Cognition Dissemination: These Shows Should Stop Production Immediately

It has now been more than a week since the Writers Guild of America (WGA) went on strike, bringing several Hollywood productions that employ unionized writers to a halt. The writers are demanding better pay from studios for the productions they heavily contribute to, improved residuals from shows following the profits studios have raked in through streaming, and protections from studios that have dreamed of replacing them with AI programs. It’s clear the writers are fighting for just causes considering the stories about several of them being paid so little that they need government assistance, and articles about studios already pondering giving AI programs like ChatGPT a shot for scriptwriting.

But I wrote that “several Hollywood productions” have been halted above because, well, not all of them have. Indeed, some have producers and assorted staff who feel the base scripts are good enough that filming can continue. The previous writers’ strike, which lasted 100 days between the end of 2007 and into early 2008, provided ample evidence of how misguided of an idea this is through shows and movies that turned out messier than they should have thanks to writers not being there for assistance. Production on these shows should halt immediately.

The shows pressing on with filming are startlingly prestige productions with highly-anticipated future seasons, which should damn-well make sure writers are on the set. House of the Dragon was the first one among these confirmed to be continuing production, with Variety reporting that “scripts on the hit show have been done for some time.” Showrunner Ryan Condal is reportedly remaining on the set in a producer position during the strike while filming continues in the United Kingdom. For a show in which the writing was pivotal for nailing the character development and twists in the first season, this is a terrible idea.

It’s especially awful with Game of Thrones/Song of Ice and Fire creator George R.R. Martin voicing full-throated support for the WGA, who laid out in excruciating detail just what’s at stake for the writers themselves and the issues they’ve had to deal with over the years. I highly encourage reading the entire post on his quaintly nostalgic LiveJournal-powered blog.

Base scripts tend to be completed before filming begins, but lines often need to be adjusted on the fly. Some lines simply don’t sound as great when spoken aloud compared to their written-down forms. Other lines need to be rewritten to fit the unique skills of the actor. This cannot be done without writers on the set. Anyone doing so at this particular moment would, notably, cross the picket line, and should result in other producer and actor unions being informed of the occurrence. Scabs will ideally not be on the set, but the better idea would be to halt filming entirely to prevent even the chance of that happening.

The same applies to Star Wars show Andor, similarly reported to be continuing filming despite the writers and creator and executive producer Tony Gilroy halting writing contributions in support of the WGA. The writing played a massive part in making this one of the best Star Wars works around and a solid political thriller overall. The last thing anyone should want is for the second and notably final season to run into issues due to no writers being on set to adjust lines for specific scenarios. Gilroy has since confirmed that he’s no longer providing any work on the series in support of the WGA, though the reports didn’t mention anything about filming stopping.

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power faces a similar, though not identical, issue. The first season of the high-priced Amazon Prime show was merely okay in quality and garnered mediocre viewership numbers, but writers should be there to ensure that the second season is a notable improvement. If I was Jeff Bezos, I’d be paying ample attention to this to ensure the quality is at least closer to the Peter Jackson films to justify the massive cost.

But this situation has become what it is because studios and their millionaire and billionaire heads don’t value the contributions writers provide. Part of me is hoping one of them green lights the use of ChatGPT, or some other AI program with a funky name, just to see how messy the results will be even if they hire writers to polish it after the strike. As several writers have noted, AI hasn’t dealt with the uplifting and traumatizing experiences that humans have ventured through in order to give scripts the personalized touch they need, and that will show in the work.

The shows mentioned above and others should follow in the footsteps of those which have stopped production entirely, or won’t even start. The producers of Stranger Things confirmed that filming won’t begin for the final season until the strike is over. The same is happening with Marvel’s Blade starring Mahershala Ali, despite the movie previously suffering a ten-month delay to search for a new director and perform extensive script rewriting. The works will come out later than expected, but that’s better than them being underwhelming because of all the talent not being gathered together.

Chances are the productions that haven’t halted could do so soon. As I mentioned in last week’s post, consider what the fallout will be if the Directors Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA also strike, as the contracts for both groups are set to expire at the end of June. They could very well join the writers on the picket line given reports that studios prepared for the writers to not take their terrible offers. Whether they’re dumb enough to think they can withstand a complete work stoppage in Hollywood remains to be seen, but it wouldn’t be a surprise if they were.