In Hollywood, “packing” has been a longstanding industry practice: a talent agency gathers a group of clients – such as a writer, an actor, and a director – and puts them all together in a studio or network. Instead of receiving a commission from their individual clients, the agency receives a fee from the studio once the project is sold and aired. Note: This episode originally ran in 2019 and comes with an update.
David Simon, creator of The Wire, and other screenwriters say this defeated the incentive for their agents to negotiate on their behalf. He believes the agents get more than their fair share of the profits. In April 2019, 7,000 US writers fired all of their agents on the same day. Music: “Death Over Dinner”, “Smoke And Mirrors”, “Strolling Along the Seine” and “Uncle Bill”.
Today on the show we look back at the writers’ strike and get the dramatic solution to a Hollywood fight scene. Find us: Twitter / Facebook / Instagram / TikTok
Then the pandemic hit and tipped the scales. There was a stalemate.
Subscribe to our weekly newsletter for more news about labor disputes in the country and everything else economic. Subscribe to our show on Apple Podcasts, Pocket Casts, and NPR One.
Source www.npr.org
News highlights business
- Writers’ Revolt (UPDATE): Planet Money News
- Check out all the news and articles from the Business News Updates.
Disclaimer: If you need to update / edit / remove these messages or articles, please contact our support team.
