Confronting a lack of resolution about residuals for DVD and new media initiatives, the Writer's Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers hit an impasse last night, setting the WGA into its official strike this morning. An excerpt from Dave McNary's "WGA Goes on Strike; Marathon Negogiations End in Impasse":

"A flurry of back-channel efforts to stave off the strike culminated in the Sunday meeting in Los Angeles that began at 11 a.m. Federal mediator Juan Carlos Gonzalez, who joined the talks a week ago, summoned both sides to the Sunday meeting in the wake of the WGA officially declaring the start of the strike.

Several CEOs were believed to be pushing to jump-start the bargaining process -- CBS topper Les Moonves, Disney's Robert Iger, Fox's Peter Chernin and Warner Bros. Barry Meyer -- but none were among the 25 or so attendees at Sunday's session.

The strike heightens the likelihood that the AMPTP will turn quickly to launch negotiations with the Directors Guild of America, which has a June 30 contract expiration. Should the DGA make a deal in the next few weeks, it would likely be trumpeted by studios and nets as a repudiation of the WGA's contention that the companies are not willing to engage in serious bargaining on tough issues.

Labor experts have warned that once the WGA goes on strike, a resolution is not likely to emerge any time soon -- particularly with the DGA and AMPTP expected to start negotiations later this month.

"The parties are so far apart on core economic issues that it's probably not going to resolved quickly," said Anthony Haller, a partner at the law firm Blank Rome. "The core issues in this dispute aren't the kind that can be subject to the usual sort of horse-trading you see in typical labor negotiations. It looks like the WGA does not think that the DGA will be strong enough to get what the writers believe they need."

Until about a month ago, the WGA had been widely expected to not reach a deal by Oct. 31 and then work under an expired contract while the DGA negotiated a deal before the end of the year. But WGA leaders became convinced that such a strategy wouldn't get the WGA what it wanted and decided instead to threaten to walk out as soon as the guild contract expired.

WGA negotiating committee chief John Bowman has acknowledged the rumors of a WGA strike raised the likelihood that the Directors Guild of America will make a deal soon with the AMPTP. He said that even if the DGA did come to a deal with AMPTP on Internet issues, the writers will not back down.

"The DGA can't make this deal for us," he added. "We won't accept a bad deal.""

Read the full story on Variety.