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In recent months, there has been a tough confrontation between the Writers Guild of America and the Association of Talent Agents, whose fallout could mean that thousands of writers Hollywood will fire their agents in the next week.
While the story is quite complicated and long, the short version is that at midnight Saturday, a forty year old agreement between the WGA and the ATA will expire and no new deal is forthcoming. in place, negotiations being broken. down on money.
The main point of contention between WGA and ATA is what are known as "packaging costs". These are the amounts that agents negotiating with studios earn for "bringing together" actors, writers, directors and other talents to work together on a project.
The Writers Guild says rising packaging costs mean agents can make money by negotiating deals with studios. There is therefore no real incentive to negotiate profitable arrangements on behalf of their clients, which creates a conflict of interest.
Writers are faced with another problem thanks to the rise of streaming services such as Netflix, which generally command much shorter television seasons than old-fashioned broadcast networks. This means that while there is theoretically a lot of work to do, their real wages go down.
In the United States, at midnight on April 6, the Writers Guild wants to sign a new agreement banning creative agencies Variety, its members voted 7882 votes to 392 against a new, stricter code of conduct for agents.
A-List writers love Shonda Rhimes (The anatomy of Gray) Jenji Kohan (Orange is the new Black) Mike Schur (Brooklyn Nine-Nine) Oliver Stone (your father's favorite movie, probably) and Tina Fey (30 rocks) all indicated that they supported such a code.
The large talent agencies, on the other hand, seem reluctant to give up packaging costs, probably because of the money they bring in, and despite several meetings between WGA and ATA, the two groups could not find a compromise.
By reports in a specialized publication Deadlinethere are no "official talks" scheduled before the Saturday night break, although David Young stated that the Writers Guild will be meeting the ATA "when they respond significantly to our last two offers".
Karen Stuart ATA responded: "The time has come to simply put paper on the table. Let us know when your committee and you are ready to negotiate to resolve any outstanding issues. "
If the agreement lapses and a new agreement is not put in place, ATA talent agencies will not be allowed to represent the WGA writers, and procedures are in place for a mass shooting as early as Sunday, with cancellation letters to be given to agencies. in mass.
What could all this mean? Well, on the one hand, it will be much more difficult for studios to hire screenwriters for the upcoming pilot season. An industry insider told Variety that prominent writers with contracts and jobs would likely be satisfied, but that lower-level people might suffer.
"Who will hurt? Staff writers and editors of executive stories, "said the insider. "These are pretty much the only writers who depend on their agents to find a job and negotiate the editor's fees"
Source:
Deadline
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