WGA Strike: As Broadcast Fights For Survival, “Divided” AMPTP Could Face Splintering Over Conflicting Agendas

Given the anxious vibes in the entertainment business of late, the NBA and NHL playoffs have been a welcome throwback to happier times.

WGA negotiating committee co-chair Chris Keyser issued a clarion call to members and supporters earlier today.

In a defiant clarion call for continued solidarity and endurance as the Writers Guild’s strike enters its second month, WGA negotiating committee co-chair Chris Keyser says in a new video that the guild’s fight for a fair contract is not one that’s being fought for writers alone, but for the entire labor movement.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer Chris Keyser, the co-chair of the Writers Guild of America negotiating committee, said in a video message Friday that the WGA is prepared to fight alone if necessary. Keyser said that the guild, which has been on strike since May 2, is “girded by an alliance” with SAG-AFTRA and the Directors Guild of America. But he promised that even if both guilds reach an agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers this month, “We will fight on.” “Any deal that puts this town back to work runs straight through the WGA and there is no way around us,” Keyser said. “We are strong enough — we have always been strong enough — to get the deal we need with writer power alone.”

It’s highly likely there’s not a single person out there who doesn’t know the name Sydney Sweeney.The 25 year old probably has the Emmy winning drama series Euphoria to thank for that, not to mention her chaotic character Cassie who made her the star she is today. While Sydney had appeared in some pretty high budget productions prior to the HBO show, including Everything Sucks! and The Handmaid’s Tale, it wasn’t until she stepped foot in the fictional town of East Highland, California that people really started to take note of her talent. Which is why it’s so surprising that she has recently opened up about the fight she had to put up to get cast in Mike White’s satirical anthology series, The White Lotus.

Amber Dowling Last April, Sphere Media took the Canadian Screen Awards by storm with 22 awards for its scripted content, including a record 12 wins for the historical Black drama “The Porter” and seven for queer comedy “Sort Of.” It was a big night for Canada’s third-largest independent producer, and in particular for Jennifer Kawaja, Sphere’s president of scripted and feature films for English Canada. Previously, Kawaja spent decades heading up Sienna Films with her business partner, Julia Sereny, helming several award-winning projects like “Cardinal,” “Trickster” and “One Dead Indian.” The duo sold the company to Kew Media Group in 2017 and in 2020, Montreal-based Datsit Sphere snatched it up when Kew was placed into receivership. Last year, Sphere restructured and rebranded under a single banner with the intention of streamlining content creation, production and distribution.

EXCLUSIVE: Half of the 46 projects currently in the California film incentives program have submitted “force majeure” requests seeking waivers to extend their mandated start-date requirements due to the ongoing Writers Guild strike, according to the California Film Commission, which administers the tax credits program. The number of approved film and TV projects seeking force majeure delays is expected to grow as the strike, now in its 25th day, grinds on.

A group of students who occupied Manchester University buildings as part of a long-running rent strike could be excluded. Disciplinary proceedings have begun against 11 students who barricaded themselves in university buildings during the stand-off.

As the Writers Guild strike stretches into its fourth week, Michael Schur is feeling resolute.

Asked about the WGA strike at the Cannes Film Festival press conference Friday for Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, director James Mangold said, “No movie happens without a great script, and no great script happens without writers.”

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Lucasfilm chief Kathleen Kennedy showed support for the writers strike while attending the Cannes press conference for “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.” Kennedy has been a producer on the Harrison Ford-led franchise since its first installment. “When it comes to acknowledging the importance of writing, I think everybody up here has demonstrated that you can’t do any of this without great writing,” Kennedy said. “You can’t do any of this without great writing. All of us who create anything…I am in full support and I know most people are in full support of the writers getting what they deserve.” Kennedy said she’d like to see the strike resolved “in an environment where people can talk about what are some really complicated issues that are effecting the entire industry,” but it’s “going to take time.”

On the West Coast, the chief negotiator for the striking Writers Guild of America, Ellen Stutzman, is more than a week into an existential battle between the 20,000 union members she represents and the movie and television studios that are, for now, not at the bargaining table. 

Tony Gilroy is standing with the writers amid their strike.

The Writers Guild and several of its prominent members, recognizing that other workers in the entertainment industry are being impacted by the ongoing writers strike, have pledged more than $1.7 million to provide them with financial assistances during the walkout, which is now in its ninth day.

writers’ strike aims to shut down production in Hollywood to force studios to make a better deal with the Writers Guild of America, some of the top showrunners in the industry are banding together to raise funds for entertainment workers who will be affected by the loss of jobs. The WGA announced on Wednesday that more than $1.7 million has been pledged by writers to the Entertainment Community Fund, a nonprofit formerly known as The Actors Fund that provides emergency financial assistance to workers in film and television who meet the needs-based requirements, regardless of their profession within the industry or union affiliation.Among the showrunners and producers contributing to the fund are J.J.

Andor creator/showrunner Tony Gilroy says he has ceased all non-writing producing duties on the Disney+ series amid the WGA strike.

As you have no doubt already heard, the WGA is on strike right now. Just over a week into it, this strike has already caused quite a few disruptions, with productions being halted and development coming to a standstill.

When are things not strange in Hollywood? Should we be surprised that there is always some industry or world crises crashing an awards season? Probably not, but it’s been quite a long time since a work stoppage affected the Primetime Emmy Awards. And, as we’ll discuss later, that means while writers form picket lines, actors and directors are still engaged in that Emmy nomination fight.

EXCLUSIVE: The AMPTP has called the Writers Guild’s minimum staffing demands for episodic TV shows “a hiring quota that is incompatible with the creative nature of our industry.” But if the WGA prevails in its ongoing strike, it wouldn’t be the first guild to require minimum staffing in its contract.

in solidarity with the WGA, and MTV scuttled plans for red carpet interviews and an in-person ceremony in order to to avoid run-ins with picketers (and lack of talent willing to show up).The show that aired was largely made up of clips of memorable moments from past MTV Movie Awards ceremonies — everything from Jim Carrey accepting his award as Jim Morrison to Sacha Baron Cohen landing crotch-first into Eminem’s face after a “stunt gone wrong.” They even played Katy Perry and Snoop Dogg’s performance of “California Girl” from the 2010 show in full, just to fill some time.As for the awards themselves, nominees from each category were called and the winner then accepted in the form of a pre-recorded message.