Stockpiling Scripts and Scrapped Hiatuses: Hollywood Braces for Labor Strife Next Year
Stockpiling Scripts and Scrapped Hiatuses: Hollywood Braces for Labor Strife Next Year
A bad sense of déjà vu is settling over the industry as the year winds down. Hollywood is in the throes of transition, and an economic downturn is on the horizon. And Hollywood’s scribe tribe is restless. The outlook for the next six months is starting to look a lot like it did in the summer and fall of 2007, the last time the entertainment industry’s biggest employers faced a work stoppage with the Writers Guild of America. There is no doubt that the guild is bracing for a battle. The studios are hastily starting to get there as well. The dreaded S-word — stockpiling — is happening, the industry equivalent of troops gathering at a border.