When Arnold Schwarzenegger became governor of California, he sought to make Hollywood capital of movie production once again. Now, he’s got a more pressing problem to terminate:
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, best known in Hollywood for playing the “Terminator,” said on Thursday he has assumed an unspecified backstage role to bring an end to the screenwriters strike.
“I’m talking to the parties that are involved because I think it’s very important that we settle that as quickly as possible, because it has a tremendous economic impact on our state,” Schwarzenegger said during a news conference at the state Capitol in Sacramento.
Schwarzenegger, who for many years was a member of the Screen Actors Guild but left show business to run for governor as a Republican in 2003, did not elaborate.
The Writers Guild of America went on strike against the major film and television studios on Monday as negotiations on a new contract for its 12,000 members collapsed, shattering nearly 20 years of Hollywood labor peace.
The talks, which began in July, foundered largely on the failure of the two sides to reach a deal on writers’ demands for a greater share of revenues from the Internet, widely seen as a key future distribution channel for most entertainment.
Read more. I don’t know, indeed online revenues today don’t account to much, but now is the time to get a cut of the revenue. Otherwise, once the revenues grow to become substantial, it will be harder to get a slice.