Strike's End Starts TV Production Frenzy
- From: Ubiquitous <weberm@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 13 Feb 2008 15:22:38 -0500
By LYNN ELBER
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Lights, camera, action - but first, here come the writers.
Members of the Writers Guild of America were planning a return to work
Wednesday after voting to end their strike on its 100th day, thus allowing
Hollywood to jump-start stalled production of numerous TV sitcoms and dramas.
"It will be all hands on deck for the writing staff," said Chris Mundy,
co-executive producer of the CBS drama "Criminal Minds." Actual production
won't begin, however, until scripts have been completed, which could take days
or even weeks.
For the Feb. 24 Academy Awards, the vote Tuesday by East and West Coast guild
members ended the threat of a boycott by writers and actors that would have
robbed the ceremony of its celebrity luster.
Sid Ganis, president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which
stages the Oscars, responded effusively.
"I am ecstatic that the 80th Academy Awards presentation can now proceed full
steam ahead," he said, and without "hesitation or discomfort" for the
nominees.
The writers' decided overwhelmingly in favor of ending the strike: 3,492 said
yes, with only 283 voting to stay off the job. The number of guild members
involved in the strike was 10,500, with countless other industry workers
forced into unemployment because of the walkout.
Writers did not vote on the tentative contract agreement that already has won
approval from the union's board of directors. The contract ratification vote
will be conducted by mail and at meetings and will conclude Feb. 25.
Approval is expected, given Tuesday's lopsided decision and the enthusiasm for
the proposed contract expressed at guild meetings held last weekend in New
York and Los Angeles.
"At the end of the day, everybody won. It was a fair deal and one that the
companies can live with, and it recognizes the large contribution that writers
have made to the industry," Leslie Moonves, chief executive officer of CBS
Corp. (CBS), told The Associated Press on Tuesday.
Moonves was among the media executives who helped broker a deal after
negotiations between the guild and the Alliance of Motion Picture and
Television Producers, which represents studios, collapsed in December.
Under the tentative agreement, writers would get a maximum flat fee of about
$1,200 for programs streamed on the Internet in the deal's first two years and
then get 2 percent of a distributor's gross in year three - a key union
demand.
Other provisions include increased residual payments for movies and TV
programs downloaded from the Internet.
"These advances now give us a foothold in the digital age," said Patric
Verrone, president of the West Coast guild. "Rather than being shut out of the
future of content creation and delivery, writers will lead the way as
television migrates to the Internet."
Michael R. Perry, a writer for "Persons Unknown" and other TV dramas, said the
deal made him hopeful the guild and studios could be "partners in a growing
pie" of Internet revenue.
"I want them to be fabulously, filthy rich. I just want my piece," Perry said.
The strike that began Nov. 5 dealt a financial blow to a wide range of
businesses dependent on work from studios.
It took a $3.2 billion toll in direct and indirect costs on the economy of Los
Angeles County, the home of most of the nation's TV and film production,
according to a new estimate from Jack Kyser, chief economist for the Los
Angeles Economic Development Corp.
The last writers strike, a 153-day walkout in 1988, resulted in an estimated
$500 million in lost wages.
Hollywood's labor pains may not be over: The contract between studios and the
Screen Actors Guild is set to expire in June, said Jonathan Handel, an
entertainment attorney with the Los Angeles firm of TroyGould and a former
associate counsel for the writers guild.
"The signs are mixed whether this is going to be another difficult
negotiation," Handel said. "The actors face all of the new-media issues that
the writers and directors faced."
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