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American Morning

Hollywood Producers, Writers to Resume Negotiations This Afternoon

Aired May 01, 2001 - 10:48   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MICHAEL OKWU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hollywood writers are looking for more than just "thanks" from producers. They're only hours away from a strike deadline. CNN's Sherri Sylvester is standing by in Los Angeles to tell us what the writers want and where the two sides stand -- Sherri.

SHERRI SYLVESTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Michael, where they stand now is that they will resume negotiations in about two hours from now. We understand they did talk pretty late last night, until about 11:30 p.m. local time; that's Pacific Time. They will begin again at 10:00 a.m. this morning.

They expect a very long day ahead. They are cautiously optimistic about coming to a resolution. That's 11,000 writers who are members of the Writers Guild of America here in Los Angeles. What they want: Well, times have changed since their last negotiations and through the years, and what the writers want is a bigger piece of the by pie.

There are so many revenue streams for television show and for films. When they go out there into the world, they go overseas, they go onto videocassette, DVD; of course, there's the Internet. How do you quantify that, and how much do the writers deserve?

Now, we do also understand that there are two sets of negotiations going on. The writers are meeting separately with producers on their creative demands; demands such as please allow us to stay on the set throughout production, oversee our scripts, oversee our rewrites ourselves before you hire in other writers. Those are the creative issues.

The financials are being negotiated separately. There is a news blackout. We don't know how they're doing, but about two weeks ago they were $100 million apart financially. Now, whether or not there is a strike will be voted on by the membership. So, even if they don't come to a resolution tonight, there still has to be a strike vote by the membership, OK.

So, those are the issues that we're dealing with now. We do expect a very long day ahead. Midnight is the deadline.

Michael, back to you.

OKWU: Thank you. That's Sherri Sylvester in Los Angeles.

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