The Elephant in the Room

 

I started writing this on July 30th, then I had work, then I went outta town. Goddamnit guys, it's hard for me to maintain a blog! So anyway, I'll just keep this brief so I can finish this blog post and move on... 

Of all the times to want to get back into writing about movies, we just so happen to be going through the most tumultuous time in the history of Hollywood. Maybe "tumultuous" is an overstatement, but I don't know about you guys... I don't see a solution to these strikes anytime soon, do you? Both the Writers and Actors striking at the same time? And it sounds like the studios aren't even willing to negotiate, let alone meet the actors' and writers' demands? This thing could last a long, long time. I'm curious, too, if the actors could come to an agreement before the writers, or would it have to be a joint thing. Because it feels like they're both asking for roughly the same thing: fair compensation, residuals from streaming services, assurances they won't get replaced by A.I., etc. 

And yeah, an end doesn't appear to be in sight. What I find interesting is, technically, there are indie productions that can continue working with actors because they've agreed to the terms of the strike, indie studios like A24. I wish actors and writers can just forget about the main studios altogether and go independent. There's precedent for this: the creation of United Artists over 100 years ago saw Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, D. W. Griffith coming together to make their own studio thanks to growing frustrations with the studios in the late 1910s. I don't think we'd get anything quite as drastic in 2023. I also think that the old school studios probably want to settle eventually but streamers like Netflix, Amazon, and Apple may be less willing to do so. The Silicon Valley types aren't really known for negotiating with unions. 

I'm thinking some sort of break-up is due to occur down the line. Paramount+, Disney+, and Peacock have been largely unsuccessful streaming ventures for those parent companies. Max seems to do ok for Warner Bros, but I wonder if most of the studios would eventually rather just partner with Netflix, Amazon, and Apple, selling off rights to streaming libraries and maybe collaborating on future TV and movie projects. That seems like the only way to successfully have those Silicon Valley-types be able to work with what actors and writers are demanding.

Anyway, yes, this will be an ongoing thing for the foreseeable future. I fully support what the actors and writers are doing and the way I see it, with Hollywood essentially "pausing" this is a good time for me to play catch-up on the last few years of cinema. I didn't want to continue blogging as if I wasn't aware of what was happening in the present. So, this felt like a necessary blog to get off my chest so I can move on and talk about movies. 

That said, I do hope all this gets resolved in a way that favors the writers and actors. It really is ridiculous these studio heads really don't seem to want to budge or even negotiate. What the WGA and SAG are asking for isn't really all that complicated. Fight on SAG and WGA! But yeah, I still wanna talk about movies and what not... so... I'm gonna do that... as long as I have enough time in my schedule for it, anyway!