© The New York Times, June 27, 2007

Hollywood Scrambles as Strike Looms

LOS ANGELES, June 26 — In Hollywood’s upper reaches this week, few are bothering to count past two. As in Adam Sandler has already booked his two “pre-strike” pictures, so let’s try Vince Vaughn.

Though it’s unclear whether the forthcoming contract expirations of the entertainment industry’s writers, actors and directors will lead to a work stoppage over the next year, Hollywood is nonetheless frantically hedging its bets.

Producers, executives, agents and filmmakers are aware that even a hard-working star can most likely squeeze in no more than two movies before June 30 of next year, when the last of the deals end. After that date no studio wants to be caught with filming on its schedule, especially under expensive “pay or play” deals. (Such arrangements require companies to pay actors or others even if the movie isn’t made.)

And that has turned moviedom’s midsummer months into an unusually tense season. Deal makers are frantically trying to line up top actors for their presumed two-picture limit, even as they try to avoid thinking about the inevitable vacuum that will come after the contract expiration dates, with or without a strike, because no films are being set to shoot next July.

“We’re trying to do in six months what we usually do in 12,” said Patrick Whitesell, a partner with the Endeavor agency, which represents Mr. Sandler and others caught up in the chase.

Mr. Sandler, as it happens, is supposed to start “You Don’t Mess With the Zohan” for Sony Pictures soon, and is probably locked up on “Bedtime Stories” for Disney after that. Mr. Vaughn, meanwhile, has been mentioned in connection with a half-dozen projects, but his plans are complicated by the prospect of a heavy promotional schedule for the comedy “Fred Claus,” already shot and awaiting release by Warner Brothers in the fall.

The squeeze can be particularly painful for directors, who can easily invest 18 months in preparing, shooting and refining a picture, and may find themselves out of work for a year or more if they do not pin down studio, star and script in the next few weeks.

In one go-round, Paul Greengrass, finished with this August’s “Bourne Ultimatum,” with Matt Damon, a client of Mr. Whitesell’s, has been trying to round up that star to shoot “Imperial Life in the Emerald City” for Universal and Working Title Films. But Mr. Damon is also looking at “The Informant,” a conspiracy thriller to be directed by Steven Soderbergh for Warner Brothers.

If Mr. Damon commits to both, and everything falls into place with the studios, that would mean a long delay for “The Fighter,” a Paramount boxing film that is being lined up as a possible project for him with the director Darren Aronofsky. For that one, however, Mr. Damon would have to contend with weight fluctuations that would be difficult to control on a tight schedule. (Mr. Aronofsky is simultaneously developing another project for Universal, a spokeswoman for him said.)

In another closely watched decision, Jim Carrey, who is represented by the Creative Artists Agency, has been juggling at least three contenders for his presumed two slots. One, “Believe It or Not!,” would come from Paramount, with the director Tim Burton. Another, “I Love You Phillip Morris,” would be independently financed, with the directors Glenn Ficarra and John Requa (who were writers of “Bad Santa”). Yet another, “Me Time,” might come from Fox, but no director has yet been named. And still other projects could come into the mix.

A spokeswoman for Mr. Carrey declined to comment. In the Rube Goldberg exercise of Hollywood scheduling, little can be done without a final script. So the heat has been turned up lately on film writers to deliver the goods, even as their television-writing brethren are facing a different sort of pressure, to deliver extra episodes of television shows that will become a network bulwark against a possible writers’ strike this fall. (The writers’ contracts expire in October, while those of actors and directors end next June.)

“What we’re seeing is a stockpiling” of dramatic episodes and an increase in strike-resistant reality programming, said Steven Katleman, a lawyer with the Greenberg Traurig firm, which represents a number of television actors, writers and producers. Mr. Katleman pointed, for instance, to a recent outsize order for 30 episodes of the NBC series “Heroes.”

The studios’ eagerness to book films that will be seen in late 2008 or the summer of 2009 has been particularly intense, given the unusual alignment of contract expirations and a broad expectation that writers and actors are bent on playing hardball on issues related to compensation for new forms of digital distribution.

“It’s a pretty lethal combination,” said Jack Kyser, senior vice president and chief economist for the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation. Whether or not a real walkout occurs, Mr. Kyser said, the insistence that no film or television show be scheduled to shoot after next June will almost certainly cause a “de facto” strike.

A similar situation occurred in 2001, when studios shot extra shows and movies in the first two quarters of the year in advance of a negotiation with actors. Work then fell to a third of that level for the next several quarters, as measured by a count of filming days at locations around Los Angeles.

Things are even more complicated now, because actors, by accident of timing, are actually negotiating eight separate contracts over the next year, including those covering commercials and interactive work. Executives of the Screen Actors Guild declined to be interviewed about the scheduling of their various talks.

Asked about the rush to production, Barbara Brogliatti, a spokeswoman for the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents entertainment companies, said, “As we enter these negotiations, we are hoping for the best, but we have a fiduciary duty to prepare for the worst.”

Given that major feature films require months of preproduction and may require 16 weeks or more in front of the camera, the “be prepared” spirit means that most big casting choices for the next two years’ film schedule will soon have been made.

And Hollywood won’t have much to talk about come spring, except labor negotiations, politics and the weather.

“Next year at Cannes, it’s going to be dead,” said Mr. Whitesell, referring to the telephone action that usually connects Hollywood festivalgoers with business at home. “I mean dead.”