Planet Money (Rerun 21 Apr 2021): The Writer’s Revolt
Rerun of a 2019 episode.
In theory, if you’re a screenwriter for Hollywood, you have an agent who gets you the best deals because that’s how they get money. But there’s a practice called “bundling”, where the agency puts together a collection of a writer, director, showrunner, and sells them to the studio as a package deal. (Agencies represent everyone. Not just Hollywood, e.g. pop stars, and one of them bought Miss America from Trump in 2016 or so.) Then the agency has less incentive to get the best deal for the writer.
The guy who wrote The Wire discovered this when trying to pitch The Wire, and also discovered that he’d been bundled on a previous project of his without being told. The agency had represented both him and the director when they’d been negotiating, which he didn’t like because, again, incentives.
We also hear from a writer whose show didn’t make it into production because two agencies—neither of whom represented him—were fighting over who got bundling fees.
Anyway, writers didn’t like this. They have their own union, so they started doing collective bargaining. Most of the agencies didn’t budge, so eventually they fired all those agents at once.
We hear from a head of a smaller agency, who gave in soon after and thinks doing so was good for them because they didn’t do that much bundling anyway. Writers feel like they have more power now.
As of 2021, the pandemic has also been good for writers’ power versus agencies, because people still watch Hollywood content at home, but not so much pop stars.
Planet Money (Rerun 21 Apr 2021): The Writer’s Revolt
Rerun of a 2019 episode.
In theory, if you’re a screenwriter for Hollywood, you have an agent who gets you the best deals because that’s how they get money. But there’s a practice called “bundling”, where the agency puts together a collection of a writer, director, showrunner, and sells them to the studio as a package deal. (Agencies represent everyone. Not just Hollywood, e.g. pop stars, and one of them bought Miss America from Trump in 2016 or so.) Then the agency has less incentive to get the best deal for the writer.
The guy who wrote The Wire discovered this when trying to pitch The Wire, and also discovered that he’d been bundled on a previous project of his without being told. The agency had represented both him and the director when they’d been negotiating, which he didn’t like because, again, incentives.
We also hear from a writer whose show didn’t make it into production because two agencies—neither of whom represented him—were fighting over who got bundling fees.
Anyway, writers didn’t like this. They have their own union, so they started doing collective bargaining. Most of the agencies didn’t budge, so eventually they fired all those agents at once.
We hear from a head of a smaller agency, who gave in soon after and thinks doing so was good for them because they didn’t do that much bundling anyway. Writers feel like they have more power now.
As of 2021, the pandemic has also been good for writers’ power versus agencies, because people still watch Hollywood content at home, but not so much pop stars.