May 24, 2023
Los Angeles – The Presidents of the Directors Guild of America and the Writers Guild of America, West released the following statements decrying the unilateral decision by Warner Bros. Discovery to change the long-standing individual credits of Directors and Writers in the new rollout of Max.
“For almost 90 years, the Directors Guild has fought fiercely to protect the credit and recognition deserved by Directors for the work they create. Warner Bros. Discovery's unilateral move, without notice or consultation, to collapse Directors, Writers, Producers and others into a generic category of 'creators' in their new Max rollout while we are in negotiations with them is a grave insult to our members and our union,” said DGA President Lesli Linka Glatter. “This devaluation of the individual contributions of artists is a disturbing trend and the DGA will not stand for it. We intend on taking the strongest possible actions, in solidarity with the WGA, to ensure every artist receives the individual credit they deserve.”
Said WGAW President Meredith Stiehm, "Warner Bros has lumped Writers, Directors and Producers into an invented, diminishing category they call Creators. This is a credits violation for starters. But worse, it is disrespectful and insulting to the artists that make the films and TV shows that make their corporation billions. This attempt to diminish Writers' contributions and importance echoes the message we heard in our negotiations with AMPTP — that writers are marginal, inessential, and should simply accept being paid less and less, while our employers' profits go higher and higher. This tone-deaf disregard for Writers' importance is what brought us to where we are today — Day 22 of our strike."
UPDATE:
On May 24, following the release of the joint statements from the DGA and WGAW, Warner Bros Discovery announced that they will correct the changes made to the Director and Writer credits and revert to individual listings.