Lynette Rice/Deadline
A meeting between a group of leading showrunners, including Kenya Barris and Noah Hawley, and WGA leadership was canceled.
The meeting, which became a hot topic of conversation in Hollywood earlier this week, was postponed after the WGA and AMPTP agreed to hold new talks to end the work stoppage that has been ongoing since May.
Deadline understands that canceling the meeting, which was scheduled to take place today, was a mutual decision as the guild tries to figure out its plan for its latest showdown with the studios.
Yesterday, AMPTP and WGA announced they were planning talks next week.
The AMPTP said the two parties were “working to arrange a meeting next week.”
“On Wednesday, September 13, the WGA reached out to the AMPTP and requested a meeting to advance negotiations. We agreed and are working on arranging a meeting for next week. “Every member company of the AMPTP is determined and committed to reaching a fair deal and working with the WGA to end the strike,” the studio alliance said.
Not long after, the WGA said: “The WGA and AMPTP are in the process of agreeing on a time to come back into the room.”
The showrunner meeting, which was also believed to be attended by Sam Esmail, was described not as a sign of discontent within the guild, as some have rumored, but rather as a chance to bring more high-profile people into the process as the writers’ strike progresses into its fourth Month.
“This was intended to be an informational event and nothing more than to offer assistance,” a source close to the events told Deadline. “That is still the intention so we can all get a fair deal to get back to work.”
The meeting between Barris and Hawley and the guild was originally scheduled to take place on Friday, September 8th in West Hollywood and was then postponed until Monday before being canceled.
The cancellation was far less dramatic than some people described and was partly due to scheduling problems, but also to the optics. Neither side wanted to give the impression that the group was divided, which would benefit the AMPTP’s attempts to divide the parties, and they mutually agreed to pull the plug before scheduling a new meeting for later this week .