Variety has published an in-depth article talking about how a posssible Screen Actors Guild (SAG) strike could affect movie productions starting soon. The trade says Hollywood studios are refusing to schedule new start dates on films that can’t complete shooting by June 30.
Transformers 2 director Michael Bay said the labor cloud has made the process harder, but not impossible as he tries to keep the film on track for an early June start in order to make its scheduled June 26, 2009 release date.
“If there is a strike, we shut down, but shutting down isn’t that big a deal,” Bay told the trade. “You make accommodations, you make a deal with vending houses on equipment and on the stages where you are shooting. You hope for the best, but you can’t be incapacitated by the possibility that there will be a strike. We’ve got to get this town back to work. I can’t imagine anyone wants another strike, we’re all tired. Hopefully clearer heads will prevail.”
Bay said that the sequel is still recovering from the writers strike, and that he’s playing catch-up after getting back his trio of writers, Ehren Kruger, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci.
“They did a detailed outline before the writer’s strike, and now they are in Michael Bay jail, holed up in a hotel and working feverishly,” Bay said. “We’re paying for a beautiful suite and they are getting a lot of work done. Hiring three writers was unusual, but it has been a godsend in getting us to where we need to be. Somehow you find a way to get it done.”
Warner Bros. is hoping for director George Miller to begin filming superhero extravaganza Justice League in mid-July for a 2009 release. The project has been off-and-on in the last several months, as the script needed work. The minute the strike was over, scribes Kiernan and Michele Mulroney began rewriting the script. The studio is hoping to get a draft in the next six weeks.
