WGA writer’s strike: What is happening in Hollywood?

Behind the glitz and the glamour of upcoming film promotions, the writers who are responsible for creating your favourite shows in Hollywood, are on strike. Dubbed '2023 Writers Guild of America strike', it has also now gone hand-in-hand with The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) strike, as actors also joined in on the ongoing Hollywood labour dispute.

A major key point of the dispute, according to Writer's Guild America (WGA), Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) has skimmed the writer's salaries, that they would receive from residuals from streaming, compared to 10 years ago.

Another motion of the strike was against the notion of Artificial Intelligent (AI) takeover. The writers want ChatGPT to be only used as a helpful tool in research or structuring scripts, rather than an alternative of human resource.

Around April, a whopping 97% of WGA members voted to go on strike by May if AMPTP did not meet their agreements, which represents major film and TV industries in Hollywood. AMPTP engaged in in lengthy talks on behalf of the major studios and streaming platforms, but failed to reach a deal before deadline.

During the strike, WGA has proposed actions that they cannot perform while on strike and that includes- 'writing, revising, pitching, or discussing future projects with companies that are members of the AMPTP.' That entails that these members of the union will not be working with major studios like, Amazon Studios, Netflix, MGM, Apple, NBC Universal, Paramount, Sony Pictures and so on. The repercussions that Hollywood will be facing by not paying its' writers their dues is already underway.

So far, major studios have pushed back many of their projects due to the lack of writers. The next season of House of The Dragon was supposed to be drop by next year, but looking at the unforeseeable future of its scripting status, the show's release might be pushed back to 2025. Not only TV shows, but films, podcasts have also been affected by the strike, ones which fall under the guild or are largely overseen by the union. Other projects with completed scripts, have either been postponed or cancelled due to the union's use of 'picket lines' to cause disruption.

Actors have also joined in on the action of demands, as SAG-AFTRA members joined in the picketing in May. A significant number of actors joined in, with Drew Barrymore retracting from hosting the 2023 MTV Movie and TV Awards in support of strike. Pedro Pascal, Ethan Hawke, Snoop Dogg, Sean Penn and many more have also shown their support in either through leaving shows, publishing statements or prerecorded messages and more.

The most recent development so far is that by having actors join in on the strike, they will not appear in films, or even promotions during the stoppage. Many major productions like Avatar will affected and postponed indefinably. When long will the strike last? According to actor Brian Cox, "until the end of the year".

With the stars of Oppenheimer walking off the red carpet and Christopher Nolan saying he will not make films during the strike, the future of filming in Hollywood has truly come at a standstill. If projects get pushed back months and then years, there will be dissonance created with the audiences, creating a further uncertain environment in the field of scripting.