Rushfield: Time for the Relief Pitchers
Bring in the closers amid flickers the end may not be far
Well, it couldn't look any bleaker right now. Tens of thousands out of work with no end in sight. Ahead: more layoffs. More crumbling of the film infrastructure which only just a couple of weeks ago had crawled its way back. More pain to spread far and wide.
So there's that.
On the other hand, when things are so clearly hopeless, when they have gone on much longer than anything should, when true devastation beckons, is when sense generally steps forward and asserts itself. In ways, we can't see or predict right now.
Generally.
Because as much as it seems at the moment like the leaders all around here are focused on riding these horsemen of the apocalypse into Gotterdämmerung and taking the whole industry down in a great fiery finale, there are people and forces who actually need this thing to work.
Up until now, they've sat on the sidelines and watched this play out, but as we pass Labor Day with no signs of movement, it feels like a moment when we'll see a lot of folks in the bleachers step forward, clear their throats and start asking some questions like: would you mind telling us what the hell you're doing here?
We can hope, because we have to believe, that in the end nature and investors alike don't want Hollywood to actually die.
But breaking this loggerjam looks like it’s going to take some help, and it won’t be pretty if we don’t sew this up in the next two weeks or so as a chain reaction of cataclysmic events begins.
To that end, some thoughts on this epically ugly moment we find ourselves in.