CBS Eyes Reality, Paramount+ Originals For Fall As George Cheeks Talks WGA Strike Impact & Figuring Out A Deal

Editor’s note: As part of Deadline’s ongoing coverage of the WGA strike, we want to give voice to below-the-line workers who are also impacted by the work stoppage. This column is written by a Los Angeles-based project manager in post-production.

The International Cinematographers Guild, IATSE Local 600, has created a Work Slowdown Hardship Fund for members in need of financial assistance because of the ongoing Writers Guild strike, which is now in its 59th day. Money will also be distributed from the fund if SAG-AFTRA goes on strike. Local 600 offered similar financial support to its membership at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Harrison Ford and his "Indiana Jones" co-stars had a great time filming the upcoming fifth movie. In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, Phoebe Waller-Bridge revealed what it was like meeting Ford for the first time.  She explained her first interaction with the actor was through a voicemail he left her, which she said "was actually great because I got my first screaming reaction out of the way without him actually having to be there." "He immediately went, 'Hey!' like an old friend," Waller-Bridge said, recalling the first time they met in person.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Harrison Ford and Phoebe Waller-Bridge tried to out-prank each other during the making of “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” the latter actor revealed in a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly. “From the moment we met, it was shithead’s all round,” Waller-Bridge said. “We were taking the piss out of each other all the time, and having a lot of fun. The most extraordinary thing about working with Harrison is that you’re definitely at work — in that his work ethic is so on point, and his discipline is so extraordinary — but because he’s that specific and the foundation of the work is really strong, the rest of it can be really fun. There were a lot of pranks… lots of pranks.”

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Is it heresy to say that one of the greatest albums of all time just got a little bit better, 57 years after the fact? Possibly, but it doesn’t feel like too strong a statement to make after hearing the just-released Dolby Atmos mix of the Beach Boys’ 1966 classic “Pet Sounds,” as played back in one of the most state-of-the-art Dolby rooms in the world. It’s going to sound different under other listening circumstances, of course, whether the spatially immersive mix is being heard in a home with dozens of carefully calibrated speakers or through one of the all-in-one Atmos boxes that are now coming out. But what’s almost certain is that any status Brian Wilson’s masterpiece might’ve had as your own personal pet project is only going to be elevated with a lusher and richer audio interpretation of the work.

Goldberg said, “So, you know how we’re always talking about how we’re very different than most other shows? Well, as you know, there is a writer’s strike on, and so we don’t have writers. So you’re gonna hear how it would be when it’s not, you know, slicked up.”Later in that episode, Goldberg added, “We hope you weren’t too freaked out about the fact that we have no writers,” Whoopi said.

Kate Aurthur editor With the one-year anniversary of Dobbs v. Jackson approaching on June 24, the Showrunners for Abortion Rights — the coalition of showrunners, TV creators and directors that formed in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn of Roe v. Wade — has reemerged with a report card that gives an update on their work with the studios. The chart reveals how the 10 major Hollywood studios have responded to the group’s demands for abortion safety protocols for productions in states where abortion has been banned and criminalized. A second slide evaluates the effectiveness of the reproductive health and safety hotlines that was one of the group’s suggestions. The report — displayed here, along with a new statement from the coalition — reveals mixed results. Several studios, with Paramount/CBS leading the charge, have made strides in protecting the safety of pregnant workers over the past 10 months since this work began. Others have made incremental changes, and are working toward doing more. With lives potentially at stake, though, the coaliation would like the studios to move more quickly.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer Meredith Stiehm will seek a second two-year term as president of WGA West in the fall election, and the other top officials of the guild will also seek reelection. Justine Bateman, the writer-director and former “Family Ties” star, is running for a spot on the WGA West board. Bateman has become outspoken on the need for tight regulation of artificial intelligence. The guild announced its preliminary list of nominees on Wednesday. Stiehm, who has been active in both the agency campaign and the current strike, will run against challenger Rich Talarico, a “Key and Peele” writer who has faulted the guild for not doing more to fight back against the release of free clips of the show on YouTube.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director In the upcoming comedy “No Hard Feelings,” Jennifer Lawrence plays a down-on-her-luck Uber driver who accepts a job trying to seduce a 19-year-old whose helicopter parents don’t want him heading off to college as a virgin. The task of playing the Oscar winner’s male lead in a raunchy R-rated comedy fell to Andrew Barth Feldman, best known until now for his stint on Broadway in “Dear Evan Hanson.” Feldman was already a student at Harvard University when the offer to join Lawrence in “No Hard Feelings” was made. “I mean, when Andrew left his audition, the door closed and we all looked at each other and we were like, ‘That’s our — that’s Percy,”” Lawrence recently told Entertainment Tonight. “Then they were like there’s one complication, he’s supposed to go to Harvard, and we were like, ‘Is that a joke?’ He was fully the character, so I called him and said, ‘Andrew, I have really bad news you’re not gonna be able to finish your semester at Harvard.’ He’s gonna have to defer, or whatever college school words are.”

