NEIL CONFIRMING THAT NOW THAT THE STRIKE IS OVER HE IS GOING TO START WRITING GOOD OMENS 3! 🥳🥳🥳❤❤❤

(Amazon commisioned only the S3 scripts so far, not S3 itself)

On BlueSky social, Both Brett Simons (one of Megamind's writers) and @neil-gaiman (cause he's one of my favorites and I love him.) responded to my questions about how things were with the strike finally nearing completion with better pay and protections for the writers.

This is what they said.

How can you help?

Now negotiations are still being made and as of this moment, the contracts are not signed, but you can help them by donating to the causes, and/or spreading the word!

Solidarity friends!

Okay, updates on the strikes:

WGA appears to have made a deal (Sunday, Sept. 24). SAG-AFTRA has not. We don’t know the details of the WGA deal yet.

This might mean writers can resume working soon while actors remain on strike. This is not scabbing (remembers, actors were working when writers first went on strike). Still no calls for boycotts from audiences, etc.

Currently, no one is allowed to even start working. Agreement has to be ratified by the union first. Earliest this might be would is Tuesday Sept. 26.

I’m so happy for them

i just checked wikipedia and the 2007-2008 writer’s strike was only 99 days long. the strike that shows up in the wikipedia pages of every show from that era with a blurb on how it affected shooting and release schedules.

we’re on day 113 of the current strike, with no end in sight.

I'm making peace with all of the shows I like that are currently airing either not getting an ending at all, or having shitty next seasons. I support the writers and actors, I support the strike, and I think it's really important that we get our mindset straight now, because going by the results of the previous strike it's not going to be pretty and it's 100% the fault of the AMPTP refusing to negotiate in good faith and pay their workers properly.

(and also not just trashing their plans of replacing every creative professional with an AI Regurgitation Machine and unpaid interns. That's what is holding things up right now. They're willing to ostensibly pay fair wages because they figure they only have to do it for a few months to an increasingly small amount of creatives, but they're not willing to scrap their plans of just replacing everyone eventually and using existing material to keep long dead artist at their beck and call from beyond the grave to infinity and beyond)

that and there's a strong possibility of shenanigans involving streaming numbers that they're only getting away with bc they don't have to admit what the numbers are and how they're counting those, and no deal the unions will accept will allow the streaming platforms to continue to not publish those things

GAMES MADE BY PEOPLE WHO ARE PAID MORE TO WORK LESS

I just saw a post implying that Tumblr is doing scab work by promoting OnePiece during the strike because ~Tumblr accepted money to make this promotion and that's against SAG-AFTRA rules~

the strike prohibits union writers and actors--and writers and actors who may someday like to join the union--from engaging in and promoting their work in movies, television, and streaming (they can actually still do stage, commercials, and even soap operas, because those are different unions)

Tumblr is not part of or planning to be part of the writer or actor unions

what Tumblr is doing is just regular advertising

if regular advertising were against the strike, then there would not have been any promotion at all allowed for any movie over the last two months

I mean, yes, I completely understand being irritated with how this One Piece promotion is going

but Tumblr isn't breaking the rules of a union, which it's not now and never will be part of, by running annoying ads

Just saw a different post where that same person added that same take again, and this time I saw that the notes were full of people very firmly correcting them

but then I saw someone saying, more or less, "Yeah, they're not crossing the picket line, but they are violating the fact that you must disclose when you're doing paid advertising!"

and, once again, that's not how that works, either--the rules about stating when you're doing a promotion for which you were compensated applies to individuals, especially in social media posts that may otherwise give the appearance of someone just casually chatting with their besties about something new they tried

Tumblr is basically a corporate media entity running commercials and billboards

which by their very nature are known to have been paid for

You don't watch the SuperBowl then report the NFL to the FTC for not having a disclaimer on every commercial and stadium-side sign about being a paid promotion.

Like, yes, I absolutely get being irritated by this particular advertising campaign. But that doesn't mean there's something morally reprehensible at the core of it. It's just annoying. You don't need any deeper reason to dislike it.

God damn people really do keep looking for "virtuous" reasons to dislike things

How about it's fucking annoying

Beware of what spin is coming next in the media about the union strikes! The Levinson Group is real good at its job, so there's gonna be a lot of undermining happening soon. Don't fall for it!

As a WGA strike captain put it on Twitter:

They could just pay their workers fairly, instead of throwing money at PR firms to pretty up how they treat people like garbage.

Did you guys know the “Sickos” artist made a Sicko thats a WGA screenwriter on strike (said comic artist is a The Onion satirist comic artist and his name is Stan Kelly)

And honestly? What a mood. Haha YES indeed.

