Labor | SpoutBlog

Trade Roughage 2/15/08

By Karina Longworth posted 1 year ago

Universal has declined to renew their production deal with Tom Shadyac, who directed a number of massive comedy hits for the studio, including The Nutty Professor and Liar, Liar. Shadyac clashed with the studio over his latest directorial effort, last summer’s Evan Almighty, which grossed almost $200 million worldwide but cost at least that much to make.
The AMPTP wants to negotiate with SAG. George Clooney wants the AMPTP to negotiate with SAG. So what’s the problem? SAG national exec director Doug Allen is in no hurry to start formal talks. He says the guild needs to complete internal meetings on wages and working conditions, and he won’t have anything to bring to the AMPTP until those meetings conclude in March.
In a column on the growth of online film distribution, Anne Thompson says there’s still not enough money to be made in the market to interest major the brick-and-mortar distribution stalwarts, “Which means that this movement will continue to build from the bottom up with micro-indies, not from the top down with real studio investment.”

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Hollywood

Slippery Stats: Trade Roughage 11/26/07

By Karina Longworth posted 1 year ago

A survey conducted by Variety found that, with a resolution to the writers strike still indeterminate, the WGA is so far winning the war of public opinion. “[M]ore than two-thirds of respondents agreed that the scribes are being ‘more honest and forthright’ than the majors in their discussion of the key issues,” Cynthia Littleton writes. Though 61% of all respondents agreed that the strike was “necessary,” the writers have wildly varying degrees of support among other Hollywood unions. 47% of IATSE members polled categorized the strike as “tactically a mistake”; only 15% of SAG felt the same. You can download a PDF of the full survey at the above link.
Meanwhile, talks are set to resume this morning. The Hollywood Reporter has a primer on where the issues stand.
Box office: Enchanted made $50 million this weekend, This Christmas’ counter-programming gambit was good for $27 million on half as many screens, while August Rush and Love in the Time of Cholera disappointed.
More interesting: Andrew Wagner’s Starting Out in the Evening opened to double the per-screen average of Todd Haynes’ I’m Not There. Variety spun this news under the headline, “Are art films out of touch?” In the other box office story linked above, the same publication allowed Bob Weinstein to get away with characterizing The Mist’s 8th-place opening as “a base hit.” I’m not saying Variety’s bashing the rest of the market with broad generalizations in order to let The Weinstein Curse continue on unmarked upon, but…okay, that’s exactly what I’m saying.

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Hollywood, Indies

Strike Day 10: Trade Roughage 11/14/07

By Karina Longworth posted 1 year ago

A twist in the strike saga: the AMPTP’s lead negotiator Nick Counter has accused the WGA of creating a blacklist by “using fear and intimidation to control its membership.” WGA reps were quick to refute that charge, but the writers maintain they will not break the picket line until the studios respond to their final offer on internet residuals. “This is our last chance to get residuals for work on the Internet. If we don’t do it now, they’ll never give it to us,” said writer/showrunner Jack Kenny. Meanwhile, SAG officer Valerie Harper hammered home the point that this is not a Hollywood issue, but a labor issue: “A lot of this is going on in our country — doing business cheaper and decimating the middle class,” Harper said. “In the future, this strike will be a historic moment for unions.”
Neil LaBute has been hired to write a remake of Truffaut’s La Femme d’a cote (AKA The Woman Next Door) for Taylor Hackford to direct at New Line. Because LaBute, whose last released film was a disastrous remake of The Wicker Man, technically cannot write the script until after the strike, it could be years before this project actually comes together. Also, Hackford has to finish that movie with his wife in the brothel.
Ira Levin, the author of the novels that inspired films like Rosemary’s Baby, The Stepford Wives, and one of my favorite guilty pleasures, Sliver, died on Monday at age 78.