Studio CEOs Set To Meet Today Amid Internal Tensions; No End To Strikes In Sight

Peter Oillataguerre has been appointed to the new role of Head of Feature Film Production at Amazon MGM Studios, studio head Jennifer Salke announced to staffers via email on Friday.

Angelique Jackson Veteran executive Peter Oillataguerre is returning to Amazon MGM Studios in the newly created role of head of feature film production. Studio chief Jennifer Salke announced Oillataguerre’s hiring in a memo to staff on Friday. “With more than 20 years of industry experience, Peter is a seasoned executive with considerable expertise in the world of production,” Salke wrote.

Broadcasting union Bectu has waded into the U.S. labor dispute with an open letter to the AMPTP, urging it to financially support UK crew who are “suffering hardship” and to “resume negotiations” with the WGA and SAG-AFTRA.

Warner Bros. Discovery CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels echoed recent sentiments from Netflix and other major TV and film producers, saying the industry must resolve the ongoing strikes and “get back to work.”

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor The two Hollywood strikes that have ground TV and film productions to a standstill are bad for business — and Warner Bros. Discovery is working diligently to resolve them as quickly as possible, according to CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels. “It’s an unfortunate situation… We have to get back to work,” Wiedenfels said, speaking Thursday at the Bank of America Media, Communications and Entertainment Conference.

Meryl Streep and Amanda Seyfried are open to starring in Mamma Mia 3 and they recently opened up about what it would take for the film to become a reality.

EXCLUSIVE: Fran Drescher is less concerned with meeting of several showrunners with WGA leadership this week and more concerned with studios and streamers getting back to the bargaining table to make a fair deal.

When it comes to Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts franchise filmmaker David Yates returning to the Max TV series, he tells Deadline, “Never say never.”

Welcome to the 19th installment of Deadline’s Strike Talk podcast. It is a task Oscar-nominated filmmaker Billy Ray took on at the beginning of the Writers Guild strike against AMPTP, and who knew he would be engaged in it longer than it would have taken him to shoot a picture.

EXCLUSIVE: The writers have turned up to the theme parks.

Lee” to the Michael Keaton-directed thriller “Knox Goes Away”) given the uncertainty about what has been agreed to. Still, buyers seem impressed with what’s available to purchase.

David Zaslav said today that Warner Bros. Discovery had anticipated putting Hollywood strikes in the rear-view mirror this month, but with no end in sight, “We are really going to fight to get this resolved.”  

“I don’t know that much in particular about this dispute, but it feels like this is a moment,” said Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav about the current showdown between big cable provider Charter and the Disney.

In her first major hire since being named Chairman of NBCUniversal Studio Group and Chief Content Officer, Donna Langley has named Liz Jenkins as her Chief Business Officer. Langely has also formed a new studio leadership group and added Peter Levinsohn and Jimmy Horowitz to cabinet positions.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer Entertainment executive Liz Jenkins has been named to the newly created role of chief business officer for the NBCUniversal Studio Group. The former COO of Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine joins the company with an expansive title to oversee strategy and business operations, reporting to studio chairman and NBCU Chief Content Officer Donna Langley. “Liz has established herself as an industry leader with a deep understanding of the complexities of our business, and her unique perspective and varied experience fuel her drive for innovation,” Langley said of the hire.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Warner Bros. Discovery expects the ongoing Hollywood strikes to have a $300 million-$500 million negative impact on the company’s 2023 earnings.

It is possible that in his search for CNN’s next boss, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav simply checked back through the news network’s archives. 

California Treasurer Fiona Ma has sent letters to the CEOs of seven Hollywood studios urging a return to the bargaining table with the WGA and SAG-AFTRA to end a months-long double strike that’s shut down much of the entertainment industry and is taking a major toll on the California economy.

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.”

EXCLUSIVE: Amid a focus on content curation and Disney-owned IP, Disney+ is not proceeding with The Spiderwick Chronicles, its live-action series adaptation of the popular children’s fantasy books, Deadline has learned.