Cannes Market Anxiety: Strike Fallout Threatens Star-Studded Movies

variety.com:

Mister Smith Entertainment. Indeed, as studio executives and sales agents hit the South of France, their eyes remain fixed on the labor strike roiling the entertainment industry. “The strike is a bit less an immediate all-consuming issue for independent film than it is for scripted television,” says AGC Studios executive Stuart Ford. “The Cannes marketplace is primarily based on the sale of completed screenplays, which buyers can read and contractually rely upon ahead of going into production.” Writers put their (metaphorical) pens down two weeks ago, so some film industry vets say the impact on production hasn’t been felt yet.

But with the WGA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) still far apart, people feel there will be some kind of collateral damage. “The impact will become more visible the longer it takes,” says Thorsten Schumacher, founder and CEO of Rocket Science. “A lot of these films are international productions, but they won’t be insulated forever.” The sword of Damocles hanging over the industry is whether the WGA stoppage will be joined from July 1, once current contracts lapse, by the Directors Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA.  “Productions could be more delayed if actors and directors stand in solidarity with the writers,” says Delphine Perrier, the chief creative officer at Highland Film Group.

Even if directors and actors don’t strike and the WGA dispute comes to relatively rapid resolution, disruption to TV and film production will create a knock-on production bottleneck, as when COVID-19 restrictions lifted, Garrett argues.

The international business thrives on optimism, however. “We’ll all be engaging everybody in the usual dealmaking, just in the hope that the.