Writers Guild Strike Looms Over 007

The Los Angeles Times carries an excellent report on the effect the potential Writers Guild strike could have upon Hollywood’s upcoming slate. Last week, the guild voted overwhelmingly in favour of a strike if contract negotiations with studios and networks fail.

Paul Haggis

The report notes that Paul Haggis is currently “ploughing through” the script for the next James Bond film, in light of the fact a strike could occur as early as 1 November. With the guild’s contract due to expire on 31 October, the Oscar-winner could potentially have less than a week to turn in the Bond 22‘s script.

Haggis is just one writer under increasing pressure to complete scripts for studios’ 2008 and 2009 tentpole pictures. While Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull, Sex And The City and the next Star Trek instalment are all expected to lens without issues, scripts for Night At The Museum 2, G.I. Joe, State Of Play and X-Men Origins: Wolverine are all being hurriedly completed in order to beat the strike.

Aside from Bond 22, Sony’s other major Summer 2008 release is Angels And Demons, the follow-up to last year’s The Da Vinci Code. Akiva Goldsman, who adapted both of Dan Brown’s novels, told the Los Angeles Times, “It’s pencil down until midnight on Halloween. It’s unavoidably intensely stressful, but it’s the way of the world right now. Everybody is living in the impending doom.”

On 19 September, Paul Haggis said he was headed to Italy to continue writing the Bond 22 script, while another interview from last month hinted the film’s plot had been “tossed out” at some point during development.

Bond 22 was recently revealed to be on the studio’s list of priority projects to get off the ground before any strike takes place.

To read the full article, head over to the Los Angeles Times website.

Keep watching the new-look CommanderBond.net for the latest Bond 22 news.