Hollywood Writers Plan to Fire Agents After Talks Break Off

LOS ANGELES — Fire your agents.

That was the instruction the Writers Guild of America gave to its 13,000 members on Friday, after talks between the Hollywood writers and their agents broke down hours before a midnight deadline.

With the sudden end to negotiations, Hollywood moved closer to a potentially chaotic and unprecedented outcome, with the writers preparing to fire their agents en masse in the coming days.

The fight had been brewing for a year, with the Los Angeles and New York branches of the Writers Guild of America accusing the agents of enriching themselves at their clients’ expense and demanding that they agree to a new code of conduct.

Talks between writers and agents broke off on Friday afternoon, and in an email blast sent to its members, the W.G.A. said, “There is no settlement.”

This is a breaking story and will be updated.