AMPTP Brings DC Crisis PR Firm On Board As Studios Seek To Reset Strike Messaging

Bill Maher is making a big decision amid the WGA strike and choosing to return to his late night talk show, Real Time with Bill Maher – without writers.

Angel Studios, the outfit behind one of summer’s biggest hits, Sound of Freedom, will release its next film and first original, The Shift, in theaters Dec. 1.

Michaela Zee Jessica Chastain is encouraging independent producers to sign interim agreements amid the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike. “If a majority of independent producers, come forward and sign the Interim Agreement deal it will show the AMPTP how wrong they are when they say our contract terms are unrealistic or unreasonable,” Chastain wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Sunday.

The AMPTP called the Writers Guild out Friday night after the guild released a statement saying that several of the legacy companies have privately expressed “both the desire and willingness to negotiate an agreement that adequately addresses writers’ issues.”

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers said Friday night that the studios remain aligned, and pushed the Writers Guild of America to respond to its latest offer. The AMPTP was responding to the WGA’s call earlier in the day for one or more of the member companies to break away from the alliance and negotiate a separate deal.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer The Writers Guild of America urged members Friday to stay strong, and argued that the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers will have to soften its hard-line stance in order to end the four-month strike. The WGA suggested that legacy studios that want a “fair deal” with writers will have to either assert their interests within the studio alliance, or break away from the “broken AMPTP model.” The union also revealed that in private conversations with legacy studio executives, some have expressed openness to accommodating the guild’s positions on various issues. But, the guild argued that the AMPTP as a group is trapped in a system that “favors inflexibility over compromise,” forcing all members to take a hard line.

Michaela Zee Chris Keyser, co-chair of the Writers Guild of America negotiating committee, has shared a special message over the Labor Day holiday. After acknowledging the WGA staff, who have “dedicated their working lives to the cause of writers and writing,” Keyser shared key points of the ongoing writers strike. “We all know the list by heart by now,” he said in the video message.

EXCLUSIVE: Amid growing speculation of internal divisions within the C-suites and a lack of any apparent path forward to end the writers and actors strikes, the chiefs of Hollywood’s biggest studios are set to gather today.

Chris Cope, who previously spent 12 years as a marketing executive for Raleigh Studios, has joined The Green Room as a talent manager. Cope has a long history of booking live entertainment for LA’s Sunset Marquis Hotel as well as several other marketing endeavors for studio initiatives during his decade with the company. Cope joins The Green Room as the company focuses on expansion while celebrating it 9th anniversary and in anticipation of the end of the SAG/WGA  Strikes.

SAG-AFTRA’s negotiating committee said Sunday it “remains ready at a moment’s notice to go back to the bargaining table to secure a righteous deal” to end the actors’ strike, which is now in its 46th day. “Unfortunately, as we’ve seen from the recent news out of the WGA negotiations, it appears the AMPTP is still unwilling to make the concessions necessary to make a fair deal that would bring the strikes to a close.”

Olivia Wilde is getting in a quick workout.

The Writers Guild said today that the AMPTP’s latest counteroffer for a new contract “is neither nothing, nor nearly enough.”

Just hours after the studios and streamers made public their latest “comprehensive package” towards a deal with the WGA, the guild has responded – and its seems the AMPTP and top CEOs may have strategically overplayed their hand.

WGA leaders met face-to-face with key CEOs on Tuesday evening as executives sought to pitch the guild on their most recent contract offer in the hopes of ending the nearly four-month-old strike. Late Tuesday, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers released details of the contract offer presented to the WGA on Aug. 11.

This just in, refresh for more.

Talks continued but no sign of a Friday afternoon breakthrough.

The Walt Disney Co. filed a counterclaim against the Ron DeSantis-appointed board of a special district that covers its Florida theme parks, seeking damages and the enforcement of a set of development contracts.

writers strike. The CEOs of the major studios — including Ted Sarandos of Netflix and David Zaslav of Warner Bros. Discovery — are also expected to hold a joint call on Friday to discuss the next move in the talks.

Fans of Miley Cyrus are going to be well fed next week.

EXCLUSIVE: Steven Spielberg is no stranger to close encounters of the third kind.