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RssProduction was ramped up in anticipation of a possible actors strike, with most big-budget movies for next year wrapping by June 30.
By Richard Verrier, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
An extra in the DreamWorks SKG production of “The Soloist” walks past movie lights during a location shoot at the Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles in March. L.A. film shoots have virtually ground to a halt because Hollywood studios ramped up production earlier this year in anticipation of a possible actors strike.
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If not for an epic struggle between alien robots, the streets of Los Angeles might be devoid of major studio drama.
Filming of big-budget movies has ground to a virtual halt across the city and much of the county, a slowdown partly driven by scheduling decisions studios made a year ago to prepare for a possible actors strike.
Only one major studio film, DreamWorks SKG’s sci-fi flick “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen,” is shooting on location in Los Angeles, compared with seven studio films that were in production this time last year, according to FilmL.A., the nonprofit group that coordinates film permits for Los Angeles and in unincorporated areas of the county.
The only other major studio production underway is Ron Howard’s “Da Vinci Code” prequel “Angels & Demons,” which is shooting on the Sony Pictures lot in Culver City.
“We’ve had a substantial drop-off,” said Ed Brown, business agent for Local 44 of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, which represents set decorators, prop makers and special effects technicians, among other crafts. About 3,500 of the union’s 5,500 active members are still working, he said.
That’s a decrease of nearly 10% from last year at this time, Brown said, adding that the decline would have been steeper if not for continued strength in local television production and a steady flow of smaller-budget films, whose producers have signed agreements with the Screen Actors Guild to allow them to film.
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