One of Hollywood's Largest Independent Film Companies 'Striking Out' on Own with Separate Deal with Striking Writers

One of Hollywood's largest independent film companies, The Weinstein Company, is 'striking out' on their own, apart from the Alliance of Motion Pictures and Television Producers (AMPTP), with a separate deal with the striking writers. The AMPTP is not too happy about the news, to say the least, that a major player in the film an tv industry has 'crossed the lines' to the other side.

In a thinly veiled 'news' statement on its site, the AMPTP organization says, "One-off deals do nothing to bring the WGA closer to a permanent solution for working writers. These interim agreements are sideshows and mean only that some writers will be employed at the same time other writers will be picketing. In the end, until the people in charge at WGA decide to focus on the main event rather than these sideshows, the economic harm being caused by the strike will continue."

However, as reported in the NY Times, the company's co-founder Harvey Weinstein said about his companies' imminent 'side' agreement with the Writers Guild of America (WGA), "We need to get people back to work." And although The Weinstein Company is not part of the AMPTP organization, United Artists is-which has made a "one-off deal" announced on January 7th, and reported on by, among others, Reuters, Canada.

What does this mean for the immediate future of TV and film?

If the recent news about United Artists being inundated by scripts since its announcement of a separate "interim deal" has any precursor value to the answer, at the very least, The Weinstien Co. could see itself deluged with TV and film scripts as well. That's good news for them, too, and may very well play a large part in why the company decided to 'cross the picket lines' to the writer's side.