OSCARS May be Cancelled
 

Will you be upset ?

http://www.news.com.au/entertainment...011000,00.html


Strikes may shut down Oscars

December 31, 2007 12:00am
Article from: The Australian

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THEY have survived the Great Crash, the Great Depression, World War II and the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan. But fears are growing that the Academy Awards, universally known as the Oscars, may have to be cancelled for the first time in 80 years.

The tens of millions of fans around the world, who treat the awards like a celebrity horse race, would not be the only ones to suffer if the February 24 event were called off.

Movie stars, studio executives, socialites and gatecrashers are all aghast at the idea of being denied the lavish parties that accompany Hollywood's biggest night.

Perhaps most aghast are the party organisers themselves - most of whom have solicited sponsorship deals to help to pay for events that can cost up to $US700,000 ($800,000) to stage.

Ballot papers have been posted to the Academy's 5829 voters, who will decide which films and actors are nominated. The first round of voting will end on January 12.

But the awards season is at risk of becoming the highest-profile casualty so far of a stand-off between studios and writers that began two months ago.

The writers, represented by the Writers Guild of America, are demanding to be paid for television shows or films broadcast over the internet. The studios argue that online technology is untested, and that to agree to fees now could prevent them from experimenting with new methods of distribution.

The strike is starting to sting on both sides. Nightly news-talk shows, such as The Daily Show with Jon Stewart - who is scheduled to host the 80th Academy Awards - have been off the air for so long, staff fear ratings may have been damaged permanently, with viewers migrating to YouTube or video games.

But at the weekend there were signs of movement when TV host David Letterman's production company, Worldwide Pants, reached an agreement with the leadership of the WGA. The deal will allow Letterman's Late Show to return to the air in the US on Wednesday night, armed with his staff of comedy writers.

Other night-time talk shows, including The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, are scheduled to return this week too - but without writers.

In a statement, Mr Letterman said: "This is not a solution to the strike, which unfortunately continues to disrupt the lives of thousands. But I hope it will be seen as a step in the right direction."

So far films have been less affected by the strike because scripts were stockpiled in advance. Nevertheless, some big projects will suffer next year.

But the biggest question mark of all now hangs over Oscars night. The best indication of its ability to go ahead as planned will come this week - when the Hollywood Foreign Press Association decides if it will stage its January 13 Golden Globes ceremony, which has been held every year since 1944.

Before Christmas, the WGA refused to give its members permission to write material for the show, even though it granted a waiver for the smaller-scale Independent Spirit Awards.

The union also refused to allow the Globes organisers to use video clips that included work produced by its members. This could make the event impossible to stage.

Regardless of what happens at the Golden Globes, however, all eyes will be on the Oscars a month later. Since its debut in 1929, the ceremony has run every year for 80 years, surviving industrial disputes - and even the attempted assassination of Reagan in 1981, which delayed the ceremony by a day.

Those WGA members are some sick, sick fucks.

You know what? I say cancel them.

Are they gonna cancel only the ceremony and announce the winners in a press release? How would that work?

They would have a non-televised ceremony.

I read about this a few weeks ago, along with this list of alternatives:

5 Ways to Make the Oscars Insanely Entertaining Without The Use of Film Clips

1. Cate Blanchett (I’m Not There) forced on stage to impersonate all of her fellow supporting actress nominees. Can she “do” Amy Ryan (Gone Baby Gone) and Tilda Swinton (Michael Clayton) as well as she apes Dylan & Hepburn? Would capturing the precocious bad seed Saorsie Ronan (Atonement) finally prove too much for her estimable technique? If she pulls it off can they hand her 6 Oscars on the spot. One for each mimicry job + Bob Dylan.

2. All best actor candidates thrown naked into a Russian bathhouse set to fend off real life assassins with their bare hands. Only Viggo Mortensen (Eastern Promises) is exempt from this challenge, already having demonstrated his bad assery…and his ass.

3. They could nominate five truly great songs instead of schmaltzy power ballads and then give the actual performers ample time to si-- I'm sorry. That's too radical. What was I thinking? sheer anarchy.

4. A walk off for costume design. Keira Knightley (Atonement) in the green dress, Helena Bonham-Carter (Sweeney Todd) in decaying gothic fineries, Someone else in something else… yes, that!

