Smokin' Joe Carnahan: BARDEM/STRIKE/ETC.

BARDEM/STRIKE/ETC.

10/15/2007 at 08:52 AM

Kids:

Met with Javier yesterday to hammer out details and we both agreed
to a summer '08 start on KILLING PABLO. I'm preparing the film for
a June start while post for WJ is wrapping up. We have a fairly short
schedule on WJ (50 days) so I think it's possibe, providing the actors
don't strike...

...and I don't think that's going to happen. I think the WGA is going to go
out in another two weeks and it's gonna be so ugly and potentially
protracted that it's gong to scare off SAG and the DGA and they're going
to come to an agreement before the June 30th drop dead date. I really
think this is where it's headed.

I've talked to friends of mine, writers and directors and agents and everybody
has this bunker mentality...this strike is happening and people are going to be
destroyed overnight. Careers are going to be crushed and an industry torpedoed.
The respective parties as so far apart right now, the notion that in two weeks, there
will be this miraculous stick save and all will be resolved, is insane...

...and yet:

I really hope everybody gets their sh*t together and learns from their history.
The 1988 strike, which lasted six months and was a total loss for both sides, cost the
industry somewhere in the neighborhood of half a billion dollars and irrevocably
ruined people's personal and professional lives. Let's hope we can avoid something
that catastrophic. Let's hope the guilds and studios are listening and take heed before
embarking on something that can only end in disaster.

Comments

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Posted by: Thomas 10/15/2007 at 09:27 AM

This strike is gonna be huge, everybody will lose something personally and/or professionally, I hope everything possible will be done to avoid the disaster. Frontal confrontation can be catastrophic, I can't imagine there are not any people with good will in both parties. Plus, it won't solve the 'problem', so I'm a little bit puzzled.

And what will happen for your summer '08 start on KP if they don't come to an agreement before the June 30th drop dead date?

Posted by: kevin 10/15/2007 at 09:31 AM

The only memory I have of the strike of '88 is the very surreal sight of seeing Bill Murray sitting at one of the numerous parking lots on the Warner lot, handing out tickets to the employees parking their cars. Very odd sight to behold.

I tend to work quite a few commercials/music videos and have wondered how it will affect my income.

Is it true that some of the studios have started to lock out writers due to the impending strike?

Being a writer and director, which side of the fence do you sit on Joe?

Kevin

Posted by: muzzleflash 10/15/2007 at 09:49 AM

The unfortunate and ironic thing about a strike in the entertainment industry is that if mostly destroys and ruins the careers of all the "workhorse" crew members, people who live on income on a project by project basis. With nothing happening, it really screws them even though the point of the strike is to improve conditions for them; okay, maybe for the people higher up, but its sad that the people who really labor intensely during a production are the ones most affected by it.
And a writer's strike is worse. I believe the last writer's strike is birth parent of the reality show? Look what's happened since then.

Posted by: kevin 10/15/2007 at 10:12 AM

Muzzleflash

I completely agree.

We always hear about the writers, directors, actors but never about those who lives are destroyed by a strike such as this one...the hundreds of artisans that occupy the crew.

Speaking as one of those people, how much is enough? Is it really worth biting the hand that feeds you?

Some of us just make our salaries and that's it. No residuals. No back end points. Just our paychecks. That is what we survive on.

The sad thing I hear is the concern over peoples' careers as opposed to their personal lives and the ramifications that a strike could have on them.

And anyone in this business knows, loyality is virtually non-existant. Promises are made but never kept. And this isn't any form of asskissery to Joe but it seems he is quite loyal when it comes to assembling a crew and utilizing them more than once or twice. That is rare.

I pray that this strike gets resolved sooner than later.

This is an industry that almost never forgives or forgets.

Kevin

Posted by: Doubler 10/15/2007 at 10:23 AM

Hope this sh*t gets avoided. You just want to crack heads together and get everybody to work it out.

On a more positive note, great news about Bardem. Pablo is gonna kick ass!!

Posted by: Bruce C. 10/15/2007 at 10:37 AM

Joe--
Its easy to hope both sides come to a swift agreement when you and your high-profile peers are pulling in the big cash. What about the little guy? This is about survival. Studios, big directors, and stars need to take a huge cut to keep this industry alive.

--Bruce

Posted by: Wendy 10/15/2007 at 10:49 AM

What you have suggested does sound very possible. I suppose we'll see. Everyone has been talking about these strikes as if though they are inevitable. That just seems really sad to me.

Good luck, as always, with your productions, and let's all keep our fingers crossed and hope that sanity prevails in the end. Hey, there's always a first time, right?

Best Wishes, Myriada

Posted by: Justin 10/15/2007 at 11:01 AM

Glad to hear it's all set with Bardem.

I really hope the strike is resolved, this is the last thing Hollywood needs. Careers will definitely be affected, films will get either fast tracked with normally substandard scripts (cough *Justice League * cough) or thrown in the can.

Posted by: jeff 10/15/2007 at 11:38 AM

http://www.goodisthenewbad.com/essays/070215-smokinaces.shtml

Fellower commeters, if this makes you angry, good. Joe is an awesomely talented filmmaker. This critic wouldn't know a powerful film if it bit him in the ass. Everyone should go thrash this blog asap.

Posted by: JulesPDX 10/15/2007 at 11:53 AM

Writers are still the bloodlife of the biz and deserve equitable pay and treatment -- at least closer -- to that of other above the liners.

Some thngs are worth fighting for. Some aren't. Not being a Guild member I have no say in this matter, but the members do, and will. I leave it to them. They know -- at least most of them -- what 1988 did to/for them, so if they decide to go out this time, I can only presume there's a damn good reason for it.