Tom Cruise's United Artists Reaches Controversial Side Deal With WGA

Deadline Hollywood Daily:

SATURDAY UPDATE: I've just been told that the Hollywood/Big Media CEOs who belong to the AMPTP are furious at MGM chairman Harry Sloan for "allowing" this WGA-United Artists deal to go through.

FRIDAY NIGHT: This is big. This is BIG! Because WGA sources just told me that the guild has clinched an "Independent Agreement" with Tom Cruise's and Paula Wagner's re-started United Artists. This now means that small and struggling UA has a leg up on every other Hollywood studio because it will be able to hire the striking writers. wga.bmpThis is to date the first so-called side deal cut by the WGA with a movie studio since the strike began on November 3rd as part of the guild's newly articulated "divide and conquer" strategy. The WGA's first side deal with a production company was an "interim agreement" with David Letterman's Worldwide Pants which owns both The Late Show and the Late Late Show airing on CBS. Granted, given how tiny UA is -- only six executives -- and how limited their movie development can be, this is more of a symbolic than a significant development in the ongoing WGA strike.

Read the whole story: Deadline Hollywood Daily

Comments

[ducdebrabant]

Writers long ago established their right, not to one-time payments by publishers, but to royalties on their books as long as they're in print. Writers are not set designers, even when they work in collaborative media.

[Ginzaman]

Isn't this the kiss of death for the WGA? First, a side deal with Letterman because he's the richest and most powerful host in TV. Now, the biggest and most powerful movie star gets a deal too? How is the WGA suppose to be taken seriously? SAG votes to not cross picket lines at the Golden Globes. But the truth is it's every rich and pwerful person for themselves. And screw you to the rest of you.

[JScott]

The article sez nothing about the WGA getting residuals from 'new media' at UA or is that a given?

[corymac]

Here comes the Cavalry! Now maybe this whole bloody mess will be solved. This is part of an article I lifted from Reuters.

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - The Directors Guild of America has begun casual contract talks with the studios, and an announcement of formal negotiations appears likely within the coming week, a step that ensures the writers strike will persist for some time.

With its focus turned to the DGA talks, the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers (AMPTP) has little incentive to seek an accommodation with the Writers Guild of America (WGA), which has been on strike since November 5.

The situation still could implode if the AMPTP fails to assure DGA brass that the union will be rewarded for entering early contract talks. The DGA is under contract through June 30, but the guild has a history of negotiating new contracts about six months early and has signaled an interest in commencing formal talks soon.

The AMPTP would love for the DGA to do just that, if only to show that at least one Hollywood labor organization is willing to engage with the studio organization.

Discussions between the directors and studios thus far have primarily involved conference calls, with little face time among those who will sit at the bargaining table. It has taken the better part of a week to contact some of the interested parties, with executives still getting back from vacations.

[unionworker2]

A writer has no more claim to downstream income than a set designer or a caterer, they are all just components in a complex business process that involves many people in many roles, from Janitor to Financier...

[realitytrumpsbull]

I've got an idea for a sci-fi movie...and no,
it's not a Star Trek blue movie, either. Like,
real science-fictiony, but post-something- something. Actually, I'll admit it, it's
asking Larry Niven to loft one of his many
book ideas in the general direction of Hollywierd to see if any of the producers and
whathaveyou would be willing to try and convert
some of his more memorable stories into a movie.

http://www.baen.com/library/067172052X/067172052X.htm
http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/AuthorSpecAlphaList.asp?BkNum=118
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Niven

They did Asimov's "I, Robot" and it was a lot
of fun, PKD's "Do Androids Dream Of Electric
Sheep", and people STILL talk about THAT movie,
Star Wars, of course, Star Trek(the saga MIGHT continue), there was Alien, AVP, War Of The Worlds, Species, Deep Impact, Space Cowboys,
Astronaut Farmer, go back in time and there was
THX-1138, Day The Earth Stood Still, Forbidden Planet, Shape Of Things To Come, Planet Of The Apes, Silent Running, and probably tens and hundreds more, some of them really bad 'B' movies, but sci-fi nonetheless(Laser Blast,
http://www.space.com/sciencefiction/movies/laserblast_001101.html )
I think sci-fi has a lot of life left in it and I hope they make more.