David Zaslav Says Studios Overpaid To End WGA Strike; Scribes Deal Valued At $700M
deadline.comDavid Zaslav has a funny way of making friends. In a week where the Warner Bros Discovery CEO once again alienated almost everyone with the cutting of the completed Coyote vs Acme for a tax write down, Zaslav now is praising the Writers Guild of America, his foe for several months this year. “They are right about almost everything,” the exec told the New York Times about the scribes and the deal they made with the studios after five bitter months that shut Hollywood down. “So what if we overpay?
I’ve never regretted overpaying for great talent or a great asset,” Zaslav added in what seems like a 180 and more from where he, the AMPTP and others in the CEO Gang of Four were back in the spring.
Going through their own corporate contractions, overpaid is probably not the label Zas’ fellow Gang of Four were hoping to be tattooed with today With Zaslav, Netflix’s Ted Sarandos, Disney’s Bob Iger, and NBCUniversal’s Donna Langley stepping in personally for the final push, the AMPTP and the WGA reached a tentative agreement at sunset on September 24.
With the strike officially ending a few days later after 148 days, the scribes digitally hit the ballot box to almost 100% to approve the deal in a ratification vote that concluded on October 9.
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