Hollywood writers and producers are reportedly on the verge of a deal after months of striking, according to several media reports.
Those within the burgeoning film and television industry in New Jersey are hoping that means the sector is soon to be growing again in the Garden State.
What comes next is up in the air. The goal is to finalize a new deal this week between the major Hollywood studio producers at the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers and the Writers’ Guild of America , who have been on strike since early May, according to media outlet The Verge.
Meanwhile, actors at SAG-AFTRA meanwhile have been on strike since July for the first time in 63 years.
The more than 11,000 film and TV writers have argued that compensation hasn’t kept up with the revenue ushered in by the streaming era, according to CNBC. Streaming services pay out lower residuals, writers and actors said.
And on top of that, writers are worried that increasingly sophisticated AI writing tools like ChatGPT could replace them. Actors are worried meanwhile that AI would use their likeness without compensation.
“Look, I don’t think it’s ever been easy; it’s a difficult industry,” Jess Bush, who landed a lead role in “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds,” told USA TODAY Network affiliate the Asbury Park Press in July.
“But the landscape has completely changed in the last 10 years. Completely. And it’s disgusting that studios are not willing to change alongside it to make sure that everyone is going to be OK.”
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Ratification could take weeks, said Dan Hank, a New York City film producer. So 2024 is the “catch-up” year for New Jersey and elsewhere.
“It’s going to be going to be a catch up year for all the freelancers who’ve been unemployed in the industry for the better part of the year, I think it’s going to be a catch-up year for all of the vendors who didn’t rent any of their gear for the better part of the last year,” Hank said.
Added Gavin Curran, chief operating officer at Sustainable Studios, a 50,000 square-foot soundstage in Moonachie, “there’s a lot of opportunity and growth within the business. People who wanted to open their own business or move up the ladder in the business will have the opportunity now.”
Curran said that one production was paused because of the actor’s strike: the Apple TV series “Winston,” featuring Billy Crystal.
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Four of the eight episodes were shot through early July before the actors went on strike. The sets have remained untouched since then.
Curran said that since the scripts were finished, the actors would be able to simply resume filming once the strike ends. That wouldn’t be the case if writing still had to continue after the end of a strike.
Moshe Gross, based in Ocean County, started Reset Locations, which rents commercial buildings in New Jersey for projects. Business started to slow down when the writers went on strike this spring, and then ground to a halt when the actors followed suit.
Gross likened it to “levels not seen since COVID.”
“I’m hopeful I’ll start getting some calls from location managers starting to scout out properties,” he said.
A resolution for the writer’s strike “has an effect on the actor’s strike as well,” Gross added. “That gets resolved much sooner.”
The state has four large soundstages: two in Kearny, one in Moonachie and another in Jersey City.
Within five years, they’ll be joined by the Lionsgate Studios in Newark, Netflix on the grounds of the old Fort Monmouth near Eatontown, and 1888 Studios in Bayonne.
New Jersey is offering hundreds of millions of dollars in tax credits to entice film and television productions in the state, which state officials and film executives credit for giving a jolt to the industry and the economy at large.
“It killed the momentum for the incentives a little bit, because here you have the governor pumping all this money into the economy,” Curran, of Sustainable Studios, said of the strike.
Across the Hudson River, New York is looking to ratchet up its competition to the Garden State film industry by expanding its own film tax credit program; pumping more money into the program and extending the program to match New Jersey’s expiration date of 2034.
“It’s easier to film in New Jersey,” Hank, the film producer, said, citing “access, parking, support from the government.”
Daniel Munoz covers business, consumer affairs, labor and the economy for NorthJersey.com and The Record.
Email: munozd@northjersey.com; Twitter:@danielmunoz100