How Studios Retort Went Over – The Hollywood Reporter

Writers Guild supporters strike outside the gate of Sony Pictures Overland on May 4, 2023.

Caroline Giardina, THR

Intermittent rain and high winds didn’t seem to stop writers from hitting picket lines again across Los Angeles on Thursday, many of them spurred on the previous night’s solidarity rally that drew more than 1,800 Writers Guild of America members.

During the Shrine Auditorium rally, the first since the strike was called Monday, union leadership spoke at length about the issues the WGA and the Motion Picture and Television Producers Alliance have kept their distance from each other.

To hear leadership really talk about what it was like to be in [negotiating] Suzanne Horowitz said Hollywood Reporter In a picket line Thursday at Sony Pictures Studios. Writer Producer His credits include tick And preacherHorowitz addressed the other unions – DGA, SAG-AFTRA, IATSE – who expressed their support for the book. “I think everyone is more determined to fight,” she added. “For the first time, I really feel like we’re all in this together. It made for a great meeting.”

Three issues seem to permeate most conversations on the picket lines: boosted energy, courtesy of Wednesday’s meeting, and speculation about upcoming union negotiations for the DGA and SAG-AFTRA. Shortly after Pacific Noon, AMPTP broke its silence for the first time since it was called. strike. The studios shared a point-by-point document earlier Thursday, at least in part with the aim of disproving the WGA’s version of events, and clarifying their stance on sticking points like “small rooms” and the growing uproar over not actively working on organizing intelligence.

Outside of Burbank’s Warner Bros. Discovery District — which, along with Netflix, has been among the most trafficked picket spots — THR He met with WGA Negotiating Committee Co-Chair David Goodman to get immediate reaction to the AMPTP letter.

“I caught a glimpse,” said Goodman, who mentioned seeing the part about artificial intelligence in which a studio statement claimed that “writers want to be able to use this technology as part of their creative process, without changing how credits are assigned, which is complicated given the inability to Copyright protection of artificial intelligence materials.

“That’s a very telling comment,” Goodman added, the sound of his interview being barely discernible with the roar of car horns blaring in support of the sitters. “We need a guarantee from them that the literary material will be written by a human being. It’s a very easy question. For them, making that commitment doesn’t hurt their bottom line at all… They say they’re our partners. Make that commitment and say ‘we’ll only work with writers who are human’.” It’s crazy that I have to say that.”

Seeing as how Wednesday night’s event also included leadership from the Teamsters, DGA, SAG-AFTRA and IATSE, the possibility of a multi-union strike – still a long way off, as similar DGA and SAG-AFTRA contracts don’t expire until June 30 – was also considered by many. .

“This is for all of us,” said SAG-AFTRA member Colleen Chrisuga, who was picketing outside Sony earlier in the day. “Fairness to one of us in the industry; justice to all. I’m here to stand by the writers… I want.” [the writers] To get a fair contract and I will stay by their side until they do.”

Horowitz, for one, expressed mixed feelings about the prospect of fellow unions following in the book’s footsteps. “I hope the DGA and SAG-AFTRA don’t have to go on strike because we are doing this,” she said. “It would be amazing if it came to that, if the only way we were going to win was to do this together. That we really shut everything down.”

Goodman was present at Wednesday’s event and had similarly nice things to say to his fellow unions. “I think it’s very clear that their membership and their leadership all understand that our fight is their fight, that we are at the spearhead and that we are all in an existential crisis in this business,” he said. “We need to work together, and so do we. It is very gratifying to see this kind of unity in the Battle of the Writers Guild for the first time.”

Publicly, the WGA and DGA leadership have not always engaged in the warmest or murkiest of confrontations, but this timing is seen as an opportunity by many. However, Goodman dismissed any speculation of further hits.

“What I do know is that their membership wants change – the DGA, SAG-AFTRA, and [what we saw from] IATSE last year.” “I have no way of knowing what SAG-AFTRA and the DGA will or could do, but I know their members are hurt and want change. I’m so glad we got it [DGA negotiating committee chair] Jon Avnet speaking at our gathering. It was very important to me and our membership. Everything in the past is in the past.”

Thursday marked the first full day of the strike in Los Angeles, starting Tuesday late for organizational purposes and ending on Wednesday in time for WGA members to attend the Shrine rally. Yellow jackets He spoke with Bart Nickerson, creator and co-showrunner, who was unable to attend the rally THR Outside of Warner Bros. on Thursday regarding his decision to stay on the line. His words seemed to capture what many on the line claim to feel without bogged down in the often shaky deal points.

Nickerson said, echoing comments he made to THR in March. “You’ve reached a turning point, and something needs to be done.”