Hollywood screenwriters approve new three-year contract
Wednesday, 27 Feb 2008 13:41
Hollywood's film and TV overwhelmingly approve new contract that brought an end to their three-month strike.
Hollywood's film and television writers have overwhelmingly approved the new contract that brought an end to their three-month strike.
A massive 93.6 per cent of the 4,060 Writers' Guild America (WGA) members who cast a ballot voted in favour of the new contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers (AMPTP).
In contrast, some 5,506 WGA members voted in the crucial ballot that preceded the crippling industrial action in October.
The new agreement, which runs from 2008 to 2011, gives the WGA jurisdiction over writing for new media such as the internet, DVD and mobile phones, as well as giving writers the same rights for content distributed on new media platforms that they receive when their work is shown on TV or in cinemas.
WGA West president Patric Verrone called the contract a "new beginning for writers in the digital age".
"It ensures that guild members will be fairly compensated for the content they create for the Internet, and it also covers the reuse on new-media platforms of the work they have done in film since 1971 and in TV since 1977," he added.
"That's a huge body of work that will continue to generate revenue for our members for many years to come as it is distributed electronically."
A brief AMPTP statement said: "Now that our industry is back in business, our goal is to collaborate with everyone in the industry - writers, directors, actors and stagehands alike - to produce the highest-quality entertainment products without any further interruption."
The terms of the agreement are retroactive to February 13th - the day the strike stopped - to May 1st, 2011.
In the most costly example of industrial action to hit Hollywood in almost 20 years, scores of films and TV shows were postponed or cancelled as writers downed tools, while award ceremonies such as the Golden Globes were hampered by actors' unwillingness to cross picket lines.