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In a move that could realign Hollywood’s troubled labor front, movie and television directors said Thursday that they were prepared to begin bargaining toward a new master contract with production companies after the New Year’s Day holiday.

The new talks are likely to jolt striking screenwriters, who walked out almost six weeks ago after failing to reach a deal of their own with the producers’ alliance. Members of the Writers Guild of America West and the Writers Guild of America East had lobbied the directors to stay away from the bargaining table until the writers came to terms with the companies.

Kristen, obviously, nothing is hilarious in the context of actual job losses.

I didn't know the site went out in an official email. That's a bit wacky.

In other news, Nikki's blog seems to suggest Joss interrupted the filming of Carson Daly's show the other day with a bunch of other people.

presumably they'll miss out on DVD sales, itune sales, advertising money from streaming shows and ultimately syndication that only come from scripted shows.

They will still be able to sell the shows they already have in their back catalog, as well as saving the cost of developing new shows, going through pilot season, producing new shows, etc. etc. If this goes on I'm sure we'll just see the studios raiding their back catalog to put more shows out on DVD. Or repackaging the shows already out on DVD with a little extra footage or a few more deleted scenes to get the rabid fans to buy them all over again.

Heck, they could re-shoot old scripts with new casts.

(If I were an evil network executive I would SO be doing that. How cool would that be?)

They've actually done that before Trudy, during one of the previous last strikes.

Buffy The Vampire Slayer with Jason Priestly! As Buffy!

The networks might hurt, even if a studio doesn't.

If this goes on I'm sure we'll just see the studios raiding their back catalog to put more shows out on DVD.

The Inside. The Inside. The Inside.

Yeah. I might finally get Stark Raving Mad on DVD.

ND, back catalog for TV is pretty played out in my opinion. There just isn't that many high profile money-making ones left.

I agree that the big ones are played out but the trick is that it is dirt cheap to release something out of the back catalog. Even moderate sales can turn in good money. There are also no new production costs.

I think several things put the studios in a good bargaining position. Undoubtedly revenues will be lower, but costs will be a lot lower. Publicly they are expecting to come out ahead for at least a year. Yes, in the long run they lose money, but they are assuming the writers cannot hold out down long, and (though they may not care that much ) assume that even fan support will fade. Even if they are bluffing on coming out ahead in the short run, the lower costs will certainly lower their losses. And given how much they have made over the years, they probably can afford a loss. Ultimately I think the big cheeses are out to break the WGA. If they manage that this time around, maybe they will wait until next time around to break the actors, or maybe they will go after them now as long as they are on a roll. In the long run they are aiming for a union free town, or at least a town with completely powerless unions.