As Hollywood writers and agents square off, there are echoes of recent political discourse.
Writers Guild of America West President David A. Goodman speaks onstage during the Writers Guild Awards last month in Beverly Hills, Calif. By Steven Zeitchik Steven Zeitchik Reporter covering the business of entertainment in the U.S. and beyond Email Bio Follow March 28 at 5:01 PM “The Wire” creator David Simon is known for depicting gritty realities of the urban street. But lately he’s saved his harsh words for another subject: the agents who usher his work to the screen.
“This system of conflicted representation is no longer acceptable,” the WGA announced in a paper outlining alleged breaches. The ATA says that packaging fees creates wealth for all parties. The group said they incentivize agents to put together projects in the most comprehensive ways possible, creating work that’s more likely to sell.
It also said that “no agent shall have an ownership or other financial interest in” a company that produces or distributes movies, which would require the divestment of the agencies’ spinoff production companies. Running under their tensions are questions of class. The writers feel that the agents are wealthy one-percenters and they the disenfranchised. A prosperous economy has not, they say, benefited everyone equally. In a time of Netflix, Apple and deep-pocketed buyers, the riches too often flow to the middlemen instead of to them, they argue.
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