The force majeure ax has swung at ABC Studios, which today notified more than a dozen writers that it was terminating their overall deals as a result of the strike.
While all the major studios had previously suspended deals for their scribes, the ABC Studios move reps the biggest actiom yet by a major to cut ties to talent.
Among the scribes terminated: Bill Callahan (“Scrubs”), Larry Charles (“Curb Your Enthusiasm”), Sean Bailey (“Gone Baby Gone”) and the team of Joshua Sternin and Jeffrey Ventimilia (“That 70s Show,” “Surviving Christmas”). Thesp Taye Diggs, who had a production deal at ABC Studios, has also had his pact terminated.
Agents were still notifying clients of Disney’s action, and more names are expected to leak out over the weekend. Other studios are said to be seriously considering taking similar action.
“The ongoing strike has had a significant detrimental impact on development and production so we are forced to make the difficult decision to release a number of talented, respected individuals from their development deals,” ABC Studios said in a statement late Friday.
--Josef Adalian
Damn you ABC! Damn you Disney!
Posted by: Adam | January 12, 2008 at 08:58 PM
Good! Fire all of them!
Whatever cause the writers may have had at the start has been clouded by egos and greed.
You forget who the real bread and butter is--the Viewers!
You snubbed the people at the peoples choice awards but the SAG awards are going to go on complete with actual celebs--hummm!
Posted by: Bubbi | January 14, 2008 at 03:53 AM
Uh, credit where credit is due. ABC could not have done this without the help of the writers. The WGA goal was to inflict pain and force majeure is one response to that pain. Actually, the whole strike looks more like a trap the studios set and the WGA walked right into it. The studios are free to clean house now while both sides are stalemated over jurisdictional issues. I imagine talks will be able to resume once they are done trimming.
Posted by: Expected | January 14, 2008 at 08:55 AM