5. Johnny Depp (Sweeney Todd) shaves Phillip Seymour Hoffman live! I’m sorry but someone needs to. He doesn’t even try to clean up for these things.

5 More Ways To Enliven a Writer-less, Clip-less Oscar Ceremony as Suggested By Readers

6. The Opinionated Australian says... "Perhaps, they can take advantage of the extra time they'll have, and stage both Oscars and Razzies on the same night? I can hardly ever tell them apart anyway." snarky... I love it.

7. Daily Tanenbaum says... "Have all the nominees in each category live in a house together and see what happens when actors stop being polite and start acting real." Funny. Do they get to vote each other off... ? cuz that's all the rage.

8. Katey says... "Coin toss with Anton Chigurh-- if you lose, Javier Bardem gets your Oscar."

9. Middento says ... "instead of the honoring the dearly departed over the past year, the Oscars hold a seance instead? The most corporeally rendered gets the loudest applause, naturally." I'm guessing that that goes to Joan Crawford who comes into nearly perfect focus (soft focus!), just itching to get back on that stage.

10. N8 says... "Hold the Oscar ceremony in an outdoor venue and invite the public. It'd be wild" Um, yes. It sure would. Why do I imagine that Sally Kirkland ends up entertaining the masses when the A-list are too afraid to show?

But now we won't get to hear about how everyone hates this "hollywood circlejerk"

I hope they run Hollywood into the ground. Anything to get a regime change over there. Hopefully after this is all over we'll be back to a 70s style era where studios will take gambles and new filmmakers with their ideas instead of the same cookie-cutter junk that's been happening.

Oh, so you don't like crappy remakes of horror movies?

I don't think the studios will ever revert back to their way of thinking, back in the 70s. Actually, it wasn't that easy for new filmmakers in the 70s to get their stuff on the big screen, either. Most of what is considered a "classic" today, barely made it into production/finished production/got it released when it first debuted.

The WGA deserve what they're asking for, no arguments from me at all.

Fuck the Oscars, anyway.

No, they'll find some way to miraculously avert the crisis and air the Phoney-Baloney Olympics.

What I would love to see if we don't get the Oscars is a 3 hour presentation of the meetings between the WGA and the AMPTP so we can really see who is being the difficult dumb-shits.

Again, I ask what right the WGA has to refuse permission to air clips owned by studios.

This is the first mentioning I've heard of this. I seriously doubt they have the pull to cancel the Oscars.

Because of the copyright RIGHTFULLY maintained by the writer of said material, and the rights to be paid when any said material (even brief clips) are displayed/aired/broadcast, etc....Unless the studio wants to pay the writers the AGREED UPON rate (which is irrelevant at this point because no agreement currently exists), they cannot legally air them.

Fuck the Oscars & anyone who thinks that the writers don't deserve what they are asking for.

I'll see your 2x "Fuck the Oscars, give the writers what they want" and raise you one "Fuck the fucking Oscars, and give writers what they fucking deserve.

id actually love to see the after parties with writers and studio execs in the same room drunk. That would be entertaining seeing two puny guys try slap each other

How about for once they just announce the people up for the award - Then just tell people who won. They come up and accept the award and give a upto 2 minute speech.

cut to commericals...

Game over.

I'm curious what the writers are asking for.

What do they make now--like average salary or whatever and what do they think they deserve...what do they want?

I say cancel them too. I could really care less.

I've lost a ton of respect for the academy in the last 10 years with some of their horrible picks.

Get rid of them and start paying writers so I can watch more Lost. This shit is getting ridiculous.

Good - Hollywood needs to learn that writers are deserving of rightful compensation, and if they don't get to have their little "aren't we awesome!" ceremony because they don't want to share profits with the writers of the material, so much the better.

I enjoy watching the Oscars but wouldn't lose any sleep if it were canceled.

I haven't followed the strike closely at all but the writers "demanding to be paid for television shows or films broadcast over the internet" the major hang-up? It seems the solution for this is fairly simple; studios pay the writers!

