It just occurred to me that the British media has no idea how many film and television projects are at a stand-still in America right now because of the writers’ strike. While some shows and movies are filming during the strike, there is simply so much on hold right now, stuck in development limbo or stuck in a months-long holding pattern of preproduction. The WGA strike is happening for many reasons, but one big reason is because the streamers have f–ked up how writers and actors get paid. That’s going to be a huge part of the negotiations if and when the actors strike as well. I would imagine people who have exclusive development deals with streaming companies are getting a lot of pressure from the streamers to work through the strike. Well, speaking of, the Sun had an “exclusive” about the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s Netflix deal:
Harry and Meghan have been told to come up with more must-watch shows for Netflix if they want to be paid £40million in outstanding fees, it is claimed. The couple’s six-part soul-baring series was the streaming giant’s most-viewed documentary. But the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are believed to have been paid only half of their reported £81million contract. And they will get the rest only if they produce content of real interest, an industry source has revealed.
The source said the US giant is happy with the viewing figures for the couple’s Harry & Meghan series. It proves they can be box-office hits with the right format. But if no suitable follow-ups can be agreed, the outstanding cash will not be handed over, it is claimed.
But the couple will not face a public split similar to their one with Spotify. Their Archewell company’s £18million deal with the platform was ended by mutual agreement after Meghan, 41, produced only 13 broadcasts in two-and-a half years. The industry source said of the Netflix arrangement: “There’s no question of a headline-grabbing, public parting of the way. Netflix was pleased to sign Harry and Meghan and is looking for some great ideas going forward. But the remainder of the deal relies on them producing those good ideas. The deal’s continually under review which is normal for ones of this magnitude.”
The Sun is owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Group Newspapers, and NGN also owns the Wall Street Journal, and WSJ has been doing the most in recent weeks to break some really oddly-sourced news on the Sussexes’ contracts with Spotify and Netflix. Harry is also suing NGN, which explains some of this. Anyway, from my (limited) understanding, many of the streamers structure their development contracts in a certain way, as in “you’ll be paid this much when you hit this target,” etc. It’s not a surprise that the Sussexes have only been paid half of the reported $100 million, especially given that their contract is reportedly a five-year deal. I’m sure they’ve got some other stuff in development beyond Heart of Invictus too. But again, the writers’ strike. And what will probably be an actors’ strike. Everything is going to come grinding to a halt very quickly and I’m not looking forward to the British media making everything about the Sussexes.
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I’m going to guess that within a week, we’ll see that the writer’s strike is all … (consults dice briefly) Megan’s fault because she (consults cards) said she loves her husband and as we all know, that means the writers struck so that Harry couldn’t return to England.
Seriously. Kaiser has read the writing on the wall, and it’s bleak.
Lordy the british press is so obsessed with their Netflix deal. They are salivating at the idea of Netflix not paying the rest of the deal so they can talk about H&M failing and how Harry needs to come back to the UK etc.
besides, no one knows for sure the actual terms of their contract anyway so the Sun is just making all this up.
The UK rags are talking out of both sides of their mouths and their a$$es! If H&M are no longer driving their readership, if they are so unpopular everywhere, why do they keep putting them on their front pages?
There must be some clauses in their agreement that would take strikes into consideration. Also, I wonder about the agreement, in general. Do they only get paid if the finished product is a hit, or if there is a finished product, or are there markers along the way. What happens when Netflix pulls the plug on a whole division, like they did with animation and Pearl?
I think the Actors have all voted to go on strike. The only organization to not strike is the DGA. How British papers can take a massive industry even and distill it down to basically two creatives in Santa Barbara is interesting to say the least. I live in LA county, and trust, on a day to day basis, we are not thinking about the Royals out there. Housing is pretty unaffordable and we have a little homeless problem right now.
Here’s the way the commoners line myself make a living: I was hired to do a job at a certain salary. As long as I do my job with satisfactory results (or exceed), I continue to hold said job and earn a paycheck. I work for my pay. H+M work for a living. All of the folks salivating at their potential failure based on the nuances of this particular industry does not negate the fact that they are doing (at a much higher salary range) what most of us do day in and day out. You could write some of these same headlines about tons of people, but it only has this heat score because of who they are. It is sooo annoying.
