Chuck Lorre Joins Bill Prady On Picket Line In Front Of Warner Bros.

As the Writers Guild of America strike continues with no end in sight, rumours are swirling that the Directors Guild of America and SAG-ACTRA will be following suit when those unions’ contracts come up within the next few weeks.

Striking film and television writers got a signal boost on Thursday from U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (d-NY), who spoke at a rally outside the East Coast offices of Paramount Global in the busy heart of Manhattan’s Times Square. 

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Colin Farrell, Mariska Hargitay, Danny Strong, Paula Pell, Rachel Dratch, Michael Kelly and Craig Zobel were among the stars who came out to the writers strike picket line outside Paramount Global’s New York City office in Times Square Thursday. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D.-N.Y., and local politicians spoke at the event in support of the Writers Guild of America’s (WGA) cause against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) that has led to a four-week-and-counting work stoppage due to the organizations’ inability to ink a new contract May 1. “This is about what’s right. We’ve seen income inequality grow exponentially over the last decade; and in your business, it has never been more present,” Gillibrand said to the crowd, filled with not only WGA members, but also those from SAG-AFTRA, IATSE and Teamsters, among other unions. “We see writers working hard every day to produce content and we have an unfair playing field. Not only does AI want to displace our writers, they simply can’t. AI generates content based on what’s been written before the work you did last year, and the year before. It’s not original. It’s not imaginative. It doesn’t come from the human heart. It’s not about a human experience. It’s not about what people actually want to learn about or know about or see or experience. That is what writers bring to the equation every single time. So this strike is so important for the future of this country. It’s about the value of workers; workers and what they create is fundamentally valuable.”

EXCLUSIVE: Jesse Armstrong will reveal the secrets of Succession in a talk at the Edinburgh TV Festival this year.

So many stars stepped out to celebrate Warner Bros. Studios’ 100th Anniversary during the 2023 Cannes Film Festival!

Michelle Randolph (1923) and Jacob Lofland (Joker 2) are set as leads opposite Billy Bob Thornton in Land Man, Paramount+s upcoming series from Taylor Sheridan and Christian Wallace.

Flavor Flav is showing his support for members of the Writers Guild of America!

McKinley Franklin editor Max has revealed the rollout plans for its four original documentary specials narrated by Morgan Freeman in honor of Warner Bros.’ 100th anniversary.  The first two specials will make their debut at Cannes on May 24 as 2023 Official Cannes Classics Selections, followed by a May 25 debut on Max. The remaining two specials will be available to stream on Max on June 1.  The “100 Years of Warner Bros.” docuseries pays homage to the output of Warner Bros. over the past century. Featuring interviews with directors, actors, executives, journalists and historians, the specials highlight everything from the studios’ early beginnings to its presence in the modern day. 

“Republicans are back on the air. Republicans weren’t on the air,” on CNN, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav told a media conference Thursday as he said the storied brand is moving to become less of an “advocacy network” under new leadership.

EXCLUSIVE: Universal and Amblin Entertainment have rounded out their Twisters cast with the addition of Maura Tierney (The Affair), Harry Hadden-Paton (Downton Abbey), Sasha Lane (American Honey), Kiernan Shipka (Mad Men), Nik Dodani (Atypical), David Corenswet (Pearl), Tunde Adebimpe (Spider-Man: Homecoming) and Katy O’Brian (The Mandalorian).

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Buenos Aires-based Meikincine has swooped on international sales rights to “The Extortion,” the biggest Argentine box office hit to date of 2023, in a deal with Warner Bros. Discovery Latin America.  “The Extortion” is backed by a pedigreed combo of Particular Crowd, part of Warner Bros. Discovery Latin America, Oscar winner Juan José Campanella’s 100 Bars, “Argentina, 1985” producer Infinity Hill and producer-service company Cimarrón Cine. Headlined by Guillermo Francella, memorable in Campanella’s Academy Award winning “The Secret in Their Eyes” and star of Pablo Trapero’s “The Clan,” “The Extortion” turns on Alejandro, a pilot with a secret. Blackmailed by sinister intelligence service agents, he is plunged into a world of intrigue and corruption from which he will battle to escape alive. 

Pat Saperstein Deputy Editor Since the writers strike started on May 2, celebrities have turned out to support WGA members picketing for a better guild contract. Actors like Fred Armisen are also writers who are members of the WGA, while some SAG-AFTRA members are walking the line to support their colleagues. Since most TV shows and movies have suspended production until the strike is resolved, stars, writers and filmmakers like Christopher Nolan are taking to the streets to show their support for members of the Writers Guild of America.

Rep. Katie Porter joined writers on the picket line at the Culver Studios in Los Angeles on Friday in solidarity with the ongoing WGA strike.

After yesterday’s Imagine Dragons party outside Netflix, it was Paramount’s turn to pop.

EXCLUSIVE: Justin Theroux is latest new addition to the ensemble of Warner Bros. Beetlejuice sequel that has Tim Burton directing and Michael Keaton set to reprise is iconic character. Winona Ryder also set to reprise their roles from the 1988 original supernatural comedy with Jenna Ortega set to play Ryder’s daughter in the pic.

A trio of SNL greats joined the WGA picket line Tuesday at Silvercup Studios in Queens.

Actors’ Equity Association, the union representing theater actors and stage managers, is inviting its members and allies to join the WGA picket line outside HBO and Amazon offices tomorrow.

Angelique Jackson SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher had a sobering message for Hollywood’s major studios as she joined a WGA picket line outside Paramount Pictures on Monday afternoon. “They feel like this strike is a strike for everybody in the industry,” Drescher said of SAG-AFTRA members and the WGA’s labor action. Drescher, who was elected SAG-AFTRA president in September 2021, marched arm in arm with Writers Guild of America West president Meredith Stiehm in a show of solidarity, joining a coalition of a few hundred members from each guild who were picketing outside Paramount starting at 9 a.m. PT as week two of the WGA strike began.

SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher joined members of her guild marching in solidarity with Writers Guild of America members Monday on the picket lines in front of the entrance to Paramount Pictures’ backlot.Amid this display of solidarity, Drescher is preparing with SAG-AFTRA to begin talks on their own new contract, and she is signaling that actors need major change in Hollywood just as much as writers.“We can’t keep building on a contract that was developed in the 1980s,” Drescher told TheWrap. “I’m hoping that we go in with a new perspective, a different portal to enter the conversation just as we did with other talks that we were successful in resolving.

On the seventh day of the Writers Guild of America’s strike against Hollywood studios, guild leaders from both the WGA and SAG-AFTRA, including actors union president Fran Drescher, hit the picket lines at Paramount Pictures in Los Angeles.