and this is my partner, trapeezius milkington. (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} ohinternets) wrote in ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif){kind=small} ohnotheydidnt,@ 2007-12-21 11:35:00 |
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| Entry tags: | hannah montana, high school musical |
WGA Strike May Finally Kill Both 'High School Musical' and 'Hannah Montana'?
Will the writer's strike force production of "High School Musical 3" & "The Hannah Montana Movie" to be postponed?
Jim Hill shares the grim news coming out of Burbank. Which suggests that -- unless the WGA returns to work early in 2008 -- Walt Disney Pictures may have no choice but to push back production of the big screen versions of these two Disney Channel favoritesWhat time is it?
Well, according to the folks who are working on the next installment of Disney's hugely popular "High School Musical" series, it's time to push back the start of production. Where once this Walt Disney Pictures release was supposed to begin shooting in January, now the word coming out of Burbank suggests that the start of production has been pushed back to April. And even that new start date is said to be tentative, given that "High School Musical 3" 's screenplay is reportedly in very rough shape.
As one Mouse House insider explained:
"We had hoped that the 'High School Musical 3' screenplay that was delivered just prior to the start of the strike would be shootable, but this thing is seriously in need of a rewrite. But as long as the Writer's Guild remains out on strike, we're not allowed to change a single word of this script. So right now, we're stuck."Mind you, the folks at Disney are still moving forward with preproduction of "High School Musical 3." Hoping against hope that the strike that's currently paralyzing Hollywood gets resolved during the first quarter of 2008. Which -- in theory, anyway -- will leave enough time to rewrite and/or polish the HSM3 screenplay before the official start of shooting in April.
And just so you know: "High School Musical 3" isn't the only almost-ready-to-shoot project that's being tripped up by the writer's strike. I've also heard that officials at Walt Disney Studios are concerned about the script for "The Hannah Montana Movie." Which is supposed to begin shooting in Tennessee come April.
As our Mouse House insider continues:
"The same goes for the 'Hannah Montana' screenplay. This film could be a huge hit and really help launch Miley Cyrus's movie career. But only if it gets the rewrite that it needs. Right now, that script is just in too rough a shape to shoot."Now keep in mind that Walt Disney Pictures was really looking forward to put "High School Musical 3" and "The Hannah Montana Movie" out in theaters. Why For? Well, mostly because the combined production costs of these two motion pictures will still be less than half of what Disney is spending to make "The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian.
Again that Mouse House insider speaks:
"These two were supposed to be our cash cows for 2008. We hoped to sell movie tickets to every tween in America, get them to download those soundtracks off of iTunes and then -- three months later -- get them to buy the 'High School Musical 3' and 'Hannah Montana Movie' DVDs. But none of that's going to happen next year if we have to put off production because those scripts aren't in good enough shape to shoot."And let me be blunt here, folks: Disney doesn't want to push back production of "High School Musical 3" or "The Hannah Montana Movie." These folks know how fickle the tween audience is. How even postponing the release of these two movies by just a few months may result in Mickey's target audience losing interest. Moving on to the next big thing. Which is why preproduction on "HSM3" and "THMM" is going forward ... For now, anyway.
But should the writer's strike drag on into March ... Well, it'll be interesting to see what Disney opts to do then. Go forward with production with those not-quite-ready-to-shoot scripts and hope that these films can then be fixed in the editing bay? Or will Mickey just postpone production of "High School Musical 3" & "The Hannah Montana Movie" 'til the WGA comes back to work?
Your thoughts?
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source 1, source 2
IDK. I've always heard 'High School Musical 3' was going to start shooting in March/April, with the soundtrack being recorded and rehearsing all through January-March, all of which is still possible without a script.
But LOL@the Disney "insider" who refers to both the HSM and Hannah Montana scripts as "this thing."
