After months of tensions and fraught negotiations, the Writers Guild of America hit the picket lines this week to make good on promises of a looming strike, calling the move — the Guild’s first strike since 2008 — an existential fight for the profession. Writers say the studios wouldn’t engage their terms, and that they don’t feel they have access to key information needed to make a fair deal.
At the core of the dispute is a lack of transparency from the studios around the overall performance of movies and TV shows, which the Guild says prevents them from properly negotiating residuals and minimum increases. Writers also point to patterns (i.e. studios’ increased reliance on “mini-rooms”) which suggest an attempt to turn their profession into gig work. WGA members also cite a concerning lack of transparency around the future potential for AI-generated scripts.
How will other guilds react? And when and how could the walkout end? Kim Masters and Matt Belloni discuss.