Tom Cruise's United Artists Strikes Deal with WGA
By the power of Xenu, there is movement!
This is quite an announcement as Nikki Finke at Deadline Hollywood continues her 24/7 strike coverage (what is she going to talk about once the strike is over?), and this time she comes with news that heads of the newly rejuvinated United Artists, Tom Cruise and Paula Wagner, have struck an independent deal with the Writers Guild of America.
Here is how Finke's report reads:
This is big. This is BIG! Because WGA sources just told me that the guild has clinched an "Independent Agreement" with Tom Cruise's and Paula Wagner's re-started United Artists. This now means that small and struggling UA has a leg up on every other Hollywood studio because it will be able to hire the striking writers. wga.bmpThis is to date the first so-called side deal cut by the WGA with a movie studio since the strike began on November 3rd as part of the guild's newly articulated "divide and conquer" strategy. The WGA's first side deal with a production company was an "interim agreement" with David Letterman's Worldwide Pants which owns both The Late Show and the Late Late Show airing on CBS.
Oddly enough the report is that the deal accepted by UA is the exact same deal proposed to the AMPTP before they walked out of negotiations back in December.
It's the same kind of agreement that the guild made with [David Letterman's] Worldwide Pants. But 'interim agreement' is not the right word," an insider told Finke. "At the end of the day, once an overall agreement is done between the WGA and AMPTP, if the terms and conditions of that agreement are more favorable to UA, they will be able to enjoy that. This essentially means that UA has the ability to be in business with the WGA."
Not a bad deal for UA I would say, at least they get to get back to work and should the deal sweeten they can take the upgrade later on down the line.
For the full report click here.
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How do all these independent agreements help? U/A can't hire all of the out of work writers. To me it seems to be a way of breaking the union, forcing everyone into independent deals and not into an across the board deal.
This does not seem good for the union or it's members, I think they are being sold a bill of goods with these independent agreements.
Until the union strikes an accord with all the studios for the same demands, this only gets a handful of writers working.
The only reason I can see for U/A to sign is that Cruise has a movie stalled in production that needs some scenes written. If this movie flops, which very well could be the death knell for U/A, no writers working at all for U/A.