Thursday, April 18, 2019

Writers vs. Talent Agents, Round 10

As the cold war between the Writers Guild of America and Hollywood’s four major talent agencies—WME, CAA, UTA, and ICM—heats up, Joy Press has turned to veteran screenwriters to ask a very important question: how much do they think they really need agents, anyway? Many of the people she spoke to, for the record, appear to be feeling fine since severing ties with their agents by order of the WGA: “I love my agents, but the situation is fucked, and it needs to be fixed now,” one told Press before complaining that agents have been infantilizing the writers with whom they’re feuding. “They know better, and they’re going to school us . . . What’s become a real struggle is for them to recognize we’re the ones with the power.” Less-established writers, however, are feeling slightly more conflicted: “What I liked about my agents was that they have this huge list, and they have access and are hearing about projects all the time,” one said to Press. “They were good basic advocates for me.” Either way, the outcome of this dispute—the details of which may seem byzantine for Hollywood outsiders—seem poised to have a major effect on the way agents and writers interact, particularly if the W.G.A.’s stopgap staffing solutions wind up working well.
Elsewhere in HWD, Yohana Desta handicaps the 2019 Cannes lineup; Laura Bradley chats with Chad Michael Murray about heading back into the world of teen dramas for a Riverdale arc; Joanna Robinson parses a new set of photos from Game of Thrones’ next episode; and Conan O’Brien readies for a joke-theft trial that could have major implications on late night.