There may be hope but remember the word tentative.

CHICAGO (MarketWatch) — The long and bitter Hollywood writer’s strike that has wreaked havoc on television schedules and led to millions of dollars of lost income for the entertainment industry may soon be over, according to the heads of the Writers Guild of America.

“We have a tentative deal,” wrote Patric Verrone and Michael Winship, in a letter to their members Saturday.

“It is an agreement that protects a future in which the Internet becomes the primary means of both content creation and delivery,” they said. “It creates formulas for revenue-based residuals in new media, provides access to deals and financial data to help us evaluate and enforce those formulas, and establishes the principle that, ‘When they get paid, we get paid.’”

Ken Levine though offers these thoughts at his blog that he remains guarded until tonight’s meeting.

Saturday night is the big Writers Guild members meeting to hear and discuss the latest proposal. Despite what you hear, the strike isn’t over until at least after that meeting. And depending on the reaction to the proposal, we may be back to step one. I’m cautiously optimistic but until I hear what the deal is I can’t really predict how the membership will react. I do know this: a giant room full of writers…with microphones for us to speak? The meeting will last for day.

Is it over? It appears to be but tonight’s meeting will tell if the fat lady’s singing.