Writers pick for Netflix on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, California, as the Writers Guild of America goes on strike, May 2, 2023.
Frederic J. Brown | Afp | Getty Images
Hollywood producers have made a tentative deal with film and TV directors, but that doesn’t mean we should expect sudden resolutions on the writers’ strike or talks with the actors’ union.
On Sunday, the Directors Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers reached a tentative agreement on a three-year contract that would provide the 19,000-member union with wage and benefit gains, increases in global streaming residuals and protection against the use of artificial intelligence .
The DGA contract expires on June 30. The guild will present the proposal to its members on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the Writers Guild of America is entering its second month of strike. Likewise, the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists are about to approve a possible strike if negotiations fail. Those talks begin Wednesday.
The WGA has been on strike since May 2 and has shut down dozens of TV and film productions because talks with producers have stalled.
Already Netflix has postponed the production start of the fifth and final season of ‘Stranger Things’ Warner Bros.” Discoveries “Game of Thrones” prequel “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Night” closed its writer’s room and disney and Marvel’s “Thunderbolts” and “Blade” have paused production.
During the last writers’ strike in 2007 and 2008, which lasted 100 days, a studio deal with the DGA led writers to go back to the negotiating table. That may not be the case this time.
“We congratulate the DGA negotiating committee on getting a deal that they recommend to their national council for approval and which they will presumably send to their members for ratification,” the WGA negotiating committee wrote in a memo to members on Sunday.
The commission said it would not comment on the deal points of the DGA’s new contract, noting that negotiating positions remain the same.
“Last week we sent an email about how AMPTP’s divide-and-conquer strategy won’t work this time,” the memo reads. “The AMPTP will not be able to negotiate a deal for writers with anyone but us.”
The committee also said it stands in solidarity with SAG-AFTRA in finalizing their strike authorization on Monday.
SAG-AFTRA representatives did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
The WGA’s memo echoes comments made by WGA negotiator Chris Keyser on Friday when he issued a public update a month after the strike through YouTube.
“Any deal that puts this city back to work will go right through the WGA, and there’s no escaping that,” he said.
Keyser also said the WGA strike has already been “very effective in inflicting pain on the businesses,” noting that the withholding of work, coupled with public protests, has demonstrated the guild’s determination to “give the contract get what we deserve”.
The AI battle
In the DGA’s agreement, directors secured pay increases from 5% in the first year, an increase in streaming residuals and a guarantee that artificial intelligence could not replace members’ duties.
AI has been a major concern for both the writers’ and actors’ guilds, who view their jobs as particularly vulnerable to this new technology.
Both the WGA and SAG-AFTRA are seeking protections against the use of AI in their negotiations, in addition to an increase in the fee for streamed content. The WGA is also pushing for a minimum workforce for TV writers’ rooms and more competitive minimum pay for work.
The WGA is less concerned about the replacement of AI systems and more about the fact that production companies will use these technological tools to reduce writers’ salaries.
SAG-AFTRA has recognized that AI technology can have its benefits in the industry, but it wants to ensure that any use of AI to replicate an actor or create a new performance is done with the actor’s consent and payment. The guild has similar guardrails when it comes to capturing computer-generated images.
Some artists, such as James Earl Jones, have already agreed to have their voices cloned for use after they die. The 91-year-old Jones played the famous voice of Darth Vader in the Star Wars franchise and tried to scale down the role. Jones was compensated and the technology was used to bring Vader’s iconic voice to Disney+’s “Obi-Wan Kenobi.”
The actors’ guild has also been outspoken about the fact that the negotiations are in favor of all its members, not just the big stars. Health coverage, compensation and residuals are top of mind for tens of thousands of working actors.
SAG-AFTRA’s strike authorization vote ends Monday at 8 p.m. ET.
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC. NBCUniversal is a member of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.