Last night, some terrible news hit the internet: Dune Part Two has been delayed because of the ongoing Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA strikes. The Dune sequel was originally slated to hit theaters on November 3, but with no actors to help market the film, it will now be released on March 15, 2024.
The WGA strike began months ago, on May 2. On July 14, SAG joined WGA on the picket lines with a strike of their own. That means no new writing, filming, or—and this is crucial for films and shows that have completed production—promotion. The strikes are the reason Comic-Con was a pretty quiet affair this year, with none of its usual star-studded panels. It’s why you’re seeing a noticeable shortage of cast interviews and promos for films and series that are coming out right now.
The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, the entity that negotiates with WGA and SAG, would love for the world to believe that the guilds’ demands are excessive. In fact, they’re really not. Background actors don’t want to be paid for one day’s work so that studios can replace them with AI doppelgängers. Writers don’t want one showrunner to have to do the work of an entire writers’ room. Writers and actors both want residuals and fair pay. In short, they’re demanding a tiny slice of the staggering profits that film executives rake in.
How tiny is the slice they’re demanding? A letter that WGA released yesterday calculates how much the WGA’s proposals would cost studios, and it’s a laughably small amount. According to the WGA, its demands would cost Disney 0.088%, Warner Bros. Discovery 0.104%, and NBCUniversal 0.027% of the companies’ total revenues. From the way AMPTP has responded, though, delaying projects instead of negotiating in good faith, you’d think WGA and SAG were asking for the moon.
And honestly? Even if they were asking for the moon, these companies could probably afford it.
Pay your workers and give us more Dune
AMPTP, there’s a simple way to get Dune Part Two in front of the audiences who want to see it so badly: Pay your writers and actors what they’re worth.
Film industry executives don’t create the movies and shows that audiences love so much. They don’t craft the stories we find so meaningful, or portray the characters we fall in love with. Writers and actors do that. Creators have proven over and over that they can create art without corporate financing, but film corporations would cease to exist without creators.
The fact that AMPTP is willing to delay major projects instead of giving up a tiny bit of their unimaginable wealth isn’t just disgraceful. At this point, it’s almost farcical. And audiences are ready for the farce to end.
(featured image: Warner Bros.)