Have you seen the last dozen or so Oscar telecasts? They'd be MUCH more entertaining without the writers. :)

The strike isn't about salaries whatsoever, it's about getting residual fees (effectively royalties) for the use of their episodes on the internet, which studios make money from in both cases -- on iTunes and similar services, the episodes are charged for per episode, and with the free-streaming online viewers are made to sit through a commercial beforehand or during, which networks charge advertising fees for. Not sure about whether the writers are currently getting no cut of that or want a larger cut than they are getting for their work in creating all this content.

It's all very petty at the moment. The studios aren't wanting to pay the writers now, not because it's not deserved (because they probably know despite all the P.R spin that it is deserved), but because they want to punish the writers for daring to defy them at all with striking in the first place.

Agreed. Meaningless waste of time.

Exactly, it's a power play, not a money problem. If it was just money it would've been over by now.

I don't want the Oscars to be cancelled. Paul Thomas Anderson and the Coens are pretty much the reason why I got into filmmaking. And to see them finally on Hollywood's biggest stage is just great to see.

If this was just another Tom Hanks/Spielberg year then screw it but I want to listen to Coens/Anderson acceptance speech.

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What I find ironically funny with the strike is that everything is hung up over something no one wants to budge on; royalties for online/internet downloads/streaming.

What's funny about it? It just may not be worth all the hullabaloo because no one has really figured out a way to really make money with it. Everyone involved is trying one thing after another without success.

Wal-Mart just shut down their video download biz, and if Wal-Mart can't figure out how to make money at something you know there are serious issues with it.

I don't know any company that's centered on making money with an online/internet downloads/streaming of content business that is, in fact, actually turning a profit. Even Apple (the closest thing to success in that realm) makes their real money selling hardware; iPods, iPhones, etc.

Outside of the cable/satellite companies, I don't think we're going to see a real shakeout about how to practically monetize it for at least 4-6 years.

Not siding with the studios here, but the WGA's attitude strikes me (no pun intended) as wanting to be paid for one's chickens before they're hatched. Maybe everyone would be better off (if all other aspects of contract talks are aceptable) if both sides agreed to a moratorium on this issue for about 5 years. There will probably be a much clearer picture by then.

Yep, exactly. I can't believe some people are actually calling for the show to be canceled. This has been shaping up to be one of the most interesting Oscar races in years, and I've been very much into it.

Wow, that guy is the biggest fucking asshole I have seen in weeks. No wonder the studios can't reach agreements with the WGA if this is representative of the people they have to deal with.

Really? You know darn well that the studio is going to make note of the interview on the packaging - and the only reason for it is to sell DVDs. So, why shouldn't he be compensated for it? If the DVD set was being given away for free, that is one thing, but the studio is going to profit from the sales, so he is entitled if they choose to use his piece on it.

This is the same problem the writers are having. Without their "backbone," there are no DVD sales, no merchandising, no product. The studios should be taking care of the writers, because it is ultimately the writers that are taking care of them in the end.

^Yeah I am sure everyone buying the DVD is buying it to watch the interview segments with that asshole. He should be willing to participate in extras for the fans because that is what the supplements would be for. Not the studio...the people that have watched whatever show he made for years and therefore provided him with the money that he did get paid for the work he actually did. Participating in an interview/featurette/documentary like the one that asshole is describing is not work.

That's just it, the writers already took that attitude in the last major contract with DVD's and look what happened there - the writers lost out big time. No one's saying that online downloads will be huge this year or next, but entertainment is gradually moving away from the set to DVD, OnDemand, streaming, and downloads. To throw away they're fair compensation again would be idiotic and short sighted on the writers part.

I may not totally agree with the way he puts it, but Harlan Ellison speaks the truth.

You don't think people buy DVDs for the supplemental features? Are you new here?

And do you think the studio is putting out the DVD "for the fans"? Why don't they give them away for free then, if no one deserves to be paid for this stuff.

Thanks, but that didn't really answer my question.

How much more do the writers want? It's a pretty simple question.

I honestly don't know what writers make. I mean if they make $17,000 a year and they want a pay increase then fine. However, if, on average, they make $250,000 a year and they want to make $500,000 a year then I'm sorry but I don't have a lick of sympathy for them. Just do your job and shut the f up. If you don't like it then quit and find another job.

This is all about money right? I'm just curious what type of money we're talking about.

What does the average writer make right now and what does the average writer DESIRE to make?

Until John Millius shows up.