Hollywood writers agree to end five-month strike after new studio deal

After almost 150 days on strike, there’s been a major development for script writers of Aussies favourite shows.

After almost 150 days on strike, the Hollywood writers’ strike is over and writers can return to work Wednesday (US time).

On the 148th day of the stoppages, the East and West boards of the Writers Guild of America voted unanimously to lift the strike order as of 12.01 am Wednesday (US PT time0, following a tentative agreement with the Alliance of Motion Pictures and Television Producers.

The Guild members will begin voting on formally ratifying the three-year deal next week, wrapping up October 9.

Given the enthusiastic endorsement by the WGA negotiating committee, it is expected to be quickly ratified by strike weary members, according to Variety.

Hollywood’s historic strike could soon be over. Picture: Getty Images via AFP

The WGA also released the complete 94-page contract and a summary of the new terms, which they branded “exceptional – with meaningful gains and protections for writers in every sector of the membership”.

The deal includes gains in compensation, a new requirement for minimum staff levels in TV writers’ rooms, improvement in payment terms for screenwriters and protections for the use of artificial intelligence in the writing process.

Meanwhile, The SAG-AFTRA is still picketing the AMPTP, awaiting its turn to return to the negotiating table amid its 75-day strike.

The strike has lasted 145 days. Picture: Getty Images/AFP

Thousands of film and television writers downed their pens back in early May over demands including better pay for writers, greater rewards for creating hit shows, and protection from artificial intelligence.

They have manned picket lines for months outside offices including Netflix and Disney and — having been joined by striking actors in mid-July — have brought the entertainment industry to a costly standstill.

Among their demands, writers say their salaries have not kept up with inflation, and that the rise of streaming has diminished the “residuals” they earn when a show they work on becomes a smash hit.

Studios have offered greater transparency in streaming audience numbers, while stopping short of offering to revise the way residual payments are calculated.

Writers have also demanded curbs on the use of AI, which they fear could be used to partially replace them in generating future films or show scripts, and therefore further undercut their pay.

The strike has ground the entertainment industry to a standstill. Picture: Getty Images via AFP

AUSSIE TV DRAMA BOOMS

Meanwhile, Hollywood’s writers strike helped propel Australian content to new global heights.

The combination of scripters downing tools and the insatiable the appetite for stories set in our unique landscape, has seen global streaming giants descend on locations spanning the entire breadth of the country.

Netflix this week added the sweeping, explosive drama Desert King to its growing slate of original Australian content.

Netflix original Australian production has Desert Kings has kicked off filming on a Cattle station in the Northern Territory. Picture: Netflix

Set on a real-life sprawling Northern Territory cattle station, the scripted series invokes themes of the award-winning small screen productions of Yellowstone and Succession.

It is a battle of factions – rival cattle barons, desert gangsters, Indigenous elders and billionaire miners.

Executive producer Ben Davies said it’s taking a monumental effort to capture the magic on screen in such a remote place, with 180 crew now based in the NT including 140 living on the station.

“To authentically capture (the Top End cattle industry) we have embedded ourselves here in a most fantastic way,” he said.

Production of the Netflix adaptation of Trent Dalton’s iconic Australian novel, Boy Swallows Universe, has wrapped following filming in Brisbane. Picture: Netflix.

“And with the team living here we’re capturing remarkably authentic images that, when matched with powerful storytelling, encapsulate the world we’re looking to share, not just locally, but globally as well.”

Desert King will be released globally next year and joins Netflix’s already strong history of commissioning Australian stories, including previously released Heartbreak High and Wellmania.

Netflix show Wellmania starring Celeste Barber. Picture – Supplied

Also coming is Boy Swallows Universe and Love is in the Air, which will launch free from the competition of the usually cluttered global release calendar because of the writer’s strike.

Meanwhile Paramount+ released details of its next major drama starring Asher Keddie and David Wenham. The eight-episode series, inspired by the book Fake by Stephanie Wood, has started filming in Melbourne. It follows on from the first international edition of the NCIS franchise wrapping in Sydney last month.

Sigourney Weaver in The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart. Picture: Prime Video

Prime Video still has Hot Potato: The Story of the Wiggles to come this year, on top of the nine Australian originals already released including the global smash hits The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart and Deadloch.

The Foxtel Group will release Strife – based on Mia Freedman’s memoir – later this year, along with High Country starring Leah Purcell. It’s just commenced filming on the second instalment of the multi-award winning The Twelve in WA.

Disney+ had scripted series The Clearing, and documentaries including Matildas: The World at Our Feet and Fearless: The Inside Story of the AFLW.

It leaves just AppleTV to announce any Australian originals.

The homegrown Heartbreak High reboot is a global hit, with the Aussie drama hitting #5 on Netflix's most-watched shows globally. Picture: Supplied

While it’s a purple patch at present, the Australian Writers Guild urged caution around letting global streamers tell “our” history and stories, long term.

“And you cannot place the telling of our Australian stories, that our children are going to see on our screens, in the hands of American multinational streamers,” Guild executive member Peter Mattessi said.

“We have never done that as a nation. We’ve never allowed them to decide the cultural future of our nation.”

Mattessi – who has extensive screenwriting credits from Neighbours to EastEnders – said Australia had always mandated strict guidelines on local networks, and it needed to extend to streamers.

“That’s always been something that we, as the people of Australia, have taken in our own hands and said ‘we will require you, if you want your broadcast license, if you want to take $3 billion in Australian subscriber fees out of the country every year to do certain things’.

“There are certain things that you are going to have to do to maintain the cultural health and future of our nation. And the most important one of them is a certain amount of Australian content.”

Originally published as Hollywood writers agree to end five-month strike after new studio deal