Editor’s note: Part 2 of two-part series about the writers strike crossing the 50-day mark.

Manori Ravindran Executive Editor of International Prime Video has revealed its top traveling non-English local originals in the history of the service, with Spanish YA romance “My Fault” and French crime thriller “Medellín” topping the list. Both are feature films that launched in the last two weeks across Prime Video’s footprint in 240 countries around the world. Interestingly, both titles have more than 75% of their viewership coming from outside their country of origin (Spain for “My Fault,” and France for “Medellín”), though Prime Video hasn’t disclosed any further metrics related to ratings or impressions. Of the list (available in full below), 60% are movies and 40% are TV series.

Hello Insiders, Jesse Whittock here to take you through a scorching week in international TV and film. Don’t forget to subscribe. Let’s go.

British big-hitters Russell T. Davies, Jack Thorne and Dennis Kelly are preparing to stand with writers around the world today in support of striking scribes on a global day of solidarity and action.

When it emerged that CBS was eschewing a traditional talkshow at 12:30am following the departure of The Late Late Show host James Corden for a reboot of Comedy Central gameshow @midnight, many in the late-night community worried that it was another nail in the genre’s coffin.

writers strike that is being branded “Screenwriters Everywhere,” with events planned in major cities including Paris and London. The Writers Guild of America has enlisted members from the International Affiliation of Writers Guilds, Federation of Screenwriters in Europe and UNI Global Union to demonstrate global support for the union’s strike against Hollywood’s largest producers. The unprecedented rallying behind the WGA is especially relevant during this strike given the globalization of content, and the fast-growing international outposts of many “struck” companies, such as Netflix and Prime Video.

The Flash showrunner Eric Wallace will be telling fellow American writers “we are not in this alone” when he returns home from London later.

Massive release date changes were fairly commonplace over the past few years, as we watched the COVID pandemic shift entire distribution strategies for film studios. Now, it appears the WGA Strike has finally shown its impact on film releases, at least over at Disney, as the studio delays some of the biggest films on its schedule including new “Avengers,” “Star Wars,” and “Avatar” films.

Fire Country may provide some much-needed kindling for a new franchise at CBS.

Manori Ravindran Executive Editor of International CBS chief George Cheeks has said the broadcaster is maintaining a “fluid and active” approach as it curates its fall programming schedule amid month two of the writers strike. The executive, who took on his new remit at CBS just weeks before the pandemic struck in March 2020, said the streamers’ series model poses “serious challenges” for writers that the whole industry will need to “figure out” in the long term. Cheeks was speaking as part of a wide-ranging keynote session at the Banff World Media Festival in Alberta, Canada, where Paramount Global has been the most prominent studio on the ground.

EXCLUSIVE: Filming on Disney+’s Daredevil: Born Again has been shut down for today, sources tell Deadline. The new season of the Marvel series was supposed to shoot at its New York home base of Silvercup East, which has been a main picketing location for striking WGA members.