News You Need: WGA Says Pencils Down, ‘Nailed’ Being Fashioned, Stallone’s Comeback

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CHICAGO – Pencils Down: The Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike went official at 12:01 a.m. EST on Monday.

Eleventh-hour talks ended when the WGA, which has been fighting the AMPTP (Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers) primarily for more residuals in DVD and extra media sales, refused to delay the strike past the start date set last Friday.

Variety has the rundown. Ultimately, movies will not have an immediate effect and most scripted television shows have a backlog of five episodes.

However, daily talk shows like “The Tonight Show” and “Late Night With Conan O’Brien” will go into re-runs. “The Daily Show” and host and executive producer Jon Stewart is reportedly showing a sign of solidarity by paying his picketing writing staff two weeks’ salary from his own pocket.

The WGA is expecting high-profile picketing. Some high-status writers including John August (“Big Fish,” “Go”) and Jane Espenson (“Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” “Battlestar Galactica”) have posted on their blogs where they’re picketing on Monday.

Members of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) are expected to join the picket lines since their contract along with the Directors Guild of America (DGA) expires in June. Both SAG and the DGA’s prominent bargaining points are identical to the WGA’s.

In Chicago, ReelChicago.com says one casualty of the strike will be Lifetime’s planned series “Family Practice”.

Meanwhile, Greencine Daily has posted an interesting link to mark the occasion: a 1945 Atlantic Monthly essay on screenwriting by classic noir novelist Raymond Chandler (“The Big Sleep”). Chandler wrote:

To me, the interesting point about Hollywood’s writers … is not how few or how many they are but how little of worth their talent is allowed to achieve.

For among the best reporting on the strike, check out Nikki Finke’s Deadline Hollywood Daily. An immediate settlement is not expected.

8:19 a.m. update on 11/6/07: Illinois Sen. Barack Obama had this to say in reaction to the WGA strike:

I stand with the writers.

The guild’s demand is a test of whether media corporations are going to give writers a fair share of the wealth their work creates or continue concentrating profits in the hands of their executives.

I urge the producers to work with the writers so everyone can get back to work.

I Heart Political Satire: The great Class of ’99 member David O. Russell is in negotiations to co-write and direct “Nailed”. He’s making a noble effort to have more projects in the works than Steven Spielberg.

David O. Russell (on right).
Photo credit: Lester Cohen, WireImage.com
“Nailed,” which will star Jake Gyllenhaal and Jessica Biel, is about a bizarrely injured woman who crusades to Washington. It’s being co-written by Kristen Gore (the daughter of Al Gore and a former “Futurama” writer).

There’s currently no word on Russell’s proposed adaptation of Kristen Gore’s autobiographical novel “Sammy’s Hill,” the “The H-Man Commeth” (which is set to star Vince Vaughan as a radio host) or his proposed White Queen “X-Men” spin-off.

Let’s not waste an opportunity to link to Russell’s most recent bout with fame. That link, by the way, contains adult language.

Sylvester Stallone’s 468th Comeback: Stallone is in negotiations to direct and star in a remake of “Death Wish” probably because he ran out of old franchises to give a one-off revitalization.

Sylvester Stallone (on left).
Photo credit: Eric Charbonneau, WireImage.com
This “Death Wish” is not to be confused with the other recent unintentional “Death Wish” remake known as “The Brave One”.

By Shane Hazen
HollywoodChicago.com Staff Writer