DGA hopes to avoid following in picketing writers' footsteps

Despite signs that the Directors Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers would begin negotiations around Thanksgiving — even though the DGA’s contract isn’t up until June — a date still has not been nailed down. Presumably, that’s what the DGA’s negotiating committee, which is chaired by Academy Awards producer Gil Cates, will be discussing when it convenes on Dec. 6. (The committee has met several times since October.) According to a source close to the situation, DGA president Michael Apted sent a letter to members on Nov. 26, in which he alluded to the fact that the DGA will negotiate a deal for itself, rather than taking cues from the Writers Guild’s own negotiations with the AMPTP. Historically, the DGA has a history of hashing out an agreement early (in private, as opposed to in the press), and as a result, has only gone on strike once in its 71-year existence.