The actors’ strike threatens Hollywood and the filming of Gladiator 2

The American film industry has not seen a double strike by screenwriters and actors since 1960.

Ridley Scott saw things big for Gladiator 2, which began filming in June. He actually had a real Roman village built in Malta. Yes, the director seems to have planned everything so that the sequel to the film released in 2000 is grandiose. But that was without taking into account the major social movement that has been brewing in Hollywood for several months: what good is a life-size Colosseum if no actor is playing there?

Hollywood actors are preparing to join screenwriters in their strike, which has been going on since the beginning of May. After 12 days of protracted negotiations between unions and major studios, the deadline for reaching an agreement expired on Thursday.

“At midnight Pacific time, the two parties concluded the talks without reaching an agreement, which triggered a strike vote by the national board of SAG-AFTRA (Screen Actors Guild‐American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) for Thursday morning. A strike is expected to be called and the union will ask its 160,000 members to immediately stop all work on films and TV shows around the world”explain Variety.

At the end of June, during the long negotiations, more than 300 actors signed a letter urging SAG-AFTRA to remain firm with the studios. Among them, very influential names: Meryl Streep, Jennifer Lawrence, Rami Malek, Amy Schumer or Ben Stiller. Last Tuesday, during the preview ofOppenheimer at the Grand Rex, Matt Damon assured the microphone of BFMTV that: “if there is a strike, everything will stop”. “You have to earn $26,000 a year to qualify for health insurance (…) And sometimes we can spend a lot of time between jobs. We must ensure that the actors are treated fairly and compensated for their work (…) There will be strong solidarity”he added.

Such a social movement combining the shutdown of screenwriters and actors has not occurred since 1960 in Hollywood.

Gladiator 2 wouldn’t be the last production to be put on hold when the strike was announced. According to the same American media, Mortal Kombat 2, filming in Australia, may well end as well. On the series side, Emily in Paris, whose filming has already been postponed to the end of 2023 due to the writers’ strike, should be even further delayed. The release of season 5 of Stranger Things would also be delayed.

On the other hand, other productions, such as season 2 of the series The Lord of the Rings or the movie Jacques Audiard with Selena Gomez and Zoe Saldaña, were able to complete their shots a few days ago and will therefore not be impacted.

Russell Crowe can’t stand being told about Gladiator 2: “I don’t even play in it!”