Hollywood

“The Writers Guild of America, representing scriptwriters in Hollywood, is sending its members to the picket line starting today, declaring that its members are facing an “existential crisis” in terms of wages and job opportunities. This has happened before and it always seems to be worked out eventually. (The last Writers Guild strike lasted 100 days.) But perhaps this time it’s going to be different. Emerging technologies have significantly changed the way the entertainment industry operates, including how it is monetized. “

Writers Guild of America strike could begin this week amid complaints that streaming business model championed by Netflix and Disney has ruined their livelihoods

Hollywood writers of a certain age fondly recall a golden era when shows such as Friends drew more than 20 million viewers a week and even unremarkable sitcoms could generate huge profits.

In the boom times of the 1990s writers flocked to Los Angeles seeking their fortune, and many found it, signing lucrative contracts and earning eye-watering fees.

Those halcyon days are long gone, and now writers are on the verge of only their second strike in four decades in a dispute over pay.

All this month, for very good reason, Turner Classic Movies has been celebrating the great movies Warner Bros. gave us these last 100 years.

If you want to see the former glory of a once great nation and its culture in decline, go to a museum. That is, of course, unless the art on display has been tainted or altered by the very forces causing the decay. Because a major ritual for the current Visigoths in power is to erase the accomplishments of the past, as they present both a truth that threatens their control and a quality they cannot hope to match. Hence, they can only deny their existence. Nonetheless, museums still survive and, for the art of motion pictures, one of the best is Turner Classic Movies (TCM).

The family of Halyna Hutchins, the Rust cinematographer who died on set, say they will sue Alec Baldwin despite his criminal charges being dropped.

Manslaughter charges against Mr Baldwin, who was holding the prop gun that fired the fatal bullet, were withdrawn in New Mexico on Thursday.

A lawyer for Ms Hutchins’ parents and sister said that the actor “cannot escape responsibility” for her death.

Mr Baldwin had already reached a deal with her widower and 10-year-old son.

The ad revenue for America’s far-left late-night TV shows has collapsed 41 percent in just five years.

Gee, I wonder what changed.

Criminal charges against Alec Baldwin over the fatal shooting on the set of his movie “Rust” have been dropped, sources told The Post.

Baldwin, 65, was charged with involuntary manslaughter over the Oct. 21, 2021 shooting of 45-year-old cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the New Mexico set of the Western movie, after a prop pistol he was using for a scene fired a real bullet.

He had always maintained his innocence and pleaded not guilty to the charges, brought by the Santa Fe district attorney.

Alec Baldwin has asked a judge to dismiss a case brought by Halyna Hutchins’s parents and sister, calling it “especially misguided”, while supporting a separate settlement to benefit the cinematographer’s ten-year-old-son.

Hutchins, 42, was fatally shot by Baldwin, 65, in an accident on a film set near Santa Fe, New Mexico, in October 2021.

District court judge Mary Marlowe Sommer sentenced Halls to a six-month suspended sentence with unsupervised probation, a $500 fine, 24 hours of community service and a firearms safety class.

Now you see it, now you don’t. Disney is eliminating its entire metaverse division as part of the impending mass layoffs destined to impact as many as 7,000 employees, a report Monday claims.

The Wall Street Journal set out the nature of the sackings that will see just division head Mike White remain in what was once hailed as its “next-generation storytelling and consumer experiences unit.”

After 15 years of non-stop big-screen spandex, superhero films are finally losing their powers.

Have we passed the peak of superhero movies’ dominance of the big screen? I certainly hope so – and the signs are promising.

For more than 15 years, the film industry has been colonised by daftly named characters in spandex, playing out inane plotlines against a brain-bleeding cacophony of cartoonish CGI.

Hollywood, specifically the film industry, is going through a legitimate, serious, and potentially fatal phase.

No one likes the movies anymore.

The key to a healthy industry—audience goodwill—is evaporating quickly.

Entertainment giant Disney is set to eliminate up to 4,000 jobs as part of CEO Bob Iger’s $5.5 billion budget cut plan as the company faces repeated box office bombs, billions in losses over its streaming service, and political setbacks due to its radical left-wing policies in Florida.

Too tarnished to ever resurrect.