AFI BLOG: Media and Technology

Back Channels Drive New Talks for Writers - The Wall Street Journal

The planned post-Thanksgiving resumption of contract talks between striking screenwriters and Hollywood studios offers a moment of hope in what has been a nasty work stoppage. But people in the industry caution that the prospects of quickly making a deal, and returning the entertainment industry to its regularly scheduled programming, are uncertain.

The walkout by the 12,000 members of the Writers Guild of America began Nov. 5 after talks between the guild and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers broke down, largely over how writers would be compensated when their work was distributed on the Internet and through other new media. Since the walkout, no new talks have been held, and the unfriendly rhetoric has increased on both sides. Friday, the two sides announced a Nov. 26 resumption of negotiations.

But even as they sparred in public, the past week saw a crescendo of back-channeling among studio heads, talent agents, guild officials and striking writer-producers. Those talks culminated Friday when the two sides met to determine when to restart official negotiations. Guild members, including WGA West President Patric Verrone, Executive Director David Young and lead negotiator John Bowman, met with counterparts from the studios, including Walt Disney Co. Chief Executive Robert Iger, News Corp. Chief Operating Officer Peter Chernin and Nick Counter, president of the AMPTP, which negotiates on behalf of the studios, according to people with knowledge of the meeting. Those people say Bryan Lourd, co-chairman of Creative Artists Agency hosted the meeting. A CAA spokesman declined to comment.