Image Credit: Fabebk, via Wikimedia Commons
Nearly five months after the screenwriters went on strike, the Writers Guild of America has announced a tentative deal with Hollywood studios that signals an end to the crippling Hollywood impasse.
The deal is not final yet. However, the WGA has assured its members that it would safeguard their work against fast-spreading Artificial Intelligence generative technologies that have posed a new challenge to writers.
Writers have also been pressing for higher pay and want residuals when their work is shown again on streaming services.
“We can say, with great pride, that this deal is exceptional,” the Writers Guild of America, which has 11,500 members, wrote on its website.
Once ratified the deal would come with “meaningful gains and protections for writers in every sector of the membership.”
The next step would include approval of the contract by the union members.
The WGA has also made clear that the strike is continuing and members are not to return to work.
The strike nearing 150 days pitched Hollywood writers against the major studios represented by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. The strike resulted in the postponement of several film and TV series premiers.
Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, Netflix, and Universal Pictures were among the production giants that negotiated with the writers without much progress being made this summer.
