Could Be a Gloomy Forecast for Late 2007 Entertainment

Film and TV studios, in anticipation of a possible writer’s strike coming from the Writer’s Guild of America (WGA), have become hoarders and stockpilers of product to ensure that the last six months of 2007 (the busiest for the movie industry) won’t find “Closed For Lack of Entertainment” signs on theater marquees. TV network execs are also scrambling to move projects and scripts up to avoid a lack of new content on the airways.

A spokesperson for the WGA says that negotiations between film and TV studios and the WGA could start in the summer of 2007 (July) and the outcome, or lack thereof, could affect what those studios will have available during the 2007 fall TV schedule and movie theater holiday rush. The studios would like to see the contract negotiating process begin much sooner than that.

If talks stall, the entertainment industry could start feeling the pinch as early as October or November, just when the big holiday releases are set to begin for the end of year cash-out. As a result of this, studio heads are taking no chances and have sped up the normal production process of current and already approved projects for 2007/2008, and have called for more script drafts and rewrites than usual from their writers before they may end up on the curb with a strike-sign in their hand.

Studios are taking a long look at accelerating production schedules, much as they did in 2000 and 2001 in advance of widely anticipated writers and actors strikes that never materialized, according to Variety.

“No studio’s going to get caught short,” one exec asserted. “We are starting to book space in advance and analyzing the pipeline and schedule. The uncertainty adds in layers of complexity to what’s already a tough decision.”

This is only one of two possible breaks studio execs may be soon be faced with. The Screen Actor’s Guild (SAG) contract expires in June 2008, and if a compromise that keeps SAG and the studio’s happy can’t be reached, it could mean a slow down in new content for up to two full years.

One of the big issues on the table for writers, directors and actors is control over the creative content in the digitally downloaded product. WGA West prexy Patric Verrone and exec director David Young have asserted that the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers (the AMPTP serves as the industry’s negotiating arm) was not willing to address key issues such as digital downloads at early negotiations. Young reiterated that stance in a statement issued Tuesday in response to reports about industry worries.

“When industry representatives are prepared to address the vital concerns of writers, we are confident that we can reach a deal,” Young told Variety. “Our members must be fairly compensated for their work. Our upcoming negotiations will assure that they are.”

For his part, Verrone has insisted that avoiding early talks enhances the WGA’s bargaining position and is in line with the guild’s past practice. And he’s accused the producers org of fear-mongering.

“The AMPTP asserts that, by refusing to negotiate early, we will force our employers to make rash business decisions to prepare for an inevitable strike,” Verrone said in a recent message to members. “That simply flies in the face of the last 18 years of Writers Guild history. In the past five WGA (minimum basic agreement) negotiations, we have been able to reach agreement without a strike, even though, in most cases, we did not begin negotiations more than a few months before the contract expiration date.”

In the interim, execs predict stockpiling of scripts and a ramping up of production early next year to get projects finished by late fall, since getting rewrites will become highly problematic if the WGA walks out. May 2007 could possibly tell the general public and be a key for the WGA of just how far the studios are willing to bend or not in negotiations once they release a proposed film and network television schedule for the coming new season.

When the WGA last called for a strike back in 1988 the writers stayed on the picket-line for five months causing a delay in the start of the new fall television season and pushing back certain movie release dates to the following year.

[Variety contributed to parts of this story]