As Writers Strike Looms, Reality Producers Optimistic About Possible Unscripted Boom

Students at the University of Manchester say they have occupied a fourth building on campus this evening as part of an ongoing 'rent strike'.

Privately held, Korea-founded Maum Capital Group, together with its subsidiaries and affiliates, has made a significant undisclosed investment in Globalgate Entertainment, creating a strategic and financial alliance. At the same time, Globalgate Executive Chairman William Pfeiffer has been appointed CEO of the Maum affiliates as they focus on the development of the intercultural content-based businesses of the group, which includes Maum Culture Innovation and Maum Studios.

Nearly 500 WGA members gathered today at the Writers Guild Theater in Los Angeles to hear their leaders discuss the guild’s upcoming negotiations for a new film and TV contract. The press wasn’t allowed inside, but out on the street, cheers and applause could be heard emanating from the meeting. This was the first of four member meetings that will be held this month, with two more scheduled in L.A. and one in New York.

WGA East-represented news writers and producers at HuffPost have ratified a new three-year contract. According to the guild, the pact was approved unanimously by the 91-member bargaining unit employed at the online news site.

Four writer-participants for a DreamWorks Theatricals emerging writers program have been selected to help develop new musical adaptations of DreamWorks Animation films for the theatrical licensing agency Music Theatre International’s catalogue.

EXCLUSIVE: LA and London-based management and production company 42 (The Silent Twins) is bolstering its U.S. footprint of managers and producers with the appointment of Peter Dealbert as a manager.

In a show of solidarity, more than 400 film and TV writers – including Adam McKay, David Simon, Tina Fey, Alfonso Cuarón, Lilly Wachowski, John Waters and Alan Zweibel – have signed a petition calling on MSNBC to negotiate a fair first-time contract with the WGA East for the cable news network’s news writers and producers.

Paramount and Prime Video have struck a Star Trek deal for the former’s international streamer outside Canada.

EXCLUSIVE: Starz is developing The Comedown, a comedic drama series based on Rafael Frumkin’s book by the same name, sources tell Deadline. The project hails from Regina King’s Royal Ties Productions and Freddie Highmore’s Alfresco Pictures as well as TriStar Television, a division of Sony Pictures TV where The Good Doctor star Highmore has had an overall deal. A rep for Starz declined comment.

EXCLUSIVE: Patricia Heaton‘s potential return to television is taking shape. The multi-camera comedy from Kapital Entertainment, starring and executive produced by the Emmy winner, which was set up at Fox in 2021 with a script-to-series commitment, has found its writers. Comedy veterans Carol Leifer and Andy Gordon have been tapped to pen the untitled half-hour, which also has homed in on a premise.

The possibility of a writers’ strike is one of the conversations dominating Hollywood right now, but Adam Conover, creator and star of truTV’s Adam Ruins Everything and a WGA West board member, has urged members to filter out “misinformation” and “provocative claims” ahead of talks with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP).

The decline in broadcast pilots continues. CBS has ordered its fewest drama pilots ever in a pilot season, two. Also part of a trend, both are based on IP from established auspices and big-name talent already attached — Robert and Michelle King’s Elsbeth starring Carrie Preston, a police procedural spinoff from the Kings’ The Good Wife/Good Fight universe, and Matlock, a gender swap reboot of the classic legal drama starring Kathy Bates, from Jennie Snyder Urman and Eric Christian Olsen.

As it prepares for negotiations for a new film and TV contract – and a possible writers strike in May – the WGA West is once again blasting Warner Bros Discovery for going back on its promise that the merger that created the giant media conglomerate last year would create more opportunities for content creators.

Stephen King horror films and his macabre I.P. have always done well in Hollywood— “The Shining,” “Carrie,” “Firestarter,” “Misery,” “Cujo,” “Pet Sematary,” and more—but there’s no denying a new King resurgence has happened in the last fifteen years with a lot of remakes (“Firestarter,” “Carrie,” “Pet Sematary”) some of them incredible successful (the “IT” franchise), some sequels to classic works (“Doctor Sleep”), and much-anticipated adaptations that didn’t quite work (“The Dark Tower”).

Starz is ready to get this party started: It released the official trailer for Party Down, the revival of the cult comedy series from 2009-10. Starz will debut the laugher at midnight on Friday, February 24 on its app and streaming platforms. Its linear debut is set for later that night at 9 PM ET/PT on Starz.

A 42-year-old man has died after being struck by a car on the A9 in Perth.

EXCLUSIVE: New Line has set Secret Headquarters filmmakers Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman to direct Undo, from Will Simmons’ 2022 Black List screenplay. The action thriller is currently in development.

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAYEverything Everywhere All At Once, Written by Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert; A24The Fabelmans, Written by Steven Spielberg & Tony Kushner; Universal PicturesThe Menu, Written by Seth Reiss & Will Tracy; Searchlight PicturesNope, Written by Jordan Peele; Universal PicturesTár, Written by Todd Field; Focus FeaturesADAPTED SCREENPLAYBlack Panther: Wakanda Forever, Screenplay by Ryan Coogler & Joe Robert Cole, Story by Ryan Coogler, Based on the Marvel Comics; Walt Disney Studios Motion PicturesGlass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, Written by Rian Johnson; NetflixShe Said, Screenplay by Rebecca Lenkiewicz, Based on the New York Times Investigation by Jodi Kantor, Megan Twohey and Rebecca Corbett and the Book She Said by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey; Universal PicturesTop Gun: Maverick, Screenplay by Ehren Kruger and Eric Warren Singer and Christopher McQuarrie, Story by Peter Craig and Justin Marks, Based on Characters Created by Jim Cash & Jack Epps, Jr.; Paramount PicturesWomen Talking, Screenplay by Sarah Polley, Based upon the Book by Miriam Toews; Orion Pictures/MGMDOCUMENTARY SCREENPLAY2nd Chance, Written by Ramin Bahrani; Showtime Documentary FilmsDownfall: The Case Against Boeing, Written by Mark Bailey & Keven McAlester; NetflixLast Flight Home, Written by Ondi Timoner; MTV Documentary FilmsMoonage Daydream, Written by Brett Morgen; Neon¡Viva Maestro!, Written by Theodore Braun; Greenwich Entertainment

Comedian Michelle Buteau will host the 75th annual Writers Guild Awards at New York’s Edison Ballroom on March 5.

The WGA is gearing up for upcoming contract negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers, arguably its most important in over a decade.