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The Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers released a rare joint statement Wednesday after widely anticipated talks between the two parties.
“The WGA and AMPTP met today to negotiate and will meet again tomorrow,” the direct statement read. While it’s not unusual during entertainment labor negotiations for a union and AMPTP to issue a joint press release during talks, this is the first time the WGA and AMPTP have done so amid some form of media blackout affecting both sides. This controversial negotiation cycle.
“If they’re making a joint statement, I’ll take that as a positive sign,” said a studio source. “Given what happened, it feels different than before.”
Key entertainment executives including Disney CEO Bob Iger, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Chaslau, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos and NBC Universal Studios Group president and chief content officer Donna Langley joined Wednesday’s talks. Discussions. “CEOs have cleared their calendars and want to sit down and have a real conversation,” said a studio side source familiar with Wednesday’s session. THR.
These executives had cleared their schedules in preparation for negotiations to go late, which turned out not to be necessary — the meeting ended late in the afternoon. All four are set to return to the negotiating table on Thursday, a studio source said THR Earlier Wednesday.
Wednesday’s meeting marked a return to the bargaining table for the WGA and AMPTP, after negotiations stalled following a separate meeting between WGA leaders and top studio executives in late August. On August 21, AMPTP publicly released a pre-proposal to writers following that conference, and the writers applauded, saying the CEO greeted them “with a lecture on how great their one and only counteroffer is.”
Leslie Goldberg contributed reporting.
