The Writers Guild and the AMPTP met Thursday for a third time this week in an attempt to hammer out a deal to end the ongoing writers’ strike. It remains uncertain whether they’ll meet again Friday, but Deadline has confirmed that the studios’ CEOs are planning to meet Friday to discuss where things now stand.
Deadline understands that the studio CEO virtual meetings have been semi-regular occurrences, with leaders of some of the biggest entertainment companies discussing potential paths to a deal with the writers guild.
The WGA and Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers restarted bargaining last Friday for the first time since the strike began May 2 and recessed until Tuesday after the companies made a counterproposal to guild’s proposals. Tuesday’s meeting reportedly ended with “mixed results,” and since then, they’ve been going back and forth to see if they can come to a tentative agreement.
As of yesterday, there hadn’t been meaningful progress bridging the gap on the outstanding issues, sources tell Deadline.
The chief strike issues include pay raises, viewership-based streaming residuals, the “preservation of the writers’ room” through minimum staffing and guaranteed days of employment, and guardrails against the use of artificial intelligence to write scripts.