Posted on 04/14/2019 12:19:41 AM PDT by Jyotishi
The Writers Guild of America says it has instructed its 13,000 members to fire their talent agents at midnight on Saturday, unless their agents sign a new "Code of Conduct" agreement that promises they will do away with packaging fees and their stakes in production companies.
The bottom line: Most of the Guild's writers agree with the Code of Conduct, but most of the agents who represent them don't. The hope was that the 2 sides would come up with a compromise before the current negotiations expired on Friday. Without a deal, Hollywood is stuck in a messy limbo that could leave thousands of writers without work and could put hundreds of studio projects on hold.
Details: The unprecedented move comes after several rounds of negotiations have fallen flat between the Guild and the Association of Talent Agents (ATA), a trade group that represents Hollywood's biggest talent agencies.
- The 2 groups have been struggling to renegotiate a decades-old talent agreement called the Artists’ Managers Basic Agreement (AMBA) that basically says agents agree to fairly represent writers during talent negotiations with studios.
- The heart of the dispute centers around the Guild's assertion that Hollywood's biggest talent agencies are undercutting the writers they represent by moving from a long-standing percentage cut payout model to a model focused around packaging fees and production.
- The deadline for an agreement was pushed back a week, which gave both sides time to meet and discuss new terms. But after several meetings, the Guild informed its members Friday that no deal had been struck.
Yes but: Talent agencies did at one point during negotiations this week offer writers a 1% cut of their production fee money, but the Guild says that proposal was unacceptable.
- "They insist on continuing to produce and be our employers," the Guild said in a letter to its members.
- ATA Executive Director Karen Stuart said in a statement on Friday that the Guild's leadership "declared a pathway for compromise doesn’t exist," and that the unresolved outcome "was driven by the Guild’s predetermined course for chaos."
The big picture: The dispute is largely based on the changing business dynamics in Hollywood, that are mostly being caused by the disruption of the tech industry.
- Talent agencies like WME, CAA and UTA have been investing heavily in production arms that writers think unfairly pit their interests against the writers they represent.
- Agencies have expanded their portfolios from representing just talent to owning production operations as the value of individual talent declines due to saturation of opportunities in Hollywood. Last year, for example, the number of original scripted series reached nearly 500, an increase of more than double since 2010.
- Most of those new series are coming from online streamers, which are pouring billions of dollars into original content.
What's next: The Guild says that in a strike situation, "we all know that we are to refrain from crossing the picket line or writing for a struck company, and we’re asked to show our solidarity by picketing, which is the public and moral face of our dispute."
That literally is as sophisticated as their thinking gets.
The Writers Guild of America says it has instructed its 13,000 members to fire their talent agents at midnight on Saturday, unless their agents sign a new “Code of Conduct” agreement that promises they will do away with packaging fees and their stakes in production companies.
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The “Writers Guild” - now THERE’S a friggin’ joke.
All those drug-snorting, Hollywood homos know how to do is to go through a list somewhere and find the latest comic book that HASN’T been made into a movie (or which one hasn’t been remade recently) or what classic they can re-make with an all black / gay / transgender cast.
Maybe their agents should fire THEM and find some REAL writers somewhere.
“Talent agencies like WME, CAA and UTA have been investing heavily in production arms that writers think unfairly pit their interests against the writers they represent.”
This actually got Ronald Reagan called in as a witness in a federal case when he had been head of SAG: he was starring in “General Electric Theater” and as such was (after his first contract) receiving a small share of ownership in GE. He claimed it was insignificant (as a share of all his finances, it was), but technically it was a conflict of interest.
At the time, he had been negotiating a new deal between SAG and the studios over “residuals” in the new medium of television. This negotiation would eventually lead to the contract in the 1960 where the studios gave in on some television and put $2b into a retirement fund for actors. Most thought this was the best deal anyone could get, but Mickey Rooney opposed it bitterly, saying of Reagan, “All he got us was a home to die in.” But the deal passed a vote of the membership overwhelmingly.
There was also some debate over Reagan’s role in negotiating the deal, with some saying the key moment came when a divided leadership looked to actor Walter Pigeon, who weighed in.
At any rate, this battle of agents having stock in companies goes back to the very first MCA deal Reagan negotiated.
These Hollywood people are going to flee East to mommy an daddy so fast.They have no skills and limited education.They will drag their kids pets and politics with them. Summer communities will transform overnight to year round communities filled with unemployed people from California.Mommy and Daddy will no longer have 2nd and 3rd homes to enjoy this summer.
Unions - protecting the value of incumbency, restricting for the incumbents who can and cannot be a participant, putting protection of incumbents above change. What “Hollywood” needs is for the major studios, production companies and talent agencies to move their operations to a right to work state.
We could over the course of a few weeks “nationalize” them, move them, give them new boards and officers and then put them back on the free market. /sarc
Based on what I’m seeing on TV and in the movies, there’s only about five writers left in Hollywood...
The last time writers stopped writing they created Reality TV ,LOL
Cage match - “There can be only one!”
Yeah! Tell me why I should care.
Wrexit!
“The Writers Guild of America says it has instructed its 13,000 members to fire their talent agents at midnight on Saturday, unless their agents sign a new “Code of Conduct” agreement that promises they will do away with packaging fees and their stakes in production companies.”
yeah, i’m sure that’s going to happen ... 13,000 breach of contract lawsuits by the agencies ...
btw, aren’t the writers smart enough to sign with agents that DON’T have such conflicts of interest without being “ordered” to?
i imagine this whole thing is about propping up the 12,900 hack writers, because the 100 actually GOOD writers should be able to write their own tickets ...
Why won’t the ‘liberals’ share the money with each other?
Why are there any unions at all in hollywood?....
The cesspools never change odor always the same product.
Rats fighting in the dumpster.
While it’s on fire.
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