ICYMI: It's Down to the Wire

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Apr 30, 2023

If there’s going to be a last-minute breakthrough in WGA negotiations, now is the time. As Hollywood braces for a possible leap into the unknown, we’re on the story here at The Ankler.

To help bring you all the latest scuttlebutt, insight and observations from the field, we’ve launched a free spin-off newsletter, Strikegeist, devoted entirely to the unfolding story. It’s separate from The Ankler (we’ll continue to publish our own coverage of the potential strike and its fallout), and being an Ankler subscriber will not automatically sign you up.

Subscribe today and get all our latest stories, big and small, on Hollywood’s showdown. We’ve already reported on the wild stories we’re hearing in The Madness Before the Deadline. Today, we have a great photo/video essay looking back at what happened in town that first week after a strike was announced on Nov. 2, 2007. We invite you to send us your thoughts and tips to strike@theankler.com. All correspondence will be treated with full confidentiality.

From Week One of The Strike, 2007:

**THAT’S THE PICKET** Mike White, the now Emmy award-winning showrunner and writer of HBO’s *The White Lotus,* in front of Warner Bros. in Burbank on Nov. 5, 2007. White’s writing credits included *School of Rock*, *Freaks and Geeks* and *Dawson’s Creek*. (Jesse Grant/WireImage)

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This week on The Ankler (aka, Richard was busy):

Richard in the CinemaCon spirit at the *Barbie* activation. (credit: Chris Lee)

Rushfield's CinemaCon: The Scorecard Reading the tea leaves from each of the the studio’s presentations at the 2023 gathering, plus Richard’s bonus description of Vin Diesel going off script, and which CEO almost ran him over.
Rushfield at CinemaCon: 'The Punditocracy Pissed on Your Business' Theater owners party as Hollywood burns.
Rushfield: SHELLSHOCK! The sudden exit of Jeff Shell has us wondering, when will these guys ever learn? And... paging Peter Rice.

🎧 Podcasts

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Now, on to the shows:

What Really Happened in Vegas This week on The Ankler pod (subscribe/follow here), Richard and Elaine Low returned from CinemaCon to reveal which movies they think are going to work. Also: the looming strike, and the new guy at NBCU (full transcript here).

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The Japanese Toilet Paradigm All Peacock employees: pay close attention to this week’s Martini Shot (subscribe/follow here). What does a complicated water closet have to do with Hollywood? Or with naming a streaming service? Rob Long makes the connection while also describing his rules of creativity (full transcript here).

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☀️ 5 Days of The Wakeup

Sean McNulty’s smart go-to roundups and analysis of the day’s headlines this week included daily accounts of the layoffs at Disney, and his trademark trenchant analysis of earnings numbers as the Q1 results came ~~rolling~~ stumbling in:

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🔎 The Optionist

IP Picks: A 'Da Vinci Code' Puzzler and 'Gossip Girl'-meets-'White Lotus' Murder + journalism wars, then and now