The long-term effects of the strike are beginning to manifest as the Writers’ Guild of America enters its fourth month on strike. It now seems like studios are beginning to intensify their efforts to drive writers to accept an offer. Warner Bros. Television Group has targeted prominent writers this time as a contract with John Wells Productions was suspended in June.
Warner Bros Discovery is also suspending the final overall deals with some of its top creators more than three months into the writers’ strike. According to sources, the list includes Mindy Kaling’s Kaling International, Bill Lawrence’s Doozer Productions, and Greg Berlanti Productions. According to sources, calls were received last night indicating that J.J. Abrams’s Bad Robot is also in the process of being informed.
The move, which had an impact on prominent writers, is causing an increase in tensions between Hollywood studios and the Writers Guild of America. Deadline reports that WBTV has halted all ongoing overall agreements with showrunners for all undeveloped projects.
The deals of Kaling, Abrams, and Lorre were not the first to be suspended
These contracts of six well-known writers are not the first ones to be suspended. As soon as the strike began, other showrunners began reporting similar situations with their contracts, and well-known creators have already spoken out about what’s happened. George R.R. Martin, the creator of House of the Dragon and author of Game of Thrones, previously disclosed that even his contract had been suspended.
A Look Back at Three Months of Suspensions and Speculations
Exactly three months ago, Warner Bros Discovery and other studios began notifying writer-producers. The message was that first-look agreements for writers, who didn’t have any series in the works or in post-production, were being suspended. It’s speculated that Warner Bros Discovery did not suspend some of its top performers at the time, especially those who had ongoing projects.
Hollywood Strikes’ Effect on Warner Bros. Discovery’s 2023 Earnings and the CEO’s Viewpoint
The chief executive of Warner Bros. Discovery, David Zaslav has stated, “We are trying to get this resolved in a way that’s really fair and everyone feels fairly treated. Having said that, in our guidance, we said that this would be resolved by September. And here we are in September. This is really a very unusual event — the last time it happened was 1960.
In a securities filing last Tuesday, Warner Bros. Discovery stated that the Hollywood strikes would hurt its 2023 earnings with losses of up to $500 million.
