Copyright Variety
Here’s something that will be interesting to screenwriters. John August, the co-host of the “Scriptnotes” podcast, has been named a co-chair of the negotiating committee for the Writers Guild of America. The other co-chair is Danielle Sanchez-Witzel, the showrunner of the Netflix series “Survival of the Thickest.” The WGA is set to begin bargaining next spring for the first time since the five-month writers strike in 2023. The current deal expires on May 1, 2026. As in 2023, the chief negotiator for the writers will be Ellen Stutzman, who is also the executive director of WGA West. She will be negotiating with Greg Hessinger, the new president of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. August and Sanchez-Witzel each served on the negotiating committee in 2023. The co-chairs last time around, Chris Keyser and David Goodman, will not be involved this time. The WGA released a list of 29 committee members, including Mike Schur (“A Man on the Inside,” “Parks and Recreation”), Shawn Ryan (“The Night Agent,” “S.W.A.T.”) and Tom Fontana (“Homicide: Life on the Street,” “Borgia.”) The committee has seen a fair amount of turnover. Ten of the 30 members of the 2023 committee will participate this time. One of those is Michele Mulroney, who served as vice president of WGA West in 2023 and was recently elected president. Among the top issues on the agenda will the WGA pension and health plans, which are facing a potential shortfall that will need to be addressed.
