With week 8 of the Writer’s Guild of America (WGA) strike on the horizon, it seems unlikely a resolution is going to come anytime soon. With Christmas this week, and New Years the next, Hollywood is virtually shut down, so there is little to no hope of talks resuming. With all of this in mind, unemployed writers are turning to the next best hope: The Internet.
Venture capitalists are already looking around to see what they can fund in the way of original content, as evidenced by the news FunnyOrDie.com just got $15 million, and writers are banding together to see what they can launch. The Hollywood Reporter is reporting that three striking writers have joined up with a former MTV exec to start a web series called "The Void" for the WorldWide Biggies studio.
It's too early to tell if this will do serious damage to the television networks and movie studios, but things are definitely looking like there may be a shift in where people get fresh content from in the near future.
(via Matthew Ingram)