Deals offer hope, not much more

On Monday, the striking Writers Guild of America announced interim deals with Spyglass Entertainment and Media Rights Capital that allow its members to write on those companies' projects. These agreements join previous one-off deals with Worldwide Pants Inc., the Weinstein Co. and United Artists in opening up a few avenues for striking writers to get back to work under new contract conditions that the guild has been seeking from their studio and network employers through the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.

It's a development that has many writers hopeful. "It just shows that we have a point that is being taken seriously in some quarters in Hollywood," says Joel Cohen ("Toy Story").

The immediate result was a predictable one. While writers with assignments at those companies simply went back to work, the rumor going around the agencies last week was that UA alone received 2,500 screenplay submissions in the first 48 hours after reopening for business. (While downplaying that number, a UA spokesman allows that "there have been lots and lots of scripts coming in," while the Weinstein Co. says it has seen "a significant bump since Friday's official announcement.")

While surely gratifying to those studios, who have the added PR benefit of "helping the industry get back to work," the influx will mostly be wasted. UA, for example, has only half a dozen projects in active development and is unlikely to suddenly greenlight a bunch of material. (Though one comedy writing team was invited to submit screenplays with the guidance that "Tom wants to smile." Meaning, Cruise.)

As one skeptical agent points out, it's not like UA doesn't know which writers it wants to work. Actors, directors and producers with strike-stymied movies now theoretically have their choice of A-list rewriting talent. The question is whether these sought-after writers will publicly take a job while the rest of their WGA brethren weather the strike unemployed.

"Certain high-profile writers may wait to see who else jumps in the fray," says William Morris agent Rob Carlson.

Even if more interim deals are signed, the amount of potential material would be relatively paltry compared to the huge open-assignment slates of the major studios. And if a hypothetical Directors Guild of America deal doesn't end the strike (and I have my doubts that the WGA and Screen Actors Guild will support a DGA arrangement), all of these mini-studios and production companies will still have only a small window to get scripts in shape for a mid-March start date. Any production that started filming after that could get knee-capped by an actors strike at the end of June, when the SAG contract is up.