Caffeinated Clint
“Salary Wars” in Hollywood
If you’re an actor, actress, writer, director or studio exec, chances are you’re going to be changing your underwear after dinner – because you shit yourself this morning.
This morning, a WGA document was emailed to screenwriters indicating that the much feared ‘strike’ will indeed most likely happen – or at least, they seem to want it to. So unless someone backs up a truck full of gold bullion to the WGA, or writers start getting a cut each time someone downloads their film from itunes, Wendy’s are going to be inundated with job applications in the next couple of months.
Oh, so what was the letter? The Writers Guild are now asking guild members to OK a possible strike. The league sent out strike-authorization materials with a joint letter asking that they be returned – with their ballot by the 18th. So, in two weeks, we could very well have an answer to the ‘will they or will they not?’ question. Personally, I think the prospect is scarier than anything in Clive Barker’s “Nightbreed” – and as a youngster, that film soiled me thrice.
“Since the talks began on July 16, the companies have refused to engage in serious negotiations,” the guild negotiators said. “Instead, they have rejected each of our proposals and responded with a ‘comprehensive’ proposal of their own: 32 pages of draconian rollbacks that would eviscerate virtually every gain that writers have made in the past 50 years.”
The strike was originally rumoured to happen next spring, but these recent developments indicate that it could happen much sooner – say, November. What that means is that all these projects that are in pre-production, thinking they had a few more months up their sleeves before they had to be in front of the cameras, might be prematurely [dare I say] put out of their misery. One of those projects is Warner’s “Justice League”, which many are now speculating won’t be ready in time – they don’t have a final shooting script – if November is indeed D-month. As someone who’s in the game I I can tell you that it’s absolutely depressing – there’s no way all my planned projects are going to get up before then; no way. And it’s a universal sentiment. Not till 2009 will some near-ready-to-go films actually, well, go. But… ya never know.
Having said that, there are still plenty of projects up and going – or about to – with a view to releasing in late 2008 or 2009. Granted, most of the projects sound like absolute shit… which won’t surprise anyone considering the urgency of the situation; actors and filmmakers are essentially jumping on any project that pays it seems.
A casting agent kindly slipped us a look at a tentative list of projects – most you’ll have heard of, some possibly not – that he’s aware are happening over this time. He says there are new titles being added to it – a spreadsheet they’re internally updating – every day and it’s merely his way of trying to keep tabs on what’s happening so that he can target those individual projects on behalf of his clients. He too says “Justice League” isn’t the done deal that the trades are saying it is, but isn’t too concerned with it anyway because “they’re not really looking at anyone that hasn’t got a recognizable name for the lead roles”.
Here’s part of the listing….. not much chop hey?
105 Degrees
20% Fiction (Robert DeNiro)
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
500 Days of Summer
Adventureland (Jessie Eisenberg)
Afterlife
Against all Enemies (Robert Redford)
Alice (Sarah Michelle Gellar)
Alien Uprising
American Dog
Angels and Demons (Tom Hanks)
Angus, Thongs
Appaloosa (Renee Zellweger, Ed Harris)
Armored
A-Team, The
Atlas Shrugged (Angelina Jolie)
Bachelor #2 (Alec Baldwin, Dane Cook)
Bachelor Boys
Baltimore, or The Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Vampire
Bedtime Stories
Bernard the Genie
Between the Sand and the Sky (Muse Watson)
Big Man on Campus
Big Momma’s House III (Martin Lawrence)
Bloodrayne 3
Bond 22 (Daniel Craig)
Bone Deep
Boone’s Lick (Tom Hanks, Julianne Moore)
Boy Soldier
Brad Cutter Ruined My Life
Bride Wars
Burial, The
Cage
Cameron Crowe Project 2008
Camp Creepy Time
Capricorn One
Captain Awesome
Castlevania (Jonathan Frakes)
Cell
Chef
Chilled in Miami
Christmas Carol, A (Tom Hanks, Michael J.Fox)
Cinderella Story 2, A
Clique, The
Code, The (Morgan Freeman )
Comeback
Confessions of a Shopaholic (Isla Fisher, Krysten Ritter)
Connie and Ruth
Conrail
Contact Zero
Cool School
Crossing, The
Curveball
Dallas (John Travolta)
Day the Earth Stood Still, The
Dinner for Schmucks
Dirty Dozen, The
Don’t Send Help
Doubt
Eagle Eye (Shia LaBeouf, Rosario Dawson)
Escape from New York (Gerard Butler)
Escape from Witch Mountain (The Rock, AnnaSophia Robb)
Fantastic Voyage
Fantasy Island (Eddie Murphy)
Fast and the Furious 4
Felon (Val Kilmer, Sam Shepard)
Fighter, The (Brad Pitt, Mark Wahlberg)
First Man (Robert DeNiro, Meryl Streep)
Five Dollars A Day (Christopher Walken)
Fletch Won
Flypaper
Food Fight (Charlie Sheen, Hilary Duff)
Four Christmases (Reese Witherspoon, Vince Vaughan)
Frankie Machine (Robert DeNiro, Martin Scorsese)
Fright Night
G.I Joe
Game
Gauntlet, The
Gears of War
Gforce (Zach Galifianakis)
Ghost Town
Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (Matthew McConaughey)
Gingerdead Man 2 : Passion of the Crust, The
Gulliver’s Travels
He’s Just Not that Into You (Jennifer Aniston)
Higher Form of Learning, A (Steven Seagal)
Honeymoon with Harry
Hotel for Dogs (Emma Roberts, Don Cheadle)
I Dream of Jeannie
I Love you Beth Cooper
I Love you Man
Jungle Cruise
Justice League
Kidnap
Killer’s Game
Killing on Carnival Row
Kingdom
Kung Fu
Last Chance Harvey (Dustin Hoffman)
Legally Blondes (Camilla Rosso)
Liberty
Lincoln (Liam Neeson, Sally Field)
Little Big Men (Paul Rudd, Christopher Mintz-Plasse)
Little Game
Lodger
Lost Squad
Love Guru (Mike Myers, Romany Malco)
Magneto
Management (Jennifer Aniston, Steve Zahn)
Marley and Me (Jennifer Aniston, Owen Wilson)
Me Time (Jim Carrey)
Meatballs
Memory of a Killer
Monster Hunter
Morgan’s Summit (Bruce Willis, Julianne Moore)
Near Dark
Never Submit (Ernie Hudson, Corey Sevier)
Nick and Norah
Notorious (Sylvester Stallone)
Notorious B.I.G
Nowhere Land (Eddie Murphy, Ronny Cox)
Party Boys (Will Forte)
Phenom
Piano Tuner
Pinkville (Bruce Willis, Michael Pena)
Playboys
Point Break 2
Porky’s
Powder Blue (Jessica Biel, Patrick Swayze)
Prince of Persia
Princess and the Frog (Kieth David, Jenifer Lewis)
Proposal
Psycho Funky
Punisher 2 (Ray Stevenson, Dominic West)
Rabbit Hole (Nicole Kidman)
Recount (Kevin Spacey, John Hurt)
Rest Stop II
Righteous Kill (Al Pacino, Robert DeNiro)
Rip, The
Rum Diary (Johnny Depp)
Runaway Train
School
Scorpion King 2
Secret Life of Bees
Selling Time
Serious Man
Seventh Samurai
Sex and the City (Sarah Jessica Parker)
Shadow Divers
She’s Out of My League
Siege of Fulton Ave
Sin Nombre
Six Wives of Henry Lefay, The (Tim Allen, Jenna Elfman)
Smash and Grab
Snitch
Snow
Soloist, The (Jamie Foxx, Robert Downey Jr)
Solomon Kane
Space Invader (Will Arnett)
Star Trek (Leonard Nimoy)
Stopping Power (Melissa George, John Cusack)
Streetfighter
Sugarland (Jodie Foster, Robert DeNiro)
Superheroes (Dash Mihok)
Terminator 4
The Rivals
The Spirit (Samuel L.Jackson)
They came from Upstairs
Thor
Thousand Words
Time Travellers Wife, The (Eric Bana, Rachel McAdams)
Tokyo Suckerpunch (Tobey Maguire)
Tooth Fairy, The
Topkapi Affair, The (Pierce Brosnan, Angelina Jolie)
Torso
Townhouse
Trial of the Chicago 7
Trucker (Nathan Fillion, Michelle Monaghan)
Tulia (Halle Berry, Billy Bob Thornton)
Tulip Fever
Voltron
Way Back
Wedding Ringer
Wednesday
What Happens in Vegas (Ashton Kutcher)
White Jazz (George Clooney)
Wolf Brother
Wolverine (Hugh Jackman, Tyler Mane)
World War Z
Year One (Michael Cera, Jack Black)
Youth in Revolt (Michael Cera)
Zen in the Art of Slaying Vampires
We will keep you updated on everything Strike…
