Marathon Talks Go On in Strike by Writers

Marathon bargaining between striking movie and television writers and their Hollywood employers continued Friday night, despite repeated rumors of a pending settlement in their 14-week-old contract dispute.

Top officers of Fox Inc., Warner Bros., MCA Inc., and other major studios attended the latest negotiating session, which began at 4:48 p.m. Friday. A session that began on the previous morning had continued until 6 a.m. Friday.

Declined Comment

Spokesman for both the Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers disavowed the settlement rumors, but declined to comment on movement in the talks, which began under the aegis of a federal mediator nearly three weeks ago.

Chief executives from several studios initially became involved in the sessions a week ago, and continued to meet with guild negotiators Friday night in an intensified effort to break the impasse.

Sources familiar with the talks said the companies continued to resist a writers’ demand for higher foreign residuals, but had softened their opposition to the writers’ insistence on increased creative control over movie and TV productions, and had discussed possible alteration of a company demand for restructured residual payments for one-hour TV shows.

Directors Guild in Opposition

The Directors Guild of America has strongly opposed many of the writers’ creative rights proposals, and has publicly threatened legal action against any company that accedes to demands that the directors believe conflict with their own contractual rights.

It was not clear whether any of the terms being discussed Friday night were potentially in conflict with the directors’ contract.

While the strike continues against about 200 production companies, including all the major studios and TV networks, about 80 small production companies have signed independent agreements with the 9,000-member Writers Guild of America. The guild has said it expects as many as 400 writers to return to work under the independent contracts.