There's Still One More Strike To Worry About

By Katey Rich

Variety has a how-your-sausage-gets-made kind of article today that reminds us all that we're not really out of the strike zone yet. The impending contract renegotiation with SAG could lead to an actor walkout on June 30, just three and a half months after the writers returned to work. That means that the big productions that are giddy to get back to work are still having to face the prospect of shutting the whole thing down again.

Michael Bay, currently developing Transformers 2, gives some insight on the situation, and really, who else would you want to translate labor woes for you? "You hope for the best, but you can't be incapacitated by the possibility that there will be a strike. We've got to get this town back to work." Transformers 2 hasn't yet started production, but the film's three--count 'em, three!-- writers are currently incarcerated in order to finish the script. No, seriously. "They did a detailed outline before the writers strike, and now they are in Michael Bay jail, holed up in a hotel and working feverishly. We're paying for a beautiful suite and they are getting a lot of work done."

Terminator: Salvation has a detailed strike plan outlined in the article, which includes a guaranteed plane ticket out of the Arizona shooting location should a strike begin. For such a big-budget, effects-heavy film, the hope is to finish all the scenes with the actors and let the visual effects people get their work done while the actors walk the picket line.

On the exhibition side of things we tend to think about films only in terms of release dates, and these kinds of delays don't matter too much. But it's frustrating and disheartening to remember that we're potentially on the brink of another long-term work stoppage. Of course, George Clooney is on the case, encouraging SAG members to strike a deal, and given that he's spent the last few years saving the world, I trust him to be in charge. And if he doesn't solve it, well, Michael Bay has a nice prison where he can atone for his shortcomings...