2023-09-23 08:06:08
Soon the end of the strike in Hollywood? Hollywood studios and screenwriters will continue their negotiations on Saturday, announced the WGA, the industry’s writers’ union, after progress which suggests a desire to put an end to the strike which has paralyzed the sector for almost five months. Speculation was rife on Friday, the third day of a new round of negotiations.
The studios and resumed their talks on Wednesday on sharing revenue from streaming and regulating the use of artificial intelligence, after almost a month of radio silence. This new round of negotiations raises a lot of hope among observers of the sector, because signs of progress emerge from the discussions. For three days, the big names from Disney (Bob Iger), Netflix (Ted Sarandos), Warner Bros (David Zaslav) and NBC Universal (Donna Langley), have all been around the table, according to the American specialist press.
Another encouraging sign, the WGA and the employers, represented by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), published a joint press release Wednesday evening to announce the extension of the talks. This unusual approach raises hopes that an agreement is imminent, according to many observers. It indicates at least a reduction in the gap between the two parties, after 144 days of strike.
Safeguards against artificial intelligence
Since mid-July, actors have also been on strike, which paralyzes the vast majority of film and television series production in the United States. At the beginning of September, the Financial Times reported a study by the Milken Institute which estimated the cost of this double social movement, unseen since 1960, at $5 billion for the Californian economy.
Screenwriters and actors share similar demands. The sharing of revenues linked to streaming remains the crux of the matter: they want to be able to earn much more when one of their films or series is a hit on a platform, instead of receiving a lump sum payment, generally quite low, regardless of popularity. from the program.
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The two professions also want safeguards against the use of artificial intelligence: actors fear seeing their image or voice cloned, while screenwriters fear that AI could be used for scripts and that they are paid less, or that their scenarios are used to train robots.
Even in the event of an agreement between studios and screenwriters, the actors would remain on strike. Their union, SAG-AFTRA, has not spoken to the employers since mid-July. But according to the specialist press, an agreement with industry leaders would pave the way for an end to the actors’ strike.
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