Los Angeles, CA – In a race against the clock, David Scarpa, the acclaimed screenwriter behind “Gladiator 2,” a sequel to the Oscar-winning masterpiece, found himself in a gripping battle with time. The looming deadline, etched in an email, mandated that all writing cease at the stroke of midnight. Scarpa, however, managed to submit his screenplay draft with breathtaking precision, hitting “send” at 11.59, leaving the producers breathless as they observed the culmination of his creative endeavor.
Scarlet etched 148 days of creative limbo into the memory of himself and his fellow members of the esteemed Writers Guild of America (WGA). This period bore witness to picket lines outside major studios, as the writers passionately advocated for improved minimum pay, augmented streaming residuals, and safeguards against the encroachment of artificial intelligence (AI) into their domain. The strenuous strike finally drew to a close this week, with the writers emerging as victors, eager to return to their craft.
In parallel, the world of acting, also gripped by a strike, is expected to find resolution in the near future. This will set the wheels of Hollywood back in motion, rekindling hope for the winter half of the TV season. Yet, even as creative energy surges forth, the industry stands at a precipice, grappling with uncertainties surrounding the post-pandemic box office, a potential pullback from content saturation, and the looming specter of AI, or other disruptive technologies, on the horizon.
Notwithstanding these challenges, a sense of jubilance pervaded the Office in Santa Monica, a haven for writers and the birthplace of iconic screenplays such as “Eternals,” “Finding Dory,” “The Maze Runner,” and “Serenity.” Within this sanctuary of creativity, people fervently typed away on their laptops, making up for lost time, shrouded in an aura of silent dedication.
Reflecting on the ordeal, Gillian Weeks, a prominent film and TV screenwriter, recalled the strike as a period of personal sacrifices, yet likened a meeting of guild members at the Hollywood Palladium to “a rock concert.” The gathering was an electric celebration, packed to capacity, exuberant, and overflowing with joy.
With the revival of daytime and late-night talk shows, an explosion of creative activity is anticipated. Weeks observed, “There’s no grace period, like everyone’s rubbing the sleep out of their eyes,” and she continued, “If you had work going into the strike that you had to put on pause, you’re just back at it immediately. But as to whether people will be commissioning new work, I don’t know what that’s going to look like this fall. There is a lot of catching up to do.”
The Screen Actors’ Guild (SAG), representing 160,000 film and TV professionals, is also seeking improved compensation from streaming platforms and protections against AI intrusion. Scarpa, with extensive experience collaborating with renowned director Ridley Scott, foresees a prompt resolution to the actors’ strike.
Scarpa noted, “Once the studios decide that they want the strike to end, they can wrap it up pretty quickly. This deal could have been made six months ago. It was just a matter of, in a sense, testing whether or not we had the fortitude to sustain a strike for six months or however long.”
Week after week, studios, including industry giants like Netflix, Walt Disney, and Warner Bros Discovery, probed the resilience of the 11,500-member WGA. Despite attempts to sow discord and fear, the writers stood resolute in their demands.
The new three-year contract unveils concessions from the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, including enhanced health and pension benefits. It ensures the preservation of writers’ rooms and stipulates minimum staff sizes. Writers, who have felt the financial strain during the streaming boom, secured significant pay increases and future residual earnings, surpassing the studios’ offerings. The guild also negotiated new residual payments based on the popularity of streaming shows.
Scarpa conceded that the era of the “Netflix bloat,” marked by an inundation of content, is unlikely to return. He explained, “This strike was happening against the background of other macro issues in the industry. You had all these studios expanding their programming to an enormous extent…That belt tightening will continue, and the strike is kind of a means to that end more than anything.”
Crucially, the AI question found its place in the contract, recognizing the invaluable role AI can play in filmmaking while safeguarding the authors’ primacy. Studios must now disclose if AI was employed in any part of the creative process, and AI-generated storylines will not be considered “literary material.” This preserves writers’ rights and enables legal action if their work is used to train AI.
Amy Berg, a screenwriter and showrunner, lauded these AI protections as a paramount achievement. She emphasized, “AI, as we know, doesn’t create anything. It synthesizes and plagiarizes.”
However, the nascent nature of AI adds an element of unpredictability. The contract acknowledges the evolving legal landscape around generative AI and mandates regular meetings between the companies and the guild to adapt to emerging challenges.
While some writers remain apprehensive about the encroachment of AI into their craft, the safeguards negotiated in the contract offer a semblance of assurance. As David Gleason, a seasoned screenwriter, aptly put it, “I’m always optimistic…As long as someone, somewhere is watching audiovisual content, that’s a good time.”
In the ever-evolving world of cinema, crises are but a chapter, and resilience the enduring theme. The creative spirit of Hollywood perseveres, ready to script new stories and shape the future of entertainment.