The strike only impacts them in that writers are not to craft anything on paper right now for a struck company or company that does business with a struck company. So no writer can put anything to paper or speak about projects with Archwell because of its deal with Netflix. That would not prevent H or M, who are not part of the WGA, from tossing around ideas with Netflix or their own staff. They simply will not be able to move forward with a writers’ room or even have someone write a script for a documentary until the strike is over. What I’d love to see is H and M out there on the picket lines with either SAG or the WGA. That would make a statement and bring the house down.
I would love to Meghan or Meghan and Harry walking the picket line, especially since Meghan is a member of SAG/AFTRA, and they have voted to strike.
So much for Harry and Meghan being irrelevant.
I’ve accepted that everything the Sussexes do or don’t do will receive magnified scrutiny and negative headlines from tabloids even if what they do is good or great. I’m not fazed by any of the negative coverage. Since Harry’s court cases against the British tabloids have become public, I’ve come to understand why the tabloids are continuing to paint the Sussexes negatively and take actions to intimidate them. The tabloids would like the Sussexes to fail to be financially independent and they would like Harry to drop the court cases. What Harry is doing is epic, no small feat. Go team Sussex.
We knew this was coming. They knew it was coming. Murdoch’s empire is MASSIVE. It is an ugly business and if I were them, I’d be courting the influencers and social media warriors during my next phase of whatever Archewell has going on. On all their projects, actually. That’s where their advocates are. The headlines are the headlines, but WSJ for instance exists behind a paywall. This is an aggressive play by a large network, but H+M will be fine. WME will make sure of it. You (they) can’t react to this because again it gives oxygen to the fire. Even if seeds are planted and left behind in the narrative, largely people have short memory spans. You can be rehabilitated in the same media even after being absolutely torn to shreds. They have to let their work speak for itself, and expand their network of people with followings speaking about their work. The model they had worked for a time. We do a good thing, the organization posts about us, we post on our blog. It’s time to evolve past that. I think they will.
A lot of very valid point have already been made here so I’ll come at it from a different perspective. I know their lifestyle is expensive beyond what most of us would ever see (just counting their security cost) but even at the more conservative estimates of what they’ve made form these deals, plus BetterUP, Spare, etc. etc. they are RICH. I would also bet a lot of what I do have that their income is very well invested and busy making them more money as I type.
How about we stop all the pearl clutching about them not making millions and millions more than they already have. But no, that wouldn’t fit the desired narrative. It’s exhausting.
Agreed! @SarahCS. It’s not like their fortune is all liquid cash. They have financial advisers, LOL. We all need to calm down :-).
It is absolutely horrifying to me how “let’s hate Harry and (especially) Meghan” has turned into some kind of monstrous industry. The hate-filled comments from people who do not know, have never met, and will never meet the couple just blows my mind. So many act like H & M have personally injured them – though we know this could not be true. The endless stream of wholly fictional accounts of what H & M think, do, and say just keeps rolling off the press without any regard at all for truth.
As always, this is giving “obsessed with the runaway slaves”. They want the Sussexes to fail so badly so that they will divorce and Harry will flee back to Britain for his punishment.
Harry will NEVER rejoin that pit of vipers. He makes his own money and he’s made his own family. His former subjects need to make peace with this reality and move on.
More nonsense from publications about the Sussexes who are suing these publications.
People halfway through a contract have only been paid for half of the contract!! News at 11!
Hard work has never been a problem for H and M. They are now trying to reverse the bad qualities of the Middleton couple onto H and M. W and K are work-shy and lazy, remember? Harry and Meghan are empathetic and great with people, not William. Shitshow, this.
I can’t help but wonder if Harry is accustomed to working in great spurts, and if Meghan is an accustomed to having someone direct her. Maybe they need some thing or someone in the mix to get them to that next level. Or maybe they can pass their great insight into other creators and performers. They don’t have to be the face of the project or the voice of the project, but they can still contribute so much by guiding projects and consulting and directing other people instead of themselves.
They are not even close AT ALL to their work-shy counterparts living in London. But I just wonder if they’re missing some thing that could really help them.
Ok so, they don’t have the Golden Midas touch, who cares. Losing a major contract within the first year is not a good look for anyone, but they obviously have a ton of great things going for them in their lives, and are capable of so much. AND on the other side, there’s literally a ton of businesses making money off of trash-talking them, baiting them, and that will never end.
Plus they’re still growing. They’re still experiencing this life. It’s not like they made it to some new stratosphere of fame and suddenly are the wisest they will ever be. They’re still on their journey and there’s still time to produce anything they want in this life.
Go get them Harry ! Go get Rupert Murdoch’s News Group Newspapers!