The union's board of directors "voted unanimously to recommend the agreement," he said on X, formerly Twitter. "The strike ends at 00:01", Los Angeles time, this Wednesday.

Concretely, the agreement can theoretically still be rejected by the 11,500 screenwriters represented by the WGA in the United States: it must be the subject of a vote, which will take place "between 2 and 9 October", announced the union.

But most industry experts believe that this ratification should be a formality. While waiting for the process to be completed, the feathers of the industry will be able to resume work on Wednesday.

Many American series and films blocked in the early stages of writing will thus be able to be restarted. Late-night talk shows, hosted by anchors who need scripts, are also expected to return to the air sometime next month.

In presenting the agreement reached with the studios on Sunday, after five days of a new round of negotiations, the WGA had assured that it was an "exceptional" compromise.

According to her, it includes "significant gains" in terms of remuneration as well as protective measures to regulate the use of artificial intelligence.

Actors still on strike

But even after the final ratification of the screenwriters, Hollywood will still be far from a return to normal. Because the actors, represented by the SAG-AFTRA union, are still on strike.

A resolution of this social conflict, which has lasted since mid-July, could take weeks. Because some of the demands of the SAG-AFTRA go further than those of the WGA.

SAG-AFTRA union members strike outside the Warner Bros. studios on September 26, 2023 in Burbank, California © MARIO TAMA / gETTY / AFP

The negotiations are therefore expected to be difficult. Especially since the studios know that what they give to the actors will serve as a yardstick for the technical professions of the industry, whose collective agreements are to be renewed next year.

Even after the actors return to work, it will surely still take months to really get everyone back on set and catch up with the backlogs accumulated by a myriad of Hollywood productions.

© 2023 AFP