Three months into the Hollywood writers’ strike, there is at last some sign of movement. When the writers walked off the job on May 2, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (the organization representing the studios) ended negotiations, and no talks have happened in the 14 weeks since. But on Tuesday, the AMPTP informed the Writers Guild of America that it wanted to meet “to discuss negotiations,” as the guild told its members. That meeting is supposed to happen today.
What the AMPTP (which is also dealing with an actors’ strike) will have to say is anyone’s guess, but we know what the two sides will ultimately be arguing about: streaming. Because, at heart, this is a clash over the way streaming has changed the movies and, more important, television.