Hollywood scribes and their studio bosses were hunkered down last night in a last-ditch effort to hammer out a contract and avert a strike set to begin today.
The two sides agreed to sit down again after the Writers Guild of America – both the East and West branches – ordered its 12,000 members to halt work at 3:01 a.m. today, New York time.
The meeting between the guild and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers was set at the request of a federal mediator.
Guild leaders, who issued the strike call on Friday, made it clear the onus was on the producers to come up with counterproposals.
“There is still time and a deal to be made before this strike begins,” Michael Winship, president of the Writers Guild of America East, said in a statement. “We urge the studios and networks to come back and bargain fairly.”
A spokeswoman for the AMPTP declined to comment on whether bargainers planned to modify or make new proposals during the talks.
The strike would be felt first in late-night TV, with shows such as “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” and “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,” going immediately into reruns.
Soap operas will be the next to disappear or revert to reruns.
The writers are demanding an increase in what they are paid for movies and TV shows sold on DVDs and online. The studios refuse to budge on so-called “residuals,” citing rising production and marketing costs.
“Among the screenwriters we know, they are unanimous,” said Brian Sawyer, who along with writing partner Gregg Rossen recently sold a show to 20th Century Fox called “Model Family.” “Writers aren’t known for agreeing on things.”
The guild’s East Coast branch is asking members to walk the picket line outside Rockefeller Center, the home of NBC, during one of two four-hour shifts that start at 9 a.m. and 1 p.m.
Although the strike captains have already received their marching orders, a spokeswoman for the guild said union leaders had the ability to call off the strike at any time.
The last major writers’ strike in 1998 crippled the TV business and cost the industry an estimated $500 million. Losses this time are projected to hit $3 billion.