Ah, I meant to post this late last night, but the Sandman had other plans, I suppose...
...and no, not Thomas Haden Church, I mean that OTHER Sandman.
....It's been a while.....
A lot has apparently happened in the last month....
Mitt Romney dropped out of the presidential race...
Tom Brady got basically disassembled like a LEGO set by the Giants' defensive line... again... and again...
HD-DVD is HD-DOA...
Also, Heath Ledger, arguably one of the best, most compelling actors in recent memory passed away, leaving behind as the crowning jewel at the top of his career... a reinvention of one of the most infamously psychologically out-to-lunch super-villains of all time. Can't wait to see it.
...Or the final retail version of Gears of War 2, the first teaser trailer for which was released online today... More on that next week...
.....But the biggest story seems to be one that happened exactly one week ago now: The end of the WGA strike.
So for the last three months, everything from the movie-writing process to The Daily Show was pretty much put on hold for what seemed like forever, while we the general American audiences were forced to make do with whatever we could scavenge from out local movie rental stores (seriously, God bless DVDs. I'm just saying.) while the writers and the Academy of Motion Picture & Television Producers went back to the lab again and again and again to synthesize up a cure for the common crap: Reality shows. After all, do we really need Flavor of Love 3? Big Brother 9? AMERICAN GLADIATORS?!?!?
Then finally, something unbelievable happened. Barack Obama swept up all eight Potomac states' primary elections! ...But slightly before that, another meeting went down between the writers and the producers (well, most of the producers. Nathan Lane & Matthew Broderick sadly had scheduling conflicts, such as having absolutely nothing directly to do with this joke whatsoever other than that boring and unpopular Mel Brooks musical nobody saw. Gotta love sarcasm), and terms were actually mutually agreed upon! The WGA of course had to have an internal vote to confirm it was okay to put down the signs and pick up the uncompleted scripts again, but after all that it was official! The strike was over!
For those who missed "part one" of this post back when the strike started, the main problem was that the writers weren't being compensated fairly for distribution of, I'll say it again, THEIR IDEAS over what was already a legal gray zone, "new media" like streaming websites, Video On-Demand, direct paid downloads from stores like iTunes and Xbox Marketplace. The terms that ended the strike last week worked out, so here's the rundown of the settlement agreement, courtesy of the WGA, West's webpage. Luckily you don't need to be a member to read these Cliff's Notes. It's just so refreshing to know that this debacle worked itself out and the next Jack Bauer Show, as it's never called, will be happening right on schedule, with a nice, healthy 20-month time gap between the last new episode that may/may not have killed off James Cromwell (spoiler!) and the next one, since there's usually an 18-months or so gap between seasons on the show's timeline anyway. Now we get a real time gap, which as we all know adds to the believability of the show when they say it'll pick up two years later and this time, they won't have to glue yak hair on Keifer's chin for dramatic effect. He'll have had real jail time during the hiatus (today marks exactly one month since his release from Glendale jail), so if he can only keep the Grizzly Adams in place, only his hairdresser would know for sure.
Ah, but wait! It's NOT always sunny in Philadelphia! (since obviously) Rumors are flying now that, as some of you may have heard, not only may there be a directors strike ahead by the DGA, but a SAG strike on top of that! Since the current contracts between the AMPTP and those respective organizations expire in a few months, negotiations are underway now to not only renew those contracts, but make sure the DGA and SAG gets similar insurance, pension and other benefits that the WGA got in their deal. It's been called pattern bargaining, which I suppose is fair to an extent. Here's what my best friend Wikipedia had to say on that:
"The DGA's membership, comprised of directors as well as below-the-line workers (1st and 2nd assistant directors), is less focused on the WGA's most contentious issue, new media residuals. The DGA's negotiations with the AMPTP started on January 12, 2008 and on January 17, the DGA announced they had reached a tentative agreement.
"Following the DGA announcement, ER executive producer and former WGA president John Wells stated he believes that using the DGA agreement as a template, the strike could be easily resolved within two weeks. Other writers disagreed with Wells' positive assessment.
"Like the WGA, SAG is very concerned with residuals in new media and has been especially supportive of the WGA's strike effort. SAG president Alan Rosenberg has suggested that SAG may choose to ignore the tradition of pattern bargaining if terms of the DGA's deal is deemed insufficient to the actors. Thus, if the new media issue is not resolved to their satisfaction by the DGA or WGA by July of 2008, SAG is likely to strike when their contract expires, a move which could potentially bring the Hollywood film industry to a near-complete standstill."
...But that's just me.
-D.
