Strike Expected to Come to a Close

LOS ANGELES, February 8:
With the members of the Writers Guild of America due to meet tomorrow, the
three-month-old strike is expected to come to a close this weekend, with
reports indicating that work could resume as early as Monday.

The writers and the
studios are said to be finalizing terms of a deal that will be presented to
guild members in New York and Los Angeles tomorrow. Former Disney chief Michael Eisner declared on CNBC last night: “It’s over. They made the deal, they
shook hands on the deal. It’s going on Saturday to the writers in general.”
Eisner, who today operates the Tornante venture-capital fund as well as runs
the new-media studio Vuguru, made the comments on CNBC’s Fast Money.

Hollywood is gearing up
for production to resume, in the hopes of salvaging the remainder of this
season, as well as the upcoming 2008-2009 season. It is not clear which shows
will return for the spring, with reports indicating that just 10 to 20 will go
back into production for now; many shows may not return until the fall, and a
number of freshman series will likely not return at all, especially those whose
slots have been filled by more successful unscripted fare.

According to the Los
Angeles Times, sitcoms will be the
first to go back into production, within about two weeks of the strike’s end;
work is not likely to begin on dramas until March, and it could be April or May
before new episodes make it to air.

—By Mansha Daswani