Game of Thrones creator reveals his HBO deal has been SUSPENDED

Game of Thrones creator George R. R. Martin says Hollywood writers’ strike will be ‘long and bitter’ as he reveals his HBO deal has been SUSPENDED

• The beloved author and mind behind Game of Thrones delivered an update on his experience of the ongoing WGA strike 
• He said that he believes it is ‘the most important (strike) of my lifetime,’ but that things may become brutally bad before they get better
• His post arrived about a week after SAG-AFTRA, the Hollywood actors union, announced that they too would strike and joined the picket lines 

George R. R. Martin, the mind behind Game of Thrones, revealed in a blog post over the weekend that his overall deal with HBO was suspended on June 1 – about a month after the Writers Guild of America strike went into effect.

Martin posted his comments little more than one week after members of SAG-AFTRA, the Hollywood actors union, officially joined WGA members on strike after negotiations with studios fell apart.

The Hollywood heavyweight called the ongoing strike, which has no clear end in sight, the ‘most important of my lifetime.’ 

‘I have never seen such unity in the Guilds; the strike authorization votes for both SAG and WGA were as close to unanimous as we are ever likely to see. 

‘No one can be certain where we go from here, but I have a bad feeling that this strike will be long and bitter. It may get as bad as the infamous 1985 strike, though I hope not,’ he added. 

Fames Game of Thrones writer George R. R. Martin posted an update on his personal experience as the WGA strike continues. He said that his overall deal at HBO was suspended June 1

Members of SAG-AFTRA and WGA react as Unite Here! Local 11 hotel workers union join the picket line at Netflix and Sunset Gower Studios on July 21, 2023 in Los Angeles

The 1985 writers strike lasted just two weeks, but union leaders ultimately called it a ‘defeat’ on the key issue of revenue-sharing from sales of videocassette tapes.

In 1988, the WGA went on strike again over residual payments for TV shows broadcast in foreign countries. The strike lasted 22 weeks – the longest in industry history. 

That strike ended with studios agreeing to new formulas for calculating residuals and increases in minimum pay – two issues that are also tenets of 2023’s strike. The strike did, however, force layoffs at many studios and brought significant hardship to many industry workers.

The last time both actors and writers were on strike together was in 1960, when Ronald Regan was the Actors’ Guild president. 

In his post, Martin included a clip of SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher announcing the strike on July 14, under which he wrote: ‘Not much I can add to that, except ‘AMEN.” 

Despite his deal with HBO being suspended, Martin wrote that the strike is ‘not really about name writers or producers or showrunners, most of whom are fine.’

‘We’re striking for the entry level writers, the story editors, the students hoping to break in, the actor who has four lines, the guy working his first staff job who dreams of creating his own show one day, as I did back in the 80s,’ he added, noting that he has joined several picket lines in New Mexico, where he lives.

Martin also revealed that the second season of House of the Dragon – a Game of Thrones spinoff – continues to shoot across the pond, which is kosher because the actors are members of Equity, the British union.

‘Though Equity strongly supports their American cousins (they have a big rally planned to show that support), British law forbids them from staging a sympathy strike. If they walk, they have no protection against being fired for breach of contract, or even sued,’ he wrote. 

All scripts for the second season, he said, were completed before the strike went into effect. 

‘No writing has been done since, to the best of my knowledge,’ he wrote. 

SAG-AFTRA members and supporters walk the picket line as the SAG-AFTRA Actors Union Strike continues on Day 9 in front of Paramount at Times Square

SAG-AFTRA represents about 160,00 actors. The WGA represents about 11,000 writers

The picket lines have of course also been omnipresent across Los Angeles, where studio heads continue to go to work each day

Reunion! Succession’ cast members Nicholas Braun, Justine Lupe, and Alan Ruck are seen above with writer-director-producer Lorene Scafaria, right, picket outside of Warner Bros. studios for the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes

As is the case with some high-profile writers, Martin has several projects that are not directly related to film and television that he has continued working on for the last few months.

‘Last week we had a great meeting with the producers on The Iron Throne, the stage play we’ve been working on the past few years. The scripts for that one are coming along well, and it’s got me very excited,’ he wrote.

He also assured fans that he continues to put in hours almost every day on Winds of Winter, the planned sixth book in his epic fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire – on which Games of Thrones was based.

Progress is ‘steady,’ he wrote. ‘Not as fast as I would like.. .certainly not as fast as you would like… but progress nonetheless.’

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