‘Dune Part Two’ is victim of Hollywood strike

As the writers and actors strike in Hollywood has entered its seventh week, the biggest cinema casualty yet has been made: Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two. Studio Warner Bros. reported before the weekend that it would not release the film as long as the strike is active, because the stars are not allowed to promote the film. For fear of lower cash receipts – Dune: Part Two is one of the biggest titles of the year – the premiere has therefore been postponed to March. Five and a half months later than planned.

Actors on strike are prohibited from continuing productions in progress with the studios involved, such as Warner Bros., Sony, Universal, Disney and Netflix, or making new deals with them. Already completed work, such as Dune: Part Twosuffers from the rule that striking actors are also not allowed to promote old or new completed work.

Dune: Part Two has a large star cast. Main character Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) creates a lot of ‘awards buzz’ with superstar Zendaya, Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgård, Rebecca Ferguson and Austin Butler. They also attract many viewers to the cinemas by appearing on popular talk shows, appearing on TikTok with sound bites about the film and themselves, and by generating news in podcasts and provocative online video formats.

The first Dunefilm grossed $400 million worldwide for Warner Bros. With an investment of hundreds of millions in the blockbuster, the studio does not want to take the risk of not being able to live up to the expectations for part two. Their most recent superhero movie Blue Beetle opened with just $25 million, relatively low for the studio.

The new premiere date also means that the film will not compete for the Oscars in 2024. In 2021, Villeneuve’s first Dunefilm received ten Oscar nominations and took home six technical awards, including cinematography, editing and original music. The team will therefore have to wait until at least early 2025 for a repeat of this.

The decision to postpone the premiere suggests that Warner Bros. expects the strike to continue at least into the fall. Because of this decision, they keep films ready for release for longer. This way they can bridge the strike period, now that no work can be completed or produced. Also, setting up a premiere and accompanying successful publicity tour can take weeks or months, considering the schedules of all the in-demand stars.

The Writers Guild of America (WGA) and SAG-AFTRA went on strike together for the first time since 1960. In particular, better remuneration, transparency about viewer numbers, remuneration afterwards based on that data and protection against Artificial Intelligence are permanent bottlenecks in the contract negotiations with the Hollywood studios. Nearly four months ago, the writers put down their pens, and when the actors couldn’t figure it out in July either, they joined with placards outside the studio doors.

In mid-August, the Hollywood Studios Alliance (AMPTP) and the Writers’ Union met again to continue negotiations. If that leads to a conclusion – deal or no deal – then the actors can also restart the conversation about their terms. However, the renewed negotiations seem to be going smoothly in response to the statements from the WGA, because they suspect the AMPTP, among other things, of turning its 11,500 members against each other to make a deal quickly rather than smartly, so that Hollywood can resume business as usual. Operate.