THB #333: WGA and Rushfield's Abyss

This is the third column I’ve started today. I will deliver the Oscar Distribution and Marketing Round-Up, Part 2 tomorrow with the 10 Best Picture nominees and their path to their nominations and their potential wins. I realized that the companies vying for leadership/survival in the filmed entertainment industry right now are all looking to have yard sales, $500 million and up… so that piece is in the hopper.

by Dall E

But… my friend, Richard Rushfield and his latest WGA Abyss column (55 Days To The Abyss) landed in my inbox as I drove home from the IMAX version of Darren Aronofsky’s Pi (“You will believe the grain is bigger than your head!!!”) and I read it in a parking lot before getting out of my car because, as I have written before, I am still trying to figure out what the hell is going on with this strike that so many people see as inevitable.

So I read it…

And I am more convinced than even that there are many reasons for writers to be really cranky and no real reasons for a strike, unless The Money insists on being more abusive and short-sighted than ever.

I am going to just paste in the first pop-out quote of the piece… and keep in mind… I am not for The Money at all. I want all the people in this industry who work under union deals to be treated more than fairly. But…

Richard pulled that one a little out of the context later offered, which is trying to figure out whose pocket more money will coming out of on any given production.

But the point that struck me like a truck when I saw this was, “What kind of bubble does this obviously intelligent, experienced person live in that they think TV shows need to be more expensive for the producer/buyer?”

It is not the writers’ or actors’ fault in any way that the cost per half-hour or hour of television has exploded in the last decade. But it has. If I said the average these days is about $4 million for a half-hour show and $9 million for an hour, would you argue? Not for the biggest hits or some kind of crazy IP chasing mega-status… for average series.