After nearly five months on strike, unionized writers reached a tentative accord with the major film and TV studios, setting the stage for an end to the protest that has paralyzed Hollywood.
Here's what we know: Over the weekend, negotiators held marathon sessions to try to hammer out an agreement. While neither side publicly disclosed the terms of the deal, the Writers Guild of America described it as "exceptional," with "meaningful gains and protections for writers in every sector of the membership."
The agreement still needs to be ratified by members of WGA, which represents more than 11,000 writers.
But even a tentative deal is significant, especially considering how badly recent efforts to end the standoff have been and how far apart the studios and writers have been, my colleagues Chris Isidore and Oliver Darcy write.
In August, discussions reportedly went off the rails, leaving both sides accusing each other of negotiating in bad faith. A month before that, Disney CEO Bob Iger went on TV and suggested, rather condescendingly, that the writers' demands were "just not realistic" and that their protest was only adding to the business challenges facing the industry. (Iger made comments against the backdrop of Idaho mountains at an event known as "summer camp for billionaires." It was a first-rate PR disaster.)
Money, honey...
At the core of both the writers' and actors' concerns is how they get paid.
Revenue from traditional linear television have been declining for years, and most studios haven't managed to make streaming profitable. Streaming shows also tend to be shorter, which means less work overall.
The writers have said they can't afford to live under the current pay structure. Even some award-winning writers say they're now unable to make a living the way they once did.
Writers and actors are also concerned about the rise of artificial intelligence, and want protections to ensure movies and shows are written by humans.
In fact, the use of generative AI in production was one of the final sticking points, a person familiar with the matter said.
What happens next?
The strike isn't over yet, and Hollywood won't go back to normal right away.
While the writers have suspended picketing, the deal must still be approved by the guild's 11,000 members. Best-case scenario, according to people familiar with the matter, is that members could approve the deal and be back to work in just a few days.
That means late-night TV shows that have been suspended can resume, and scripts that have been backlogged can be picked up again.
But production on films and TV requires actors, so Hollywood won't be fully back to its fighting weight until the studios can reach a deal with the more than 160,000 SAG-AFTRA performers who've been on strike since July.
The tentative WGA deal increases pressure on the actors union to reach an agreement along the same lines, although SAG-AFTRA still has enough leverage to keep productions shut down. My colleague Eva Rothenberg has the latest.
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