Whilst exhibitors are about to convene in Las Vegas to celebrate the box-office essentially getting back to normal, the production side of the industry is bracing for things to go off the rails.
One of the reasons entertainment news has been so quiet in the past few days is that production and deal-making have slowed down according to Deadline as the industry prepares for the possibility of a Writer’s Guild strike.
With 98% of WGA West and WGA East authorizing a strike if a fair new film/TV deal isn’t met by next Monday (May 1st), the industry is already planning scenarios for what might happen should the potential strike go on for several months (the 1988 strike went five months, the 2007/08 strike went just over three months).
The outlet indicates the theatrical release calendar, which was beginning to get busy again, could see several date changes as early as the fourth quarter of this year. Some currently late 2023 titles could be pushed into the first half of 2024, and current early 2024 titles could be stretched further across the next calendar year. TV production would feel the impact much more immediately.
Then there’s the issue that both SAG-AFTRA and the DGA see their contracts expiring on June 30th. Should those unions strike as well, it would prevent actors from doing any publicity on their projects and potentially cause some film projects to stall or even get cancelled.
The previous 2007-08 writers’ strike saw several films killed off before going into production, most notably George Miller’s “Justice League” film. Others had their quality impacted, such as with the James Bond film “Quantum of Solace” which began filming with a bare-bones script and led to even star Daniel Craig having to rewrite scenes himself.
With one week to go until the possibility of a strike, things are only just beginning.
Source : https://www.darkhorizons.com/potential-writers-strike-already-impacting/