Major disservice to the community by not posting the full comic

Sean Astin has been out on the picket lines daily outside Paramount, Netflix, Disney Studios, Amazon, etc, explaining the issues as he sees them.

July 25, 2023 - Striking stuntman Mike Massa walks in the SAG-AFTRA picket line while on fire. [video]

So, so, so badass.  What a chillingly powerful message this sends.  People have been lighting themselves on fire as a form of protest for centuries, but this might be the first time it’s been done by a professional who knows what he’s doing while under the supervision of professionals who know what they’re doing.

not as an act of self-destruction but as a display of skill

I'm in awe

At first Netflix said, come write for us. We’ll save your cancelled shows and write about whatever niche story you want. Our algorithm says people will watch it!

Then a few years later they said, regardless of our promises or contract obligations we are cancelling shows after two seasons without telling anyone. Turns out no matter how loved a show is, we get less subscriptions after the second season.

How many subscriptions did we bring you? Netflix won’t say.

So writers started writing two season shows. Just give us two seasons, Netflix. Like you promised.

Then Netflix said, oops sorry! Turns out your show didn’t premiere at #1 and the views in the first day weren’t what we wanted so we’re cancelling your second season.

What were the numbers? How many people watched our show? Netflix doesn’t say.

Then, they did something extra special. They started taking shows and splitting their first season into two halves. Inside Job was not two seasons. It was one season split in half.

Oops! Sorry! The second half of your first season didn’t do as well as the first half, so now your show is cancelled!

Why? How many people? How much money? These companies are making cash hand over fist and they refuse to tell people the truth: people loved your show. Loved it. But some corpo exec wanted an infinite money making machine. Do you know how long shows are in production for before you watch them? Years. Like, 5+, even 10+ years. And Netflix gives it less than a week before they decide whether you’re getting cancelled.

Support #WGA Support #SAGAFTRA

jesus fucking christ

"i wish i could do something 😔 / i wish the wga had a kickstarter or a gofundme, i would throw money at it" good news! it's amazing how you can literally go onto the wga strike website or the wgawest linktree from their twitter and find links to support writers and other workers affected by the strike

It’s the 11th hour and while the studios were able to negotiate with the directors guild, barring a last minute breakthrough it appears that the actors will be joining the writers on the picket lines. Their striking would also have the interesting side effect of completely ruining San Diego Comic Con.

Many of the WGA reps have said anonymously that they believe they need one of the other major unions to strike to force the studios back to the bargaining table. This would definitely be a major blow to the studios if this happens.

I pointed this out in a Discord server I'm in and thought Id share here:

Bob Iger announced that Disney is going to absorb Hulu, and Hulu will no longer exist next year. All shows will move to the Disney+ app.

Disney also announced they were going to remove shows and movies periodically from their streaming services.

I believe both of these moves are because of the Writers Strike.

Disney knows its going to lose the strike. There is too much public support. Specifically, the WGA is going to win writers getting more residuals from streaming.

So if Disney takes shows off of streaming, they dont have to pay the writers the residuals.

They are going to use excuses like "not enough funding for the server capacity" or "not enough views to warrent keeping the show". These are BULLSHIT. Its all greed. Its only GREED.

Pay attention to what happens in the following weeks.

And keep supporting the writers' strike.

Does anyone have an update on where things are at with the writers strike? It's disappeared from my various feeds and algorithms.

The writers' strike is ongoing and the studios are still not returning to the negotiating table. Unfortunately a lot of the coverage has tapered off because we're on 50+ days of striking and it's not new anymore. The last strike in 2007 lasted 100 days, so don't be surprised if this strike lasts as long, or even longer.

The biggest recent news is that the Directors' Guild of America (DGA) voted to ratify their new agreement with the studios (article from June 23), and it appears likely that the actors' guild (SAG-AFTRA) will also take a deal instead of striking (article from June 24). Although this is disappointing news, it's completely expected. During previous strikes, the WGA held its own without other unions going on strike. Which is to say—don't be disheartened by the news that there won't be a triple strike. The WGA is strong enough!

Please keep vocally supporting the WGA online to keep the pressure on the studios & to keep WGA members motivated and encouraged! There are many ongoing donation drives, such as the Star Trek fan snack squad (Twitter account required to DM the organizer) and the Our Flag Means Death snack squad (opens the PayPal fundraising page—no Twitter required). There's a longer list of ongoing donation drives here.

The Entertainment Community Fund is also always accepting donations to support entertainment workers affected by the strike. Please boost and encourage your friends to keep supporting the strike. Hashtag #IStandWithTheWGA #DoTheWriteThing to boost the cause!