Studio CEOs Set To Meet Amid Internal Tensions

“Almost everyone is looking for someone to blame.”

From Deadline:

Amid growing speculation of internal divisions within the C-suites and a lack of any apparent path forward to end the writers and actors strikes, the chiefs of Hollywood’s biggest studios are set to gather today.

Disney’s Dana Walden and Alan Bergman, Amazon Studios’ Mike Hopkins and Jennifer Salke, Netflix’s Ted Sarandos, Universal’s Donna Langley, and Warner Bros Discovery’s David Zaslav are among those scheduled to attend the virtual sit-down later Wednesday, we hear.

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As the blowback intensifies from the disastrous August 22 meeting with Iger, Sarandos, Langley, Zaslav, the AMPTP’s Lombardini and WGA negotiators, and subsequent release of the studios’ latest proposal, there are no new talks set with the guild. Add to that the WGA rejection the deal and on August 24 calling it “neither nothing, nor nearly enough,” mistrust between the parties is at an all-time high, we hear. That translates into the WGA and the AMPTP being nowhere near a deal to end the 121-day scribes strike — not to mention the SAG-AFRTA strike, which is in Day 48.

“Before some wanted to blame Carol, accused her of being stuck using a pre-streaming playbook,” an individual familiar with the divisions among the studio and streamers bosses. “Now that have only themselves to blame for how bad things look. That’s why they brought in the Levinson Group, and that’s why they are squabbling.”

I agree with Billy Ray:

The legacy studios have entirely different business models than Netflix. And Amazon and Apple have different models than everyone else.

How can there be a settlement when these C-suite denizens can’t settle on a shared set of goals?

Writers strike? Actors strike? Actually, it’s the CEO’s strike.

Meanwhile: Majority of Americans Support Writers, Actors Over Studios in Strikes, Gallup Poll Finds.

Union support remains high among Americans, as more than 70 percent side with the writers.

Back in the 70s, Paramount and Universal left what was then known as athe AMPP. Although against the current AMPTP’s by-laws, is it possible for one or more of the studios to bolt and negotiate a separate deal with the WGA?

A drastic move like that may be the only way out of this morass.

For the rest of the Deadline article, go here.

#WGAStrong

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

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