need to cut the streamers out of the negotiations and cut deals with the unions. He has other thoughts about the possibility of things to become catastrophic for the studios if they continue on this path.

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/08/31/barry-diller-hollywood-strikes-netflix.html

He made some valid points - they have chased the streamers and in the long run lost.

11 hours ago, DRW50 said:

He made some valid points - they have chased the streamers and in the long run lost.

He did indeed make some valid points.
As for the studios, it seems like they took an “if you can’t beat them..,then join them”, mentality. It was a fool’s errand, because the studios obviously operate and are structured differently from the streaming industry—they also have different business models. The studios should have tried to hire some people who have insight as to the direction of the technology industry and how it was poised to evolve and intersect with the film and television industries, to gauge if they can prepare and adapt to how their industries might be affected. But they were so rooted in their ossified vision of the industry and how it should function that they failed to see oncoming trends (A.I., for instance, the popularity shorter seasons brought about by orders of fewer episodes). But their greed took over and they looked to get what people on the street refer to as “that short money” aka, fast cash.

Another mistake that the studio bosses made was not building solidarity with the directors, writers and actors through their unions. From previous strikes, I know the relationship between them has been strained, if not combative but the possibility of catastrophic consequences to their industry should have been enough to build some sort of solidarity, even temporarily. The studios bosses are so used to bullying the talent that I guess, they could not conceive of a scenario in which they would have to work with the talent as equals, even if that meant saving and improving the foundation on which their entire entertainment ecosystem stands.

Such a shame that greed and short term thinking should persist this way.

 

4 hours ago, dragonflies said:

 

If these interim agreements work...then it will make the streaming services and studios realize that what each union wants will be.of a benefit to all.

This headline reads as a puff piece, but it's not that IMO. A decent read:

 

Edited September 1, 20232 yr by Vee

Impressive: Swift apparently went to the studios, was offered a bad deal like the Guilds, then promptly cut them out of the equation and went to AMC directly. Relevant because Swift again has her finger on the pulse of the moment, and it reflects even worse on the studios.

 

^^Good for Swift, who has proven to be a savvy businesswoman. In addition to her obvious celebrity, her main medium is the stage, not the screen, so presumably she would have so much more bargaining power than the hundreds of writers and acting extras whose names people don’t know, who are regarded as nonentities in their industry. Even the best known screenwriter is going to have less leverage and clout than Swift.

Yeah this strike isn't ending anytime soon

 

 

There's also been even more of an uptick in posts on places like Deadline framing the unions as out of control and selfish and starving the working man, no one in the public cares about their fight, and the latest, that other countries will just pick up all the slack and nothing will be made in the US again. I think they've decided they can just wait out the year and starve everyone out (as they said they would do months ago). I wish I could believe it won't work.

I think this may be longer than any before. 

Some people figured it would go on through September..sounds like they were right.

I'm curious what was in the counter offer provided by the union.