Producers Sound Off On WGA & DGA Talks At PGA Awards: “We’re Not Rushing To Shoot Something Because Of The Strike”

deadline.com:

As both the WGA and DGA head into talks for contract negotiations with the AMPTP, producers at last night’s PGA awards had a wait-and-see attitude.

Much of that has to do with the fact that the WGA hasn’t set its pattern of demands yet with talks set to begin on March 20.

Their contract expires on May 1, while DGA and SAG-AFTRA’s expires on June 30. As they have done in the past, studios are preparing for a potential strike but there is no real sense of urgency, at least not for now. “We’re getting in as many scripts as we can in time, but not going crazy, and we have our productions planned for what’s going next in the summer and the fall, and we feel pretty optimistic about what we have in front of us creatively,” said Warner Bros Co-Chairman Pamela Abdy, who was co-honored with the PGA Milestone Award last night alongside her fellow co-Chairman Michael De Luca. “I’m always in a rush to stockpile projects, I’m a producer!

That’s what we do,” said PGA President Donald De Line when asked about how a strike would impact producers. “I know with the possible deadline of a strike it makes more pressure on us.” The Ready Player One producer then added, “We want to educate our members on what the issues are, how they can be prepared, but they should be looking to the future of how to prepare for themselves.” Producer Jonathan Wang, whose Everything Everywhere All at Once took Best Picture last night at the PGAs, and saw its directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert win the top DGA feature award last weekend, noted that as much as he’d like to see one of the directors/scribes’ three projects at Universal move forward, “we also are supportive of people getting a living wage, and people working and being able to strike.”