Black List Suspends Studio Memberships

Lowers scribes’ fees in support of WGA strike

Via Deadline:

The skies are cloudy over LA and still thick over NYC today, but for over 1,000 studio and “struck companies” staffers their Black List membership just went dark.

In support of the Writers Guild of America’s over one-month long strike, the Franklin Leonard founded platform has suspended the access that approximately 1,300 have to its services. In addition, the nearly 20-year-old script curation organization has slashed material fees for writers until their battle with the studios and streamers is resolved with a new deal.

“Writers remain the most undervalued constituents of the film and television ecosystem, and it should be unsurprising that the Black List backs them in their pursuit of equitable pay and protections reflecting their vital and economically significant contributions to the industry,” Leonard told Deadline today. “When writers win, the entire industry wins.”

The move to cut costs for scribes from $30 to $20 a month as well as wall off access for studios allows has the added benefit of allowing writers to stay well within guidelines of not selling, optioning, pitching or taking on new gigs during the strike, which started on May 2 after talks with the AMPTP on a new contract broke down.

My blog is the official screenwriting blog of the Black List and since 2013, I have been involved with the outfit’s educational initiatives, specifically as lead mentor for their feature writer labs. It does not surprise me that the Black List has made this decision to support the WGA strike. Knowing Franklin and the Black List team as well as I do, I know how passionate they are in supporting screenwriters.

In fact, here is a photo of T-shirt they gave out to lab participants from a few years back:

Pretty much sums it up!

For the rest of the Deadline article, go here.

For the latest updates on the strike and news resources as aggregated on Go Into The Story, go here.