According to a recent Deadline report, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) is in the strike for the long haul—with a plan to let the Writers Guild of America (WGA) “bleed out” before resuming negotiations. “The endgame is to allow things to drag on until union members start losing their apartments and losing their houses,” one source told the trade.

The WGA is entering its 72nd day on the picket lines, striking against the AMPTP in hopes of negotiating a new contract with Hollywood studios. However, sources told Deadline that the AMPTP, led by Carol Lombardini, is not interested in negotiating with the scribes anytime soon. “I think we’re in for a long strike,” said one industry veteran with insight into the studios’ perspective. 

Since the writers went on strike May 2, studios and streamers such as Warner Bros. Discovery, Apple, Netflix, Amazon, Disney, and Paramount have received positive feedback from Wall Street in their quest to, as one studio exec told Deadline, “break the WGA.” According to the report, the studios and streamers have been prepared for the long haul since the very beginning. “It’s been agreed to for months, even before the WGA went out,” one executive said. “Nobody wanted a strike, but everybody knew this was make or break.”

The Deadline report came approximately 30 hours before the actors union, SAG-AFTRA, is set to announce whether it will join the WGA in a strike against the AMPTP or reach a deal. Regardless of whether SAG-AFTRA strikes a deal with the AMPTP, the studios have no intention of coming back to the table with the WGA until the fall, a top-tier producer told Deadline: “Not Halloween precisely, but late October, for sure, is the intention.” 

Per Deadline, the AMPTP is willing to wait until it feels that the writers are cash-strapped and more willing to compromise on their demands. “The studios and the AMPTP believe that by October most writers will be running out of money after five months on the picket lines and no work,” reads the Deadline report. “The studios and streamers feel they would be in a position to dictate most of the terms of any possible deal.” An insider called the strategy “a cruel but necessary evil.”

The report has stoked an outcry from guild members and nonmembers alike; for the record, though, some writers and onlookers suspect the bravado Deadline quotes is more of a negotiation tactic than genuine malice. “They’re ramping up propaganda,” tweeted screenwriter Joe Russo. “What an inept attempt to scare WGA members into turning on each other,” agreed journalist and author Mark Harris. Director and story artist Cole Harrington put it more bluntly: “It’s a threat. This is calculated. The AMPTP is trying to scare folks into folding because THEY’RE scared of unions.”

This is the first writers strike in 15 years. In June, the Directors Guild of America (DGA) was able to strike a tentative deal with the AMPTP in order to avoid a two-pronged strike. If SAG-AFTRA decides to strike, it will be the first dual strike in 63 years. Deadline reports that the studios are taking a “divide-and-conquer” approach in the meantime, with the underlying belief that “giving in” to the WGA will result in every Hollywood guild—including SAG-AFTRA, IATSE, and the Teamsters—demanding a strike.