Barring a last-minute glitch, Hollywood studios and writers are expected to sign off on a new three-year contract today that would head off a potentially disastrous strike, according to sources close to both parties.
After more than 100 hours of bargaining over the last two weeks, the two sides were described by several knowledgeable sources as nearly finished drafting contract language and finessing deal points.
In addition, representatives of film and TV directors are expected today to review a revised package of so-called creative issues negotiated by studios and screenwriters.
At the end of a tense day when an announcement appeared imminent, exhausted negotiators instead recessed, leaving the Writers Guild of America's Los Angeles headquarters around 5:30 p.m. Thursday. Smaller groups continued to work into the night negotiating specific items and tweaking language.
The full negotiating committee plans to return to the bargaining table at 10 a.m. today.
Thursday was the first day this week that negotiations did not drag on late into the night, a further indication that most of the time-consuming work had been finished, the sources said.
In a midafternoon phone call, WGA leader John Wells and studio negotiator J. Nicholas Counter assured Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan that a deal was near. Riordan, who was vacationing in Acapulco, has been publicly pressuring both sides to settle.
One executive involved in negotiating the creative rights said studio chiefs were asked to be on call Friday for an "across-the-table handshake" once a deal is consummated.
Some concessions writers are expected to win include eliminating a discount the Fox network currently pays writers in the third year of the contract.
Industry sources also said they expect writers to get an unspecified, last-minute sweetener that would help sell rank-and-file members on an agreement.
According to one source who was briefed late Thursday, writers are expected to receive 3.5% increases in an array of minimum payments as well as compensation for one-time showing of movies on developing video-on-demand systems. Negotiators put off dealing with what they will receive when the technology advances to the point where consumers can download movies via the Internet or broadband systems.
Any deal will have to be ratified by the guild's 11,500 members.
