November 1st Writers' Strike Looking Likely

Posted on October 9, 2007

The talks between the WGA and the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers are not going well at all. In fact, they're going so poorly that everyone is beginning to imagine that a November 1st writers' strike really will happen. That means that short-term projects are being greenlit at light speed, with the hope of beating the deadline. But major studios have stopped taking spec scripts and writer's pitches until this is resolved.

WGA West prexy Patric Verrone tells Daily Variety, "A strike on Nov. 1 is a real option. What I'm hearing from our screenwriters and showrunners is that they're being asked to schedule additional table reads, prepare additional scripts and squeeze in more shows, which may be physically impossible in that amount of time."

The Variety story says the pace of feature deal making is hectic but "only for short-term project." Long-term feature development has become really difficult. One producer told Variety, "Unless you're a triple-A high-end rewriter, you're not getting an assignment now."

This is also a nightmare for television viewers. If there's a strike, look for extra episodes of 20/20 and other news shows, more reality show episodes and the like. Talk shows which rely on comedy writers, such as Letterman and Leno will probably go off the air for a couple of months, as happened before. And sitcoms will be dead in the water.