Movies

When the Writers Guild of America ended its strike in late February, just in time for the Oscars, it also gave Hollywood studios a four-month window to hurry a number of large-scale films into production before the Screen Actors Guild contract expires June 30, possibly leading to yet another walkout.

Among the projects that will wrap principal photography in that time frame: Sony's new James Bond film, Quantum of Solace; Paramount's live-action G.I. Joe action-adventure; and Universal's Will Ferrell take on the kitsch-classic TV show Land of the Lost.

Meanwhile, the Warner Bros. reboot Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins, with Christian Bale, just began shooting and will wrap in August, with plans to go on hiatus and resume later if there's a strike. Another taking that risk: the just-started Transformers 2, which could conceivably mitigate a halt in production by focusing on its many digitally animated characters.

Some top actors, meanwhile, are on forced vacation.

Jack Black has the war comedy Tropic Thunder and the biblical times comedy The Year One in the can, but he says: "I don't have anything planned for the summer or fall at this point. I want to see how the strike plays out and hopefully get back to work next year on something. I've got some things floating around, but it's too early to talk about them."

In the meantime, Black says, he's getting to work on a new album for his metal-rock duo Tenacious D.

With Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull in theaters, and the multi-story immigration drama Crossing Over due in August, Harrison Ford is in a holding pattern as well.

"We're waiting for the screen actors' strike to sort itself out, and then I've got two things that are waiting, ready to go, and three more I've had in development the last couple of years," Ford says. "One of the projects that is ready to go is a sophisticated comedy, and the other is an exploration of some aspects of the pharmaceutical industry. So they're very different projects."

— Breznican

Television

Though movie production is at a near standstill, TV studios are churning out series episodes to make up time — and work — lost in the last strike.

During what's usually a June lull, cameras are rolling: Fox's Prison Break and Bones, ABC's Brothers & Sisters, Private Practice, Samantha Who?, Scrubs and Dirty Sexy Money, NBC's ER, Chuck and Life and CBS' CSI trio and Cold Case are among network series storing up episodes. Most will take breaks in late summer instead.

But they'll finish no more than half a dozen episodes before the strike deadline, so a lengthy work stoppage would still cut deeply into plans for the fall TV season. And with ratings slipping, a strike would come when networks are least able to weather it.

Shooting schedules of new pilots vying for midseason slots, already delayed by the writers' strike, would in some cases be pushed back again if SAG members pick up picket signs.

Some actors aren't keen to push the industry into a new shutdown that would affect writers and crewmembers just after they endured a forced three-month break.

"I don't want the entertainment industry to come to a halt again," says Alyson Hannigan of CBS' How I Met Your Mother. "It just hurts so many people. I just hope that everyone comes to their senses and works out a good deal that's fair."

The Screen Actors Guild says it represents performers on 90% to 95% of prime-time network and pay-cable series.

CW's new 90210 remake and Reaper and Showtime's The Tudors are among the few exceptions; their actors are represented by AFTRA, a smaller union that last week reached a tentative settlement with the studio moguls. So are daytime soap actors, game and talk-show hosts.

But most others would suffer. "There's no question, we'll hit the wall if there's a strike," says Showtime entertainment president Robert Greenblatt.

— Levin

Enlarge Reuters Expected to wrap up soon: Daniel Craig's James Bond thriller Quantum of Solace is nearly done.

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