Deadline’s Strike Talk Podcast Week 21: Reasons For Optimism Over Imminent WGA Deal & Renaissance Of Unions

Rasmus Holund believes his Manchester United teammate Marcus Rashford will get back to his best soon because he is 'world class'.

John Chau’s death in 2018 made headlines around the world: an evangelical young man killed on an island in the Andaman Sea inhabited by an isolated Indigenous group. Chau came to North Sentinel Island bearing a waterproof Bible and dreams of converting the North Sentinelese to Christianity, but his ill-fated mission ended in a hail of sharpened arrows. 

As the Hollywood strikes stretched to Week 23, optimism is high that a deal between signatories and SAG-AFTRA is close and the town can go back to work. That enthusiasm could be felt with all the deal stories that Deadline broke this week, a clear signal of hope.

Sean Penn, director of the new Ukraine war documentary Superpower, does not hold back in an in-depth interview for Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast.  

In the 22nd week of his Deadline podcast Strike Talk, Billy Ray sits with WGA Negotiating Committee co-chairs David Goodman and Chris Keyser to learn what happened inside the room during the negotiations and what gains were made in the deal struck Sunday with the AMPTP.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Netflix has been sued for breach of contract by a company that was creating a game based on the forthcoming “Rebel Moon” sci-fi films by Zack Snyder. In a lawsuit, Evil Genius Games said it had begun working with Netflix in early 2023 to develop a tabletop role-playing game based on “Rebel Moon” with a delivery date to coincide with the first film’s streaming release on Dec. 22, 2023.

Millions of gamers around the world rejoiced today, as Valve’s long-awaited Counter-Strike 2 officially debuted.

This is Day 76 of the SAG-AFTRA strike. 

There’s a crisis at the border: migrants stranded in desperate conditions, steel and barbed wire barriers thrown in their path. 

A major Manchester city centre railway station is set for an overhaul.

Big media shares, which rose in pre-market trading Monday, opened lower at the bell and are still trending down midday after the Writers Guild reached a tentative deal with studios to end their prolonged strike. Renewed market jitters over inflation, interest rates and a potential government shutdown appeared to have offset relief that Hollywood is back in business – or much closer to it.

With the WGA Strike almost over (the contract still has to be ratified and signed by members), fans are starting to think about just when late night talk shows could return.

The 2023-24 television season started without several of the most prominent daytime talk shows: the syndicated The Drew Barrymore Show, The Jennifer Hudson Show and The Kelly Clarkson Show and CBS’ The Talk. They are now expected to return for new seasons by the second week of October.

The Directors Guild, which closed what it described as a “historic” deal with the AMPTP in June, responded Sunday to the WGA’s deal with the AMPTP.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large As the WGA strike draws to a close, first stop on the road to normalcy will be late night — where producers are already plotting a return to air within the next two to three weeks. “We want to come back ASAP,” said one late night insider.

This is Day 143 of the WGA strike and Day 70 of the SAG-AFTRA strike.

In a rare joint appearance, the heads of the organizations behind the Oscars, Emmys, Tonys and Grammys expressed optimism about strike talk progress and also tackled the task of producing live events.

EXCLUSIVE: The Writers Guild and studios and streamers are set to meet again tomorrow for further talks on a new contract for scribes.

Just two days after Sherri Shepherd kicked off the second season of her syndicated daytime talk show The Sherri Shepherd Show, Shepherd has tested positive for Covid.

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…,” Charles Dickens wrote in A Tale of Two Cities. The same phrase could describe the state of the documentary industry.