The Last Script in Hollywood

Dateline, July 17, 2014. With the Writer's Guild strike in the middle of its seventh year, and talks suspended after a food fight broke out between the sides at the last negotiating session, Hollywood faces the final crisis of the strike. For though the TV networks have changed and survived, unproduced film scripts are about to run out.

Reworking old formulas and ideas has kept new programming on the TV airwaves. The CW, which had been seen as a floundering network prior to the strike, found an unlikely source of surprise hits based on its 2009 offering "The Bob Show," where random people named Bob were followed around by cameras and the audience voted a prize for the person with the most interesting life (this fall's versions will be "The Dwayne Show" and "The Debra Show"). CBS decided to cash in on a long-time joke at its expense with the reality "CSI: Fargo" and has breathed new life into its "Big Brother" and "Survivor" skeins. Where those shows formerly would attract aspiring actors and actresses hoping to get noticed, now well-known stars vie for slots on the shows as a way to keep their names in the public eye. The latest edition of "Big Brother" features members of the casts of the three scripted CSI shows, "Cold Case" and "NCIS" in a special "season of investigations." NBC has followed in a similar vein, casting actors looking for new careers in their "Apprentice" series. In addition to the two Donald Trump versions airing Wednesdays and Thursdays, this fall will see both a Steve Jobs version and one where the contestants compete for a government job, hosted by Vice President Barack Obama. ABC continues in its quest to match up every unmarried person in the U.S. with its expanded "The Bachelor" series and created variations on both "Extreme Makeover" ("Extreme Makeover: Hotel Edition," "Exteme Makeover: Unoccupied Loft Space Edition" and "Extreme Makeover: Fido's Doghouse") and "Dancing With the Stars" ("Dancing With Captains of Industry," "Dancing With Your Congressman"), while Fox sticks to what worked before the strike, "American Idol" and its animated shows that aren't covered by the WGA contract.

But for the theatrical film side of the business, the crisis has arrived. After scripts judged "ready for production" ran out in 2009, Hollywood studios reverted to remaking old scripts with no revisions. That policy led to the disastrous "less than one billion dollar summer" of 2010, so they retrenched and began making films of the scripts they had bought, developed and then abandoned for one reason or another. Executives' days were filled with phone calls and conferences over which of the dozens of drafts of these projects was best. Attempts to piece together "one great draft" from pages of many proved to be unworkable, as continuity suffered. Even inserting a car chase, fight or explosion every fifteen pages didn't help many of these scripts.

Now, all but one of the backlog of abandoned scripts has been produced. A feature film adaptation of "What Makes Sammy Run?" that has been on the shelf of many studios over the years will go into production in August as a joint venture of Warners, Disney, Universal, Fox, Paramount, Sony and MGM. Starring roles haven't been cast yet, but word has it that actors are offering to not only slash their fees, but possibly work for free just to have something to do. Once this film is complete, most of the last offices of each of the film companies will shut down until the strike is resolved. Oddly, considering the issues of the strike, the sole office open at many studios will be the one handling residuals.

Looking back over the years of this strike, one has to wonder if the writers are finally going to back down from their stance of "we're not going to let them tell us what to do anymore," which was their battle cry after the DGA and SAG both came to agreements with the producers back in 2008 and tried to convince the writers to follow suit. As many have said for years, it's not money that runs Hollywood, but ego.