Hollywood’s existential crisis
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 18 July 2023
⏱️ 18 minutes
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Summary
Hollywood is facing a crisis. Almost every writer and actor is on strike against major studios, halting production. Massive protests have taken over LA and New York. Today, we unpack the upheaval that will change Hollywood forever.
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Hollywood is going through an existential crisis. In a historic double strike, nearly every performer and writer in the industry is on strike against major studios for the first time in more than 60 years. In an era of artificial intelligence and streaming, they are demanding limits on AI in the creative process and changes to their work and pay.
Today, breaking news features editor Avi Selk explains what led to this impasse, what writers and performers are demanding, and how this strike will reshape the future of entertainment.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hollywood is shut down. |
| 0:05.2 | Actors are banned from doing pretty much anything you would imagine an actor would do. |
| 0:12.2 | They can't act, they can't dance, they can't sing, they can't do puppets, they can't |
| 0:16.1 | flight drones on camera, whole big comprehensive list. |
| 0:20.9 | This is Avi Selk, a breaking news features editor at the post, and he's been covering |
| 0:25.2 | the strike that shut down Hollywood last week. |
| 0:28.4 | This strike means that Star Wars production is on hold, Avatar is on hold, the next seasons |
| 0:34.1 | of the last of us, Stranger Things, Abbott Elementary, all of that work is on hold, and it's |
| 0:39.9 | not just that. |
| 0:41.4 | They also cannot promote their movies for major studios, which is probably the most immediate |
| 0:47.6 | effect we're seeing. |
| 0:49.2 | The strike actually was called during the Red Carpenter premier event for Oppenheimer |
| 0:55.2 | in London, and you saw the cast literally leave that early. |
| 0:59.8 | Unfortunately, they're off to break their picket sides for all of the lead to being |
| 1:06.2 | eminent, straight by side, joining my yellow, one of my yellows that right now is getting |
| 1:13.7 | in the struggle for fair wages from working members of the U.N. |
| 1:17.6 | And now studios are going to have to figure out, even for the movies that have already |
| 1:23.8 | been made that they're hoping to make money on, how are we going to promote these if |
| 1:28.4 | we can't bring our stars out onto the Red Carpet? |
| 1:31.8 | The writer's Guild of America has been on strike since May. |
| 1:35.2 | The screen actors guild join them on Friday, making this a historic double strike, the |
| 1:39.9 | first since 1960. |
... |
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