Thursday, October 04, 2007

The Upcoming Strike

There's been a lot of speculation that the Writers Guild of America will go on strike in the spring of 2008 along with the Screen Actors Guild. But, Michael Ausiello reports that the WGA sent out Strike Authorization ballots, to begin a strike on November 1st when the current contract ends. Writer and producer J. Michael Straczynski confirms that the authorization vote is in progress and he points to this page with a detailed summary from the WGA that explains why there will be a strike. The short answer is because the studios are run by the criminally corrupt and greedy who not only don't want to pay writers fairly, but in fact want to roll back "every fundamental protection writers have won in the last 50 years."

So, there will be a strike. {ETA: See Producer/Writer Mark Verheiden's comment below. ProgGrrl.}

How will this affect Battlestar Galactica? Unknown. But, the expectation is that all the scripts for the season will be finished by November first. Certainly all writing will stop as of November 1, finished or not.

P.S. Did you catch Bionic Woman's second episode? Mostly a snore, except for Katee's excellent scenes, and a cameo by the Battlestar Pegasus from "Exodus Part 2" crashing into the Basestar. (Playing on a television in the foreground of a scene with Jamie Sommers.)



6 comments:

ProgGrrl said...

Haha Logan, I liked BW's 2nd ep. So sue me. I recall my reaction to HEROES last year...how it was uneven but the good parts were really good. I feel the same here.

Best line was of course Katee's: "I think someone hacked me."

And boy was it nice to watch the guys getting their due: the fight training with Jae (W.Lee), seeing Antonio (I.Washington) shooting guns and wearing great fatigues...and Jonas (M.Ferrer) is a good guy now!?

Still liking it.

[don't worry guys, I'm NOT on NBC's payroll...REALLY!!!]

Logan Gawain said...

I think the show has great potential once the writers figure out what the show is, and isn't. It seemed like episode two was a little Alias, a little X-Files, mixed in with the good training scenes, and the good Katee scenes.

Mo Ryan has a review up of episode two that I totally agree with.

Looks like episode 3 has more Katee, so it should be good.

Mark Verheiden said...

Logan, love the site but you're a little misinformed on the WGA strike. Yes, the WGA is asking members to authorize a strike, but that does not mean a strike is guaranteed, and it's certainly not set in stone for Nov. 1. (It could happen, but everyone would much rather make a deal.)

And BSG will be nowhere near having all the scripts for season four finished by 11/1. We're well along, but the last shows are scheduled to shoot next March...

Mark Verheiden

Logan Gawain said...

Thanks for the update Mark. JMS seems certain there will be a strike. How do you think the vote will turn out? And yeah, even if the vote passes, it just means the WGA could order the stoppage at any time. Are there signs the "roll back" offer has been removed from the table and real negotiations will take place?

Having seen this happen in years past, I'm not very optimistic.

By the way, ProgGrrl and I would love to interview your for this site, when you have the time, so send us an email when your schedule looks good. Our email addresses are to the right in our contributors links.

Mark Verheiden said...

I suspect the WGA vote will be overwhelmingly in favor of giving the WGA authorization to call a strike, and while I try to remain hopelessly, ridiculously optimistic about both sides coming to terms on a deal, I don't think there's been much/any movement yet from the producing side. As to whether writers go out Nov. 1, that remains to be seen... I'm crossing my fingers and hoping good people can come together and make a fair deal...

Logan Gawain said...

Thanks for the update and optimism Mark. We're rooting for you and the writers, and not just because we don't want to see BSG interrupted-- we've had too long of a break from the show as it is. :)

Sometimes brinkmanship is the only way to get people to the table to talk.