The ongoing Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike currently taking place in Hollywood has received a rather brutal response from industry studios. The Hollywood studios’ current plan, executives say, is to let the writers “go broke” and essentially drag out the strike until union members “start to lose their apartments and houses” and then start negotiations this fall.
According to Deadline, a studio executive said: “The ultimate goal is to let the situation drag on until union members start losing their apartments and houses.” Several other sources corroborated the claim, calling it “a cruel but necessary evil.” Streaming services such as Warner Bros Discovery, Apple, Netflix, Amazon, Disney, Paramount and others are now intent on “breaking the WGA” in the words of a studio executive.
The studios believe that the writers will appeal to the leadership of the WGA with a demand to resume negotiations while the strike is on. As a result, the Hollywood studios are essentially forcing the WGA to drag out negotiations so that when the time comes to speak, the studios and streaming companies can dictate the terms of a possible deal.
According to Deadline, the WGA has not yet approached the studios to reopen talks, though that could change in the coming months as studio plans make it harder for writers to sustain living expenses the longer the strike goes on.
Perhaps the Hollywood studios have backup plans for this case. Back in May, several studios expressed interest in exploring AI technology for film and television scripting. It is not yet known whether AI is currently capable of creating scripts at the same level as a human, but most likely, it will not be long to wait.
