The deal, which is expected to be announced tomorrow (Tuesday), would seem (to me at least) to signal that the Directors have obtained a contract which would likely be agreeable to the Writers, assuming of course that the rumor is true.
As I have posted before, I have an extremely well-placed source who assures me that the DGA Negotiating Committee is acutely aware of what the Writers need to see in a contract that they could sign. This same source predicted that the DGA deal would be done extremely quickly (though he thought it would be longer than this).
One would have to believe that the DGA would not settle so quickly if they were not able to satisfy the Writers' needs as well.
Further evidence that the deal, if real, is likely agreeable to the Writers is that several Studios(Warners, CBS, Universal, Fox) cut Writers' deal today. The all directly cited the Writers' Strike as the direct reason for the cuts.
Fingers crossed!
UPDATE 11:23PM Monday - There hasn't been much else reported on this in the blogosphere or traditional press. It's possible the rumor was started by the axe falling simultaneously at four studios, as opposed to it being an existing story which was fueled by the layoffs.
As with any and all rumors in this Strike, keep up hope; but don't fall prey to false expectations. Let's see what happens tomorrow.
7 comments:
Good luck with trying to sleep tonight! Made the mistake of reading the anti DGA deal comments on UH and almost got upset till I remembered that they are the few in thousands who really want to get this all behind us.
Nitey nite!
Transpo
Everything is a conspiracy over there. F.M. can be triggered after 6-weeks, can it not? Aren't we in week 9 or 10? Weren't letters sent out last week, before "official" DGA negotiations even started (on Saturday)? If so, following the Grassy Knoll Logic, a DGA deal would have had to be a virtual 'sure thing' BEFORE the Saturday meeting took place for the Studios to have been ready to pull those deals on Monday.
If the DGA really has come to a fair deal on New Media, that's great. Fantastic, even. But will the WGA finally walk away from Animation, Reality and the Sympathy Strike to make a deal?
And, no. I don't like Cherry KoolAid. I like Grape. It tastes like purple.
Still early....still hope...
I'm still under the impression that it takes more than 3 days to negotiate a complicated series of formulas for a new residual stream. Not to mention all the other areas the MBA gets updated every three years. I admit I could be wrong here, but I think the rumor mill is working overtime, simply because neither the directors nor the AMPTP are going to talk about this in public. For the DGA, a press blackout means a press blackout. In the absence of news, some people are creating their own. Again, I'll be happy to admit if I'm wrong.
Personally, I'm just relieved that Nikki Finke has stopped posting rumors for the moment, or this thing would be much farther out of the box than it already is. On the other hand, it hasn't stopped Robert Elisberg from putting up another attack on the DGA at Huffington Post.
The one major area I have concern in for the end of the strike is the damage that's been done and the wounds that have been caused. When we go back to the stages, there's still going to be a lot of anger. There will certainly be relief, to be sure. And there will also be consequences, particularly for the ones throwing the most stones. From the writers' anger at the moguls, the moguls' anger at the writers, and the crew's unhappiness with BOTH of the others for putting them in this situation, you're talking about a pretty ticklish situation. It's going to take time to heal.
Oh well.... at least their still in there talking. Guess the rumour was just that and the news blackout works.
There really is NO NEWS from the DGA talks, yet the rumor mongers over at UH insist that they have "off-the-record information from two credible sources" that says they are stuck on an internet plan. It's a news blackout pure and simple.
The criteria for who gets the posts over there must be getting worse as I have been unable to get one in for days. Also they have a rant about the conspiracy of the producers to disrupt their pep rally site with vile hate filled messages. Hah! Guerilla blog warefare no less!
Meanwhile we wait as the talks go on with those at the table blissfully unaware that somewhere
a frustrated blogger just broke his/her hand punching the wall and is blaming it on the evil studios....
I have to thank the guys at UH for getting my phone to ring off the hook yesterday with excited people calling me to say they thought the strike was about to end. This led to two hours of me on the phone trying to explain the difference between rumors on blogs, and reality. And then dealing with deflated people who were now angrier than before they bought into the rumor. This is why I have so many issues with Nikki Finke's behavior during this situation, and why I found the posting at UH to be completely irresponsible.
On the other hand, I did have a good laugh when they put up the "AMPTP shill conspiracy" post. I love that. Anyone who isn't supporting the WGA line MUST be a paid shill or a paid troll. Riiiiight.
And now, to add injury to insult, they repost Robert Elisberg's latest departure from reality. His stuff is really astonishing. He makes cracks about the AMPTP choosing to negotiate with the DGA rather than the WGA, but doesn't acknowledge the conduct of the WGA that led to this happening. He tries to paint a picture of the networks and studios being in dire trouble when they're actually continuing to make next year's movies, and the networks are making a lot of money from all the reality shows. He talks about what the town will look like if it's shut down, not remembering that most of Hollywood is shut down right now as a result of the strike. He makes the usual cheap shots at the DGA which I won't even dignify here. He suggests that the AMPTP suddenly return to WGA talks rather than finish the DGA talks, which he says is one of the only courses of action that "makes sense." The ridiculousness of that statement speaks for itself. He tries to bring up the side deals as examples of the WGA being reasonable, but forgets to mention their REFUSALS to make such reasonable deals with Dick Clark or AMPAS.
Finally, Elisberg sums up the vitriol with a refusal to acknowledge either the WGA's responsiblities in this situation or the inevitable compromise they will be forced to accept. And he finishes with a crack about WGA people hoping to make deals with "venture capitalists", without acknowledging that most internet work is not paid. Truly amazing stuff - it's like visiting Bizarro-world for a few minutes. It would be humorous if the situation weren't so tragic.
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