Joe Carnahan on the WGA Strike

As stated above, Joe Carnahan's thoughts on what might happen with the looming strikes:

BARDEM/STRIKE/ETC. 10/15/2007 at 08:52 AM


Kids:

Met with Javier yesterday to hammer out details and we both agreed
to a summer '08 start on KILLING PABLO. I'm preparing the film for
a June start while post for WJ is wrapping up. We have a fairly short
schedule on WJ (50 days) so I think it's possibe, providing the actors
don't strike...

...and I don't think that's going to happen. I think the WGA is going to go
out in another two weeks and it's gonna be so ugly and potentially
protracted that it's gong to scare off SAG and the DGA and they're going
to come to an agreement before the June 30th drop dead date. I really
think this is where it's headed.

I've talked to friends of mine, writers and directors and agents and everybody
has this bunker mentality...this strike is happening and people are going to be
destroyed overnight. Careers are going to be crushed and an industry torpedoed.
The respective parties as so far apart right now, the notion that in two weeks, there
will be this miraculous stick save and all will be resolved, is insane...

...and yet:

I really hope everybody gets their sh*t together and learns from their history.
The 1988 strike, which lasted six months and was a total loss for both sides, cost the
industry somewhere in the neighborhood of half a billion dollars and irrevocably
ruined people's personal and professional lives. Let's hope we can avoid something
that catastrophic. Let's hope the guilds and studios are listening and take heed before
embarking on something that can only end in disaster.


JC