In 2007, its writers went on a 100-day strike. Hollywood shook her forever film industrywhile it is estimated to have cost its economy over two billion dollars. Los Angeles. Fifteen years later, with a three-year collective bargaining agreement between the industry and nine major studios expiring on May 1, today, a repeat of such a mobilization seems more likely than ever. And the leaders of the union (the Writers Guild of America), which represents 11,000 workers, are guided by a decisive vote in the first days of April.

But what does it mean? writers’ strike; In fact, all content produced by the Hollywood industry is being frozen, from talk shows by Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert to blockbusters. First of all, of course, daily shows, entertainment, series, etc. will be affected, and then weekly ones. series and films those that have already been withdrawn – usually in such cases the industry is six months to a year ahead – will obviously continue to be issued as usual, but new projects are even threatened with extinction, depending on the length of the mobilization. Screenwriters, for their part, are calling for a massive increase in their minimum wage, complaining that studios are taking advantage of the modern industry transformation to increase their workload without commensurate pay. Over the past decade, Hollywood film production has declined by about 30%, while overall content has increased due to the emergence of streaming services, which nevertheless promote the TV model of 8-12-episode series with longer episode times. , instead of the previously used 22-26 series. And screenwriters are still paid per episode… As a result, the real income of the latter has actually decreased.

For their part, the big studios that now include platforms are unwilling to pay more. In fact, some of them, such as Disney and Warner Bros., have announced plans over the past few months to lay off billions and lay off thousands of their workers. This is mainly because their new platforms (with the exception of Netflix) are currently unprofitable, but the writers, who will renegotiate their contracts again in 2026, don’t want to wait for the giants’ (giant) investment to turn in record profits.

Another reality, however, is the poverty of screenplays that has plagued the mainstream global film industry in recent years. Partly due to the reluctance of studios to fund risky projects, we mostly see a flood of sequels, remakes, biopics and generally “true stories” adapted to all sorts of narratives of the time. In fact, a few days ago it became known that the intention was to make a new version of the classic Hitchcock film “Vertigo Bind” with Robert Downey Jr. as the main character. And at the recent Oscars, the film that won Best Original Screenplay (Everything) made its creators almost admit that their intention was to transform The Matrix for the 21st century…