Posted in: Movies, Peacock, streaming, TV | Tagged: dwayne johnson, lorne michaels, SAG-AFTRA, the rock, wga

NBCUniversal Suspends Deals with Lorne Michaels, Dwayne Johnson & More

NBCUniversal’s Universal Studio Group has suspended its deals with Lorne Michaels’ Broadway Video, Dwayne Johnson’s Seven Bucks, and others.

With the ongoing SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes not showing any signs of ending anytime soon, we learned last week that Warner Bros Television (WBTV) had suspended the remaining overall deals with a number of creators – including Greg Berlanti Productions, Bill Lawrence's Doozer Productions, John Wells' Productions, Mindy Kaling's Kaling International, JJ Abrams's Bad Robot, and Chuck Lorre's Chuck Lorre Productions. Now, we're learning that NBCUniversal's Universal Studio Group (Universal Television, Universal Content Productions, Universal Pictures, and other areas) has suspended its pacts with Lorne Michaels' Broadway Video, Dwayne Johnson's Seven Bucks, and a number of other film & television deals – joining Tina Fey, Sam Esmail & Mike Schur, whose deals were also suspended.

Based on sources speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, Universal Studio Group reportedly "reached out to its remaining writing and producing partners Monday to see if they were comfortable with contributing non-writing services." Those with active projects who agreed to continue to work weren't impacted – while those without active projects and those not willing to sign on for "non-writing services" found their deals suspended. Reportedly, Seth MacFarlane is still active at UCP as work on the Ted prequel series for Peacock continues; In addition, Dick Wolf remains active on the unscripted side of his programming lineup.

"Great writers, directors, actors, they want their content to be seen. They want to have a chance to have an impact on the culture. They want to have a chance to have an impact on how people see themselves and see the world, and that's what we get to do in this business. But only if we do it together," shared Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav last week at a Goldman Sachs conference regarding the ongoing SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes – a perfect bit of irony that seems fitting to end on.

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