There might be light at the end of the writers’ strike tunnel after all, after the Directors Guild Of America sealed a deal for the renegotiation of their contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture And Television Producers after just FIVE days of talks.
The DGA’s delegates, headed up by Gil Cates, includes an agreement to double the rate for royalties paid to directors for material streamed on the internet – one of the sticking points in negotiations between the Writers Guild and the AMPTP.
“Two words describe this deal: groundbreaking and substantial,” said Cates. “There are no rollbacks of any kind.”
The deal has been welcomed by WGA leaders, but at the moment there’s still no sign of resolution between the WGA and the AMPTP, who haven’t been actively negotiating for some while.
But with this deal going through – which, by the way, averts the danger of any directors’ strike in the summer – the pressure has increased on the two bodies to get back to the negotiating table, particularly as many members of the Directors Guild are also members of the WGA.
The writers have been striking since November, with the strike disrupting production of many films and TV shows and, perhaps most notably, the Golden Globes. It’ll be interesting to see what happens now – we’re not going to be so bold as to predict a swift resolution, but finally there does appear to be some hope.