Wicked movie shuts down production mere days from completion

A week after Hollywood actors of SAG-AFTRA went on strike, we continue to hear about movie and TV productions shut down for the foreseeable future. It was hard enough for Hollywood to remain at work with writers on strike; with actors on the picket lines too, it’s near impossible.

One of the latest big sets to close up shop for the time being is Wicked, director John Chu’s adaptation of the hugely popular stage musical about what happened before the events of The Wizard of Oz. He’s actually making two movies, a Part 1 and a Part 2. Both will star Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba, the woman who would become the Wicked Witch of the West; and Ariana Grande as Glinda the Good Witch, who we meet in her younger flighty college years.

“We were only a few days away from being done so we were SO close,” Chu tweeted. “More to come but in the meantime I’m excited to excavate what we have shot for the past year here in Oz (release date shouldn’t be affected).” On Instagram, he expressed his support for the striking actors. “And our other beloved SAG members who are fighting for a fair deal! We stand with you,” he said.

Look at the beautiful, abandoned sets of the Wicked movie

To clarify, they were a few days away from finishing Part 1. According to Broadway World, all they had left to do is film the musical number “One Short Day,” which is when Elphaba and Glinda first arrive in the Emerald City. That’s a pretty elaborate number on stage, so there’s probably some miles to go.

One fun side effect of the shut down: we’re getting some interesting images of the abandoned sets. Check out Munchkin Land sans munchkins:

Wicked Part 1 is currently scheduled to come out in theaters on November 27, 2024, if Chu’s prediction holds true and nothing changes.

Filming stops on Interview With The Vampire season 2 over actors strike

Another show shutting down due to the strikes is Interview With The Vampire, AMC’s reinterpretation of Anne Rice’s classic horror novel. The first season did a great job of honoring the source material without feeling too similar to the 1994 movie with Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt, and I’m eager to see more. But not for a while.

Interview With The Vampire is in an interesting situation. All the scripts for the new season are done, meaning it could keep shooting despite the writers strike. It’s also filmed mostly overseas with a cast of mainly international actors, which indicates that it might be able to keep filming despite the actors strike as well. That’s how shows like HBO’s House of the Dragon are able to continue shooting despite the strikes: British actors generally belong to an English actors union called Equity, rather than to SAG-AFTRA. And British labor laws are such that Equity actors are prevented from striking if they’re filming in a production if it’s under contract with Equity. Even if you belong to both Equity and SAG, Equity rules seem to apply, depending on the location of the shoot.

But according to Deadline, some of the actors on Interview belong to SAG only, enough that it’s impracticable to keep shooting.

Expect more of this kind of thing as the strike continues. Hopefully the studios and the unions will come to a fair deal sooner rather than later.

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h/t The A.V. Club