HOUSEWIVES, DESPERATE and otherwise, support WGA strike |
|
My night-owl buds lament the loss of fresh Leno and Letterman. Soon my mother will be horrified to see a rerun, and not the anticipated fresh episode, of her soaper, ALL MY CHILDREN.
So, exactly why has the late-night laughter died? And why won't the soap bubbles continue to tickle the noses of daytime television's fanatics? Quite simply, the 12,000 men and women of the Writers Guild of America (WGA), who write the jokes of late-night, and who concoct the melodrama of Pine Valley, and of other daytime dramas, have been on strike since Monday, November 5.
Members of the Writers Guild of America, East, and West, the people who literally put the words in the mouths of your most beloved box office and television stars, have risked their incomes and careers in order to get their due. The strike is about matters of principle, not just about dollars and cents. This type of strike can drag on for months. The last time this happened, the writers were out of pocket for five months. A deal offered to the striking scribes on Thursday, November 29, was promptly rejected, and dubbed "far from acceptable" by the writers and their guild representatives. The Writers responded with a counter offer on December 5.
Writers wants, and many believe they deserve, more money for their work when it is used online. WGA members also want more than the paltry two cents per DVD sale that they currently receive.
There is scant probability that the strike will last long 
Strike-Buster Carson Daly irks WGA members |
|
enough for us to see new product vanish from the box office, but it will diminish.
Match-Flickers, stand warned: due to the WGA strike, major motion pictures scheduled for 2008 have already been postponed.
On November 16, the first big-screen causality of the strike resulted in Columbia Pictures' postponement of production on ANGELS & DEMONS, the Tom Hanks-Ron Howard prequel to THE DA VINCI CODE.
Originally penciled in to open during next year's holiday season, this Ron Howard-directed religious thriller's premiere has been pushed back to May 15, 2009.
Columbia Pictures, a Sony-owned film distributor, explained in a statement released on Friday, November 16, "With the strike nearing its third week, Columbia Pictures has postponed production of ANGELS & DEMONS." Columbia added that the screenplay, written by Oscar-winning screenwriter Akiva Goldman, needed further work. Goldman, of course, is a member of the striking WGA.
Columbia's official statement concluded by saying, "At this time, there is no new start date."
Following Columbia's announcement like a tracer bullet, Warner Brothers announced the postponement of SHANTARAM, to be produced by and star Johnny Depp. Originally scheduled for a February 2008 start date, the motion picture version of Gregory David Roberts' novel about an escaped convict on the lam in Bombay has been delayed – also with no new start date yet scheduled.
The strike has also KO'd the March start of NINE, 
Tom Hank's ANGELS & DEMONS on hold |
|
director Rob Marshall's next flick, starring Penelope Cruz, Javier Bardem, and Sophia Loren. Again, no new start date has been revealed. When NINE finally goes into production, it will mark CHICAGO helmer Marshall's return to the Broadway musical form. The 1982 Tony Award Winner for Best Musical, NINE chronicles the life of a film director and the women in his life. NINE also represents the return of Sophia Loren to the big screen for the first time in more than six years.
It's an inevitability that for each week the WGA strike continues, additional box office postponements will be announced. By the time next holiday season rolls around, your box office will have less product than normal: Already we know that THE DA VINCI CODE prequel will be missing from your 2008 holiday choices.
Being a dedicated optimist, I look for the box office silver lining in the WGA strike clouds. And I found one.
Excepting reality shows, by January, the broadcast networks' prime-time schedules will be in rerun. The HOUSEWIVES will not only be DESPERATE, they'll be in rerun. BETTY will be both UGLY and repeating herself, and THE NEW ADVENTURES OF OLD CHRISTINE will be soon be vintage, indeed.
It's quite possible, given the lack of fresh choices, that couch potatoes who haven't been to the box office in years will flock in desperation to a multiplex near them, and that's the box office silver lining to the strike. It could jump start the 2008 box office in a big way.
 email this column to a friend
|
| The Business of Show |
Every other Friday
Does advertising, public taste, or overindulged stars determine a movie's box office fate? Christoper Stone explores what's going on behind the box office.
|
| Christopher Stone |
Christopher Stone is the author of the international best seller Re-Creating Your Self. With Mary Sheldon, he co-authored three highly successful hardcover books of guided meditations.
He is a member of the Writers Guild of America, West.
|
| Contact |
If you have a comment, question, or suggestion, you can send a message to Christopher Stone by clicking here.
|
|
