Brace for impact.
The actors strike is upon us and we are likely to see a lot of turbulence in the industry. Chief among them is a total halt in production for Ridley Scott’s upcoming ‘Gladiator’ sequel, via Variety.
Talks between the U.S. actors union and Hollywood’s collective bargaining agent, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, broke down Wednesday after a turbulent 12-day period of extended negotiations.
A strike is expected to be called on Thursday morning. The SAG union will now tell its 160,000 members to immediately stop all scripted film and TV work around the world.
We already have the writers on strike, this has prompted a shutdown of plenty of productions, but this actors strike is a whole other ballgame. Actors are the bread and butter that keeps everything going. This is a shapeshifting moment in Hollywood history.
Some of the productions that will be affected include season 3 of HBO’s “The White Lotus,” Noah Hawley’s FX ‘Alien’ series, and, most notably, Scott’s “Gladiator” sequel.
Scott’s film has been shooting for a month now. The inevitable delays will likely now put his film over budget, I doubt it’ll be shelved. This has turned into a waiting game, with one studio exec even telling Deadline that they are willing to let the strike go on until the writers “go homeless”.
And what about Clint Eastwood’s “Juror#2”? That film stars SAG members Toni Collette, Nicholas Hoult and Kiefer Sutherland. Eastwood’s film was set to continue its shoot in Georgia all through next week.
As for the fall fests, Toronto/Venice/Telluride, they are biting their nails and hoping the strike gets resolved by the last week of August, otherwise there won’t be any star studded premieres. That’s fine, let the films speak for themselves.