NEWSLETTER
RSS
MOBILE
HELP
SHARE
Hollywood Scramble
Movie studios are racing to get as many projects into production as fast as they can to avoid getting caught out as a series of potentially strike-inducing labor union contract talks approach.
At issue, at least for the writers and actors, are the particularly sticky issues of compensation and digital distribution. The writers' contracts expire this October and the actors and directors contracts are up next June.
How worried are the studios? Well, no films are currently set to shoot next July. None.
But that is not because fewer films are in the works. Indeed, top actors like Adam Sandler, Vince Vaughn, Matt Damon, and Jim Carrey are all looking to book (or have booked) "pre-strike" pictures that wrap by June 30, 2008.
As Michael Cieply notes in the New York Times, "no studio wants to be caught with filming on its schedule, especially under expensive 'pay or play' deals" that are part of most A-list actors' contracts.
But no top-level talent will sign on to a project without having a look at a the final script, so the heat has been turned up on screenwriters as well.
by Tim Swanson
More Hollywood Deal posts by Tim Swanson can be found here.
- C.E.O. Pimp My Ride
- Dec 2 2008 3:20PM EST
- Over the Top on Deflation
- Dec 2 2008 12:20PM EST
- Cuban Strikes Out Without Swinging
- Dec 2 2008 10:54AM EST
- This Just In: Times Are Tough
- Dec 1 2008 4:23PM EST
- Huffington Post Is Worth How Much???
- Dec 1 2008 12:26PM EST
- First Photoshopped Love Handles, Now This
- Dec 1 2008 11:31AM EST
- His 401-Koz Keeps Growing
- Nov 26 2008 9:00PM EST
- Slim Pickings? Or Great Timing?
- Nov 26 2008 1:46PM EST
- Who's the Grinch in This Story?
- Nov 26 2008 8:57AM EST
- When $1 Buys More Than $100 Million
- Nov 25 2008 5:45PM EST
- Another 500-point Swing? So What.
- Nov 25 2008 1:15PM EST
- One Bailout for Wall Street and Detroit
- Nov 25 2008 10:52AM EST
- Tiger Woods Actually ... Loses?
- Nov 24 2008 3:54PM EST
- You Know Things Are Really Bad When...
- Nov 24 2008 2:15PM EST
- Beauty and the Beast
- Nov 24 2008 1:05PM EST
Archive
Mobile