This is getting ridiculously ugly very quickly. When even Variety is this pessimistic this early in the ballgame, we’re all fucked.
Someone at the WGA made the extremely smart move of making a fairly simple video explaining their entirely rational demands on the internet residuals, which you should watch if you’ve found my explanations of the issues lacking.
The problem is that the studios feel compelled to try and cling to every penny they can, even as they issue statements to Wall Street trumpeting the potential gold mine in internet content delivery.
It’s the ultimate nightmare for people who work in Production: Both sides are utterly convinced they’re right, and they’re both digging in deep.
My worst fear during the run-up to this week was a six month strike, but as details trickle out about how horribly the talks broke down on Sunday, it sounds like there’s a distinct possibility that it might last even longer than that.
Meanwhile, the first of my friends (or at least those friends not amongst the picketers) are probably going to get laid off at the end of this week, if not earlier.
This just sucks.
Update: Deadline Hollywood posted a picture of almost our whole writing staff (there’s a couple people I don’t see, but I think some are blocked by the signs of the people in front), plus a couple of SAG friends of the staff who are out picketing with them, from the picket line at Fox yesterday.