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As talks between the scribes and the studios resumed on Tuesday, fear is mounting in the biz that the sides are running out of time -- and still far apart.
Negotiations resumed Tuesday ayem at an undisclosed location in Los Angeles following a four-day break, with the Writers Guild of America presenting a counteroffer to last week's proposal by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.
The WGA's proposal included "tiered" compensation -- based on how many times a program is viewed -- for Internet streaming of TV dramas in addition to the fixed annual $250 residual offered last week by the AMPTP.
By its own admission, in a lengthy analysis of the AMPTP offer that the WGA distributed to its 12,000 members midday Tuesday, the sides remain nearly $120 million apart on economic terms.
In the words of one industry vet who has been plugged into the negotiations, the sides are "not even speaking the same language" in their volleys on complex issues like new media residuals and guild jurisdiction for original material produced for the Internet.
There was no official word from either side as of Tuesday evening, but signs continued to emerge that the two sides aren't making much progress. In the WGA's statement Tuesday, guild insisted that the AMPTP's math is deeply flawed in its proposal that claims to offer the guild a $130 million increase in residual payments over three years. RUSSELL CROWE REPLACES BRAD PITT
Russell Crowe has committed to star for Universal in "State of Play" in a development that keeps the Kevin Macdonald-directed film on course to begin production this year.
Crowe joins Edward Norton, Helen Mirren, Rachel McAdams, Jason Bateman and Robin Wright Penn, who were all locked into pay-or-play deals when Brad Pitt abruptly exited the project just before Thanksgiving. Producers are Andrew Hauptman and Working Title partners Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner. Matthew Michael Carnahan wrote the script.
Crowe will play a politico-turned-journalist who spearheads his newspaper's investigation into a killing that leads to a fast-rising pol (Norton). The journalist faces two conflicts: He once ran campaigns for the pol and was his confidant, and the journo develops a romance with the pol's estranged wife (Wright Penn).News December 5
