Dune 2 And Other Films May Move To 2024 As Studios Refuse Requests From Striking Writers And Actors
Do you know what the biggest irony of the ongoing actors' and writers' strike is? If the studio bosses in the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) had simply agreed to the perfectly reasonable requests made by the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) and the Writers Guild of America (WGA), they would still be filthy stinking rich. But no, they've gotta bleed the people who actually make their films and TV shows for every penny they're worth, and so here we are, with the entire entertainment industry at an impasse.
For the same reason, Warner Bros. — whose head honcho, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav, took home a whopping $39 million in 2022 alone, just to put things into perspective — now finds itself giving serious thought to delaying some of its biggest upcoming titles from 2023 to 2024. Per a report by Variety, Warner Bros. Film Group is "strongly considering" booting "Dune: Part Two," "Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom," and the film version of "The Color Purple" Broadway musical from their current dates in either November or December into next year. The concern, of course, is the strikes may not be resolved in time for the films' star-studded casts to adequately promote them in advance of their release. And naturally, that's assuming the strikes will be resolved at all by that point.
Aquaman 2's in trouble? Must be a day that ends in 'y'
Keep in mind, Variety's sources are cautioning "no formal discussions" have taken place about WB delaying anything at this stage. What's more, "Dune: Part Two" specifically can only be delayed if Legendary Entertainment, which co-produced the film, agrees, and so far WB has yet to approach them on the matter (again, reportedly). Nevertheless, the fact we're having this discussion at all is proof positive that, as one Variety insider put it, "the duration of the union battles are completely unpredictable" for the time being.
For "Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom," this is the second bout of potentially bad news it's gotten in just the past few days. We only just learned the James Wan-helmed sequel had undergone yet another round of extensive reshoots just prior to the actors' strike (its third round overall). The film was intially set to open back in December 2022 before being postponed by Covid and then shuffled back again as WB revamped its entire release slate. One can only speculate Wan isn't feeling too hot about his longtime partnership with WB at the moment, the way the studio keeps jerking his "Aquaman" sequel around to serve its own ends.
Again, had AMPTP actually engaged with WGA/SAG-AFTRA during their negotiations rather than shutting down the majority of their requests (particularly when it comes to the core issues of streaming residuals and AI), we wouldn't be in this pickle at all. But unless the studios start taking the requests of their creatives seriously, we're probably going to start seeing a whole lot more reports like this in the weeks to come.