Anne Thompson on the Effects of the WGA Strike
by Andre Soares
Anne Thompson on "Hollywood’s new scapegoat" in Daily Variety:
"During the best of times, movies heading toward production are fragile chemical equations. Add a writers’ strike to that mix and things were bound to explode. ‘It’s tough enough to get things right,’ says one senior agent. ‘This difficult situation makes it even more difficult. If something is risky it’s always the first casualty, whether there’s a strike or anything else.’
"So it was no surprise when five volatile go-projects fell apart last week: Sony pulled the February start for Ron Howard’s Da Vinci Code sequel Angels & Demons, starring Tom Hanks; United Artists shut down Oliver Stone’s November starter Pinkville, an investigation into the My Lai massacre starring Bruce Willis; Warner Bros. pushed back Mira Nair’s Indian epic Shantaram, starring Johnny Depp; Weinstein Co. postponed Nine, Rob Marshall’s screen adaptation of the Broadway musical inspired by [Federico] Fellini’s 8 ½; and when Brad Pitt pulled out of Kevin Macdonald’s political thriller State of Play, Universal threatened to sue.
"Players involved in all five pics cited striking writers as a key factor in scuttling the projects. But while the strike certainly made things more vexing, there were also other forces at play. The strike offers studios, filmmakers and movie stars a smokescreen for doing just what they want to do, with a convenient scapegoat."
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