Over at Deadline Hollywood Daily Nikki Finke has put online a bunch of the Writers Guild Of America member-conceived Internet videos for Project “Speechless” in which a bunch of actors sit around and say nothing or just talk a garbled mess of nothing.
The vids all link back to UnitedHollywood.com, a blog started by a group of WGA strike captains. They include the likes of Sean Penn, Bill Macy and Felicity Huffman, Laura Linney and Eva Longoria and Nicolette Sheridan. Below I have included the Harvey Keitel edition.
The WGA and AMPTP begin talks again tomorrow at 10 AM at an undisclosed neutral site at a hotel without CEOs in attendance reports Variety.
“Both sides need to shut up and stay in the room until they get this resolved,” one labor insider told the trade. “They’ve shown that this can’t be negotiated in the press or on the picket line.”
I recently sat down with Juno director Jason Reitman, whom is also a member of the WGA having adapted Thank You For Smoking to the screen, and we talked for a minute about the strike and I told him how I just couldn’t see it ending until late 2008. He disagreed and felt it would be settled by the end of 2007, but I just can’t see how a deal can be struck with the contracts for the actors and directors expiring on June 30. You know that any deal the writers’ get will probably have to be doubled, if not tripled, for the actors and directors, which I take to mean that if a deal is struck with the WGA prior to negotiating the contracts with the DGA and SAG they are just digging a bigger hole for themselves and the entire industry is really starting to suffer.
Suffering is truly going to be felt with regards to any movie currently in production. I mean, how often do we hear about how a script is just an outline and things change daily on set. Recently when interviewing the cast and crew of Iron Man at Comic Con it was pointed out how Robert Downey Jr. would come in and say how the script needed work for the scenes to be shot that day and they would all sit down and confab about it. Well, I guess the confab can happen, but as far as writing goes, it can’t be done.
Screenwriter John August pointed out on his blog (it’s under “Day 10”) recently the interesting quandry that is Damon Lindeloff and J.J. Abrams as they work on Star Trek.
Star Trek is the biggest movie shooting at Paramount. It’s directed and produced by WGA members, who are following the spirit and letter of the Guild’s rules. They’re walking the line while being forced to cross it.
“Forced†isn’t quite right, because there’s an alternative: J.J., Damon, and the other WGA producers could refuse to cross the picket line. They’d get fired, sued, and replaced by a less-conflicted director and producing team — all probably within a week’s time. What’s tougher to figure out is whether it would make a damn bit of difference…
Neither J.J. nor Damon are writers on the movie. But they are writers, and WGA members. During a WGA strike, you’re not allowed to write on movies or television shows, period. So they can’t change a word of the script, nor can anyone else. The script they had at 11:59 p.m. November 5th is the script they have to shoot… J.J. was describing a scene he was shooting the day before. Midway through it, he got a great idea for a new line. Which he couldn’t write. Couldn’t shoot. Couldn’t be in his movie.
Talk about a clear cut sign of what may be on the horizon in 2008 and 2009.
