The Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike, which began on May 2 and forced U.S. late-night talk shows to go dark, has yet to have a direct effect on film and TV production in Ontario.

But that could change should the labour disruption stretch into the fall, warns Ottawa’s film commissioner.

Sandrine Pechels de Saint Sardos tells Playback Daily that if the WGA strike continues for 100 days as the guild’s last one did in 2007 to ’08, “we’re definitely going to see a slowdown in Ottawa starting in September.”

Justin Cutler, Ontario’s film commissioner, says that “if the labour disruption is protracted, it’s likely that U.S.-based productions will be delayed.” For now, he says the province’s film and television industry “is still at work.”

“U.S. productions whose scripts are already written continue to film,” says Cutler. “We have a strong domestic industry at work producing in-demand content, including series like [the third season of CTV’s] Children Ruin Everything (pictured; New Metric Media), [the second season of Crave’s] Shoresy (New Metric Media) and [the third season of CBC’s] Sort Of (Sphere Media).”

“These domestic projects insulate us – to a certain extent – from some of the slowdown we’re seeing globally as a result of the strike,” he explains.

Geoff Teoli, Vancouver’s film commissioner, said in a statement to Playback that “while the most immediate impact will be felt by late-night talk shows and other programming that require daily writing, Vancouver’s industry is composed of mostly longer-form scripted television and feature films.”

“The city of Vancouver is still receiving new permit applications and supporting projects that are using this time to focus on pre-production work,” he says. “We know our city remains an extremely attractive place for filmmakers and we will be ready to serve the industry and manage the pent-up demand when the strike ends.”

Brad Danks, CEO of Vancouver-headquartered OUTtv Media Global, says that “the people I have discussed this with on the West Coast are certainly nervous the strike will go deep into the summer or beyond.”

“The production service business will obviously be impacted. Everyone knows it will last at least a month or at least long enough to trigger the contractual clauses in many of the streamer contracts with bigger showrunners,” he says.

“Clearly a part of this strike is the opportunity to renegotiate some of those deals. When that period is over, we will see how entrenched the streamers are in their positions with the guilds.”

Cutler says the Ontario Film Office has tracked “a reduction of location scouting across the province in preparation for the strike, but over recent weeks we’ve seen a renewed interest in fall production.”

Currently, 26 live-action productions are filming across Ontario, excluding visual effects, post-only and animation work being completed.

Among the movies shooting is one set for theatrical release, Everything’s Going to Be Great from Entertainment One and Astute Films, starring Bryan Cranston and Allison Janney, with cameras rolling in North Bay, Ont., until May 26.

“One project that we’re really excited about is NBCUniversal’s Monk, which is filming in the province right now,” says Cutler, about the made-for-TV movie based on the same-named series starring Tony Shalhoub.

Martin Katz, founding president of Toronto-based Prospero Pictures, has been on set since May 8 for David Cronenberg’s latest feature, The Shrouds, which is shooting in and around Toronto until June 20, and for which Katz is one of the producers.

“I’m on my third feature film of the year, and they’re all written and directed by Canadians, so the strike is not affecting us – except to the extent that it has liberated a lot of crew who would otherwise be working on Netflix, Amazon, Apple and Hulu productions shooting in Canada,” he tells Playback.

“Typically, in the last five years, it’s been extremely hard to find crew that is not booked on a large American production,” says Katz, noting that feature filmmaking in other countries outside of the United States has experienced a similar paucity of available behind-the-camera talent.

“So the slowdown might not be bad news around the world for local production.”

About 26 productions are also filming in British Columbia, according to the In Production list on the Creative BC website, which is current as of May 15. Among them is season seven of Netflix’s Riverdale and season two of Syfy’s Reginald the Vampire, produced by Vancouver’s Great Pacific Media (GPM), a division of Thunderbird Entertainment, as well as Modern Story Company, December Films and Cineflix Studios.

In Ontario, to offset any potential downturn in production related to the WGA strike, Cutler says his office continues to “promote a wide range of production advantages to shooting in Ontario – highlighting our cost-competitiveness, our stable financial incentives, our locations, our workforce – to ensure that worldwide, we’re known as a preferred jurisdiction.”

“But we’re also focused on promoting Ontario’s animation and visual-effects sectors, which are also continuing to deliver excellent