David Simon tweeted from a WGA strike picket line on Monday that his deal with HBO has been suspended after 25 years with the cable channel. Simon is behind such prestige HBO TV as “The Wire,” “We Own this City” and “Treme,” and won two Emmys for his series “The Corner.”
“On the day that HBO called to suspend my deal after 25 years of writing television for them, I was doing the write thing,” he wrote in a caption to a video of writers chanting, “No contract, no peace.” Simon is not seen in the video he apparently shot himself.
According to an individual familiar with the situation at HBO, some suspensions have been made by phone call, but that letters to that effect have not yet been sent.
Simon’s picketing comes after HBO demanded last week that showrunners fulfill all “non-WGA required services” on shows.
The strike began on May 2 as writers fight for a bigger share of the revenue from streaming services such as Amazon, Disney+, Netflix and the newly christened Max, which was formerly HBO Max.
Production on several series, including “Hacks” has been shelved in light of the strike.
