Deals with indie film companies that were supposed to fall like dominoes in the wake of United Artists' interim agreement with the Writers Guild have not done so. During the pause since Monday's UA announcement, a gap filled with Golden Globes hysteria, a question has arisen about the true import of the deals.
In 1988, for example, dozens of interim pacts were struck with various companies, but the guild did not realize net gains as a result -- partly because the deals emerged fairly late in the five-month strike.
"There was a lot of resistance early in the guild to making interim deals," a labor vet recalled. "So by the time the WGA started making deals, the impact was fairly limited because the strike was starting to fall apart."
In this case, the UA deal got sealed with the strike starting its 10th week, leading to widespread speculation that indies would be able to wrap up similar pacts in a matter of days.
For now, the interim deals certainly play well on the picket line. News about pacts with Worldwide Pants and UA have been used by the guild to demonstrate incremental progress to members despite the larger stalemate with the AMPTP.
"We are talking with a lot of people, and we're optimistic that we'll make several more interim deals," said Mona Mangan, exec director of the WGA East. STUDIOS END FIRST-LOOK RELATIONSHIPS
With studios starting to drop the ax on staffers in order to cut costs during the strike, development deals with producers may not be far behind.
Paramount, Universal and Fox have ended first-look deals with Reese Witherspoon; Dan Jinks and Bruce Cohen; Lynda Obst and Marc Rosen; Betty Thomas; Craig Brewer; George Tillman and Bob Teitel; and Roy Lee and Doug Davison.
Terms of most of the deals had run out in recent weeks, allowing the studios to extricate themselves from expensive relationships as they look for ways to trim costs. Although many of the studios involved said the strike played little to no role in the decision, the timing with the writers strike proved convenient.
Witherspoon's Type A banner, however, was immediately scooped up by a rival studio. The actress-producer inked a first-look deal with New Line.
"When I heard that her company was available, that's a home run for us," New Line prexy Toby Emmerich said from the set of the studio's "Four Christmases," which Witherspoon is producing and toplining. "One of the lessons of 2007 was that for certain kinds of movies, really big movie stars are worth their weight and then some."
