Looming AMPTP Talks Amid Standoff With Agents Weigh Heavily On Writers’ Minds At WGA Awards

“This is a pivot point. It feels like every negotiation is an important negotiation, but we’re going through a tectonic change right now in the business, and I think it’s time for everybody to acknowledge that, and hopefully, we’ll get somewhere,” added Watchmen creator and WGA New Series winner Damon Lindelof last night at the Beverly Hilton.

“I’m interested in a way of making the profit participation more equitable across the breadth of TV shows and films. And I’m interested in a way of stopping with these crazy accounting practices that create these illusions of things that never happened, (such as) a lot of lazy practices we’ve fallen into like negotiating for production bonuses that never get paid,” expressed this year’s WGAW Paul Selvin honoree and Bombshell scribe Charles Randolph.

For The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel creator and 2x WGA nominee Amy Sherman-Palladino, her one gripe with streaming is how the platform automatically forces the viewer to go to the next episode, bypassing end credits. “I don’t really understand why the guild aren’t talking about credits getting cut off at the end. You work for those credits. Every year, it means something and you get to this place and they cut it off completely. The actors and the crew, their credits are cut off.”

Says Randolph about going into talks sans agents, “I do think it’s going to be hard. That’s their expertise and we’ve benefited from it in the past, partly it’s just getting a third party perspective on where the best deal available to you is. It’s just a little bit harder when all those negotiation partners are on your team. And always has been.”

“They’re rarely involved with our contract,” commented Unbelievable co-creator Susannah Grant who was up for a Long Form Adapted WGA Award nomination, “I don’t think they have anything to do with our contract negotiations. The guild is pretty self contained in that.”

For Watchmen actor and Leaves of Grass filmmaker Tim Blake Nelson at the WGAE awards ceremony, the current situation that the WGA is mired in is just one big mess.

“You have the agencies learning how to produce and package, and you have the writers struggling against that, and you have the writers wanting new contracts that reflects the new ways that stuff is being monetized on new platforms. It’s like anything, a negotiation back and forth. I feel like the writers have good points, the producers have good points, the agents have good points. And also everybody is acting kind of horribly.” said Nelson.

Michael Clayton filmmaker and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story scribe Tony Gilroy couldn’t agree more about the swampy situation that the guild is in prior to talks.

But there’s one absolute for her she doesn’t want the AMPTP to forget.

“We’re the content creators. Can’t make anything without us. We’ve never asked for anything more than what’s fair.”