All this talk of a potential strike has got me thinking: Will the strike actually happen? All my friends who are currently working at Hollywood studios believe it will and have told me that the studios are preparing like it’s the end of the world. Instead of preparing for the worst, why aren’t the studios trying to make good and keep the unions happy?

I haven’t been able to get any of my director friends to comment on the strike on the record, so I found Smokin Aces writer/director Joe Carnahan’s comments refreshingly honest. Carnahan begins a 50 day production on White Jazz soon, and he plans to follow that up with Killing Pablo in June 2008 (after post production). He thinks that is possible “providing the actors don’t strike…”

“…and I don’t think that’s going to happen. I think the WGA is going to go out in another two weeks and it’s gonna be so ugly and potentially protracted that it’s gong to scare off SAG and the DGA and they’re going to come to an agreement before the June 30th drop dead date. I really think this is where it’s headed.

I’ve talked to friends of mine, writers and directors and agents and everybody  has this bunker mentality…this strike is happening and people are going to be destroyed overnight. Careers are going to be crushed and an industry torpedoed. The respective parties as so far apart right now, the notion that in two weeks, there will be this miraculous stick save and all will be resolved, is insane…”

You can always count on Joe for his candid thoughts.