Lo While We Sit In The Valley Of the Shadow Of The Strike We Will Fear No Action...

Right now, as I type this... I'm 24 hours & 29 minutes from the contract deadline which puts us all in the shadow of the possibility of a strike. A Writer's Strike. If the Writer's Strike, most feel the Actor's will strike and that we will be facing a long and arduous back and forth of rhetoric for months... If the strike happens, most feel that it will take at least 6 months of posturing before one side or another gives.

The sad thing? The studios can survive the strike for that 6 months. The support industries can't. FX houses, Catering, Carpenters, Transportation folks, Gaffers, boom guys, best boys, costuming, the accountants, the line producers.... All the folks that make the machines work, that help bring life to the pages.... that light, house, cloth and feed the actors and execs.

The negotiations are close. So close that the profits of one summer hit fills the gap. But you see... that's part of the problem... Right now it's too close. Both sides feel that the other should give. Both sides fighting to maintain the higher ground. Both sides wanting to emerge victorious.

Right now... at the eleventh hour... as the eclipse threatens to fall across California like so many of the disaisters that have plagued before... the talking continues. No end to talks have been called. Right now the industry is looking at its own Kobayashi Maru... They feel like they have to stay in the lines, follow traditional rhetoric... play by the rules... But right now, we need a wild card to stand up and make the peace offering. The split difference.

Someone has to budge or else thousands upon thousands of people... completely un-represented in this ordeal will be bruised by the decisions made here. This is GOOD OF THE MANY time.... The time where both sides must weigh the impending economic damage vs the potential gains and losses that a settlement will bring to this.

Right now good film projects are dying deaths of uncertainty... teams... actors, directors and writers and the entire filmmaking family all ready to work... wanting to work... willing to work.... but oh... that's right... a strike MIGHT happen.

Sure the country won't be paralyzed by a writer or actor's strike... millions won't be stuck in cities awaiting planes to move... Garbage won't breed disease in the streets... What is at stake is the well-being of artists... the ones that chose to live their lives creating entertainment to cheer the masses.

And brother... right now as we look at rising gas prices, the beginnings of inflation creeping into the world, possible military conflicts on all sides, a major energy crisis and a world where Arms Agreements are falling apart.... well we need to be entertained now more than ever. In fact, my bet is that for the next 3 and 1/2 years Hollywood is going to need to make us all dream a little harder. Hollywood is going to need to make us laugh and cheer and aspire for a better tomorrow and today. Thousands are losing their jobs in gigantic long form signatures upon paper... Don't add to the numbers.

It is my hope that reasonable women and men are at the tables. That they are not living in a bubble unto themselves... that they see the others that this affects.

For me? 6 months of a strike... 9 months of a strike... I'll do fine. Test Screenings will continue, I have mounds of scripts to get through, the independent film scene and foreign film scenes will be alive... Marketing will begin for the fall films and the holiday films and the winter films... The early Academy Campaigns will begin, Cannes through Toronto of festivals.... the acceptance of those aspiring to Sundance will continue.... Oh yes, the sky is not yet falling.... And those sitting at those tables in Hollywood, they can make the sun come out and the spirits of many to be lifted.

It is amazing to me that we have an artform that can strike. That there is a power to silence the typewriters and the mouths of actors... All over what could be settled if right now on all remaining issues... they split the difference. It's not as easy as that? Actually... yeah... um.... It is. If both sides agree to that... We can move forward.

Oh, I understand the point of view of the studios.... If they budge now, and give in, then.... In the next contract negotiation, they will feel vulnerable.... as if they gave in. And on the Writer's side.... They'll feel the same way. That they didn't have the 'balls' to 'go the distance'.

That's all posturing though. Now I know next to noone saw 13 DAYS, but basically that is the case here. We have a crisis... and the whole world is watching it. Neither side wants to publicly show weakness, lest their own followers perceive weakness.... But ya know what? The next time this process begins... Easily half, if not more, of those sitting at those tables won't be sitting there. Some company will acquire their company... a powershift will occur.... you'll have a bad run of movies.... all of a sudden your ideas will rot and die... your instincts will go.... and you'll look back at the karma of your career and wonder if you made the RIGHT decisions.

Right now... It is time to just get the job done, as Gregory Peck would say. To get people back to work... What do all those test screenings tell you about the audiences of the world.... They don't like non-endings... They don't like unresolved issues... Those stories don't make the big bucks.... What sells is a happy ending, right? Isn't that what we keep seeing in our movies? Come on Hollywood.... Time for another Happy Ending, all for the cost of a TOWN & COUNTRY. Disney, Fox, Sony, Dreamworks, MGM, Warner, etc... It's time to invest in a co-production... Take a look at your slate this summer... You know the films have been testing well.... that audiences have been reacting to the trailers... (Ok, not you MGM, but have faith, I hear JEEPERS CREEPERS is gonna be huge for you).... Disney you're looking at making your part of this settlement in the opening Friday of PEARL HARBOR.... Dreamworks, you're part will be made in your opening day of SHREK.... and ya know it. Fox? You know what MOULIN ROUGE is... speak with the confidence you have there.... Sony? Your part represents 1/6th of your KNIGHT'S TALE profits. Warner, Christ you have HARRY POTTER, OCEAN'S ELEVEN, CATS & DOGS, A.I. and allegedly a very strong SWORD FISH.... You guys have nothing to worry about. Hell... add this cost to the MATRIX 2 & 3 budgets... you know what you have there! Universal? MUMMY RETURNS and JURASSIC PARK 3? Ahem... come on... Pony up.

And Writers? Give the studios a little back... Don't phone the scripts in.... Let's get to making movies!

You guys have on your own created something as fearful as the Millenium Bug... Make this threat equally as tangible... Let this strike be a thing of fiction.... Something to laugh about... Let cooler heads prevail.