Striking screenwriters reach interim deals with Marvel, Lionsgate

The start of informal talks between striking U.S. screenwriters and studio bosses this week hasn't stopped the union from signing interim deals with three more independent production houses.

The Writers Guild of America announced Thursday it had reached interim agreements with Marvel Studios and Lionsgate, allowing writers that had been working on projects with those two companies to get back to work.

Then later Friday, RKO pictures, maker of Are We Done Yet and Mighty Joe Young announced it had settled with the writers' union.

Lionsgate's latest projects include the new Rambo film, out in theatres Friday, the upcoming fifth instalment of the Saw horror franchise and the acclaimed new TV show Mad Men.

The upcoming slate for Marvel, a subsidiary of the comic book giant, includes superhero films Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk.

Side deals a negotiating tactic

These latest deals are part of the guild's divide-and-conquer strategy of reaching agreements with as many independent production houses as possible in an attempt to persuade the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers to return to formal negotiations.

"We think that it's a strategy that is a gradual strategy, but we think we're seeing some effects," WGA East president Michael Winship told CBC News Friday morning.

Part of the approach is showing the AMPTP "that we are in fact quite capable of making a deal," he said, adding that the fact that the Directors Guild of America reached a deal so quickly was among the recent "positive and optimistic" developments in the ongoing labour dispute.

The WGA had previously struck interim agreements with David Letterman's Worldwide Pants, Tom Cruise's United Artists, The Weinstein Co. and several other smaller production companies.

U.S. screenwriters have been on strike since Nov. 5.