Since 2 May 2023, several Hollywood productions both in film and television by the strike of the Writer's Guild of America.
The two main reasons for the strike are residual payments from streaming media and the potential influence of AI chatbot, ChatGPT.
The WGA are going up against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). In May of 2020, a Minimum Basic Agreement principle was put in place which assured writers of a guaranteed wage while working on broadcast television shows.
However, this agreement did not stretch to streaming shows, meaning that writers working on these projects were paid significantly less.
The goals that the WGA want to achieve are as follows:
- Increase funding and job security for writers
- Increase the size of writers' rooms
- Limit the use of artificial intelligence in the writing process
Due to the sheer amount of comic book projects on the horizon, there are numerous movies and shows that have been impacted by the strike to varying degrees.
Marvel's Thunderbolts
Thunderbolts will star Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova, David Harbour as Red Guardian, Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier, Wyatt Russell as John Walker/U.S. Agent, Olga Kurylenko as Antonia Dreykov/Taskmaster, Hannah John-Kamen as Ava Starr/Ghost and Julia Louis-Dreyfuss Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine.
Thunderbolts is described as Marvel's answer to DC's Suicide Squad in that it features a group of anti-heroes rather than the conventional heroes like Iron Man and Captain America.
Filming was scheduled to start in June of 2023, but that has now been postponed.
Blade
One production that certainly could be doing without the strike is Marvel's upcoming MCU version of Blade, which has already been through development hell. Scheduling issues due to the writing process meant that director Bassam Tariq had to leave the project, with Helmer Yann Demange.
Several reports have indicated that the script has gone through numerous changes, with star Mahershala Ali said to be concerned.
Filming on Blade has already been delayed a couple of times, and it has been again due to the strike.
Captain America: New World Order
Captain America: New World Order sees Anthony Mackie's Sam Wilson take up the role of Captain America from Steve Rodgers. Luckily for this production, filming had already started in March of 2023 with a script already in place.
The Hollywood Reporter detailed that there was not much concern about New World Order with regards to the strike, as any script adjustments would be made in the already-scheduled reshoots that will take place much further down the line when the strike is over.
Deadpool 3
The highly-anticipated Deadpool 3 will see Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman finally team up in a Deadpool movie, with the latter confirmed to return as Wolverine in 2022.
Filming has already begun in London for this movie, so it is in the same boat as New World Order with regards to reshoots.
However, one crucial difference between the two is that Reynolds will reportedly not be allowed to do any of his famous dialogue improvisation which has become a staple of the franchise since the first movie.
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