After failing to reach an acceptable agreement with Hollywood’s studios and streaming platforms, the Writers Guild of America is on strike starting today. Since the advent of streaming, writers have seen their compensation and residuals slashed and their working conditions undermined. Until the AMPTP (Association of Motion Picture and Television Producers) comes to the table with a fair contract for writers, all development and production has been shut down in Hollywood.
As a proud WGA union member for 20 years, every film and television show that Adam Green has created has been produced under a WGA signatory agreement starting with the original HATCHET. Now that audiences have embraced streaming platforms as their preferred method for entertainment consumption, writers have been marginalized by the AMPTP and talent all across the industry on both sides of the camera have found it harder and harder to make a living. For more information about the WGA strike click HERE.
While we of course support the WGA in the fight for a fair contract, unfortunately the timing of this strike couldn’t be worse for so many artists just like us who watched their projects and livelihood evaporate during the COVID-19 pandemic and who were just starting to ramp back up again. This strike is a major one that has the potential to go on a long, long time. That means that the various new projects we were hoping to create for you soon have been thrown back into production purgatory once again. Even worse, this disruption could spell a tragic end to several of our beloved projects while still in their infancy.
This sure isn’t how we hoped to be celebrating our 25th anniversary year.
However, in our effort to always find (or create) a bright side, we’re hoping to seize whatever opportunities these unfortunate circumstances will make room for. As a writer/director/showrunner, normally Adam is only able to appear at conventions when the dates happen to coincide with the promotional period in support of a new film’s release. In preparation for the strike, Adam has been in talks to appear at a number of conventions while our various productions are going to be indefinitely delayed. Given that most conventions set their celebrity rosters at least 6 months (in some cases almost a full year) in advance… and given that the strike could potentially end at any point… arranging convention appearances for the coming months is a lot easier said than done. Still, we plan to have some dates to announce soon! Adam is thrilled that he may be able to get out to a convention near you this year!
As always, ArieScope will produce our 25th annual Halloween short film for October and the weekly MOVIE CRYPT podcast will continue to release a new episode every single Monday just as Adam Green, Joe Lynch, and Arwen have done without fail for the last 10 years. With the podcast’s 10th anniversary coming up this week, THE MOVIE CRYPT will release a very special 10th anniversary episode on Monday! Of course, the program’s “Movie Crypt Live” and “Slumber Party Massacre” live events will continue on as scheduled every month for Patreon members. You can also expect to see some new merch hitting the BUY STUFF store here on ArieScope.com in just a few more months!
Speaking of merch… want to help ArieScope avoid having to shut down our studio for good during the strike? Now would seriously be a great time to buy something in our store or feed Arwen a treat/make a donation! Just saying.
The last few years have certainly been brutal on all of us at ArieScope. No one could have possibly predicted the back to back beat downs of a global pandemic and an industry wide strike. However, if there is one thing we’ve proven again and again over our 25 years as a production company it’s that we always manage to find a light at the end of every dark tunnel life throws at us.
This too shall pass, friends. Hang in there.