Deadline’s Strike Talk Podcast With Billy Ray And Todd Garner

Episode 4: Featured guest Bill Mechanic, Oscar-nominated producer and chairman/CEO of Pandemonium.

Throughout the duration of the Writers Guild Strike, Deadline is running a weekly podcast called Strike Talk. Its co-hosts are Hollywood producer Todd Garner and Oscar-nominated screenwriter Billy Ray. Via Deadline about Episode 4:

In this installment, our hosts discuss strike strategy with Bill Mechanic, the Oscar-nominated producer and chairman/CEO of Pandemonium who was on the studio side of the table in past labor negotiations as a top exec at Disney and then at Fox, which he ran from 1993–2000 during a time of prosperity for that studio.

Among the topics Mechanic discusses is the question of whether the current crop of streaming and legacy studio bosses have a moral responsibility to make a labor deal that will continue to nurture the ecosystem of content generation or whether their job is simply to make as much money as possible and look for the shareholders. They also discuss whether the WGA should consider a divide-and-conquer strategy against AMPTP by granting waivers to certain content makers — the guild successfully used a similar strategy in its battle with agencies over packaging and affiliated production arms — and many other important notes.

Episode Four

Previous podcast episodes in the series:

Episode One

Episode Two

Episode Three

Todd Garner and Billy Ray are two high-level figures in understanding what’s going on with this work stoppage. I strongly recommend you add Deadline Strike Talk to your podcast list and listen to it every week.

Apple

Spotify

Twitter: @Todd_Garner, @BillyRay5229, @DEADLINE.

For the latest updates on the strike and news resources, go here.