The Writers Guild of America West sent a note on Friday to its estimated 10,000 members telling them to not work on upcoming projects from producers Randall Emmett and George Furla amid a dispute with the union.
The WGAW claims that the producers’ companies, Emmett Furla Oasis Films (EFO) and Pumped, LLC, owe compensation to four writers who worked on a television series pitch entitled Pump.
“The companies, along with their co-owners, Emmett and Furla, were placed on the Strike/Unfair List for their failure to comply with an arbitration award,” read the note to members from WGAW president David A. Goodman, vp Marjorie David and secretary-treasurer Michele Mulroney.
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The union leaders added: “On September 10, 2020, the arbitrator ordered EFO and Pumped to pay a total of $477,581.34, representing compensation, pension & health contributions and interest due to four writers on the television series Pump. To date, the writers have not been paid and interest continues to accrue.”
Marty Barab, an attorney representing Emmett and Furla, said that his clients are actively trying to resolve the situation and settle with the guild.
The television series Pump, described as an hourlong bodybuilding drama set in Venice in the 1970s, was announced in 2013 and sold by Schwarzenegger as a pitch to Showtime. In 2016, it moved to CBS Television Studios, when Emmett and Furla boarded as executive producers. But, once Schwarzenegger exited the project last year, “in an unforeseen circumstance,” the project was halted and writing on the series ended, Barab says.
The attorney for Emmett and Furla claimed that the guild was trying to go around the legal system to “black list” his clients rather than see the resolution out in court.
A rep for Schwarzenegger says that the actor is not aware of the dispute between the guild and producers because he’s no longer involved with the project. (On Nov. 11, Netflix picked up Schwarzenegger’s first scripted series, a spy thriller.)
Emmett and Furla’s companies were added to the union’s “Strike/Unfair” list on Oct. 26. When asked for comment on the timing of the Nov. 20 note to union members, Leila Azari, senior counsel for the WGAW, said: “We had hoped the message wouldn’t be necessary, as we expected the companies to pay the amounts due by now. They haven’t, so we needed to ensure our members were aware.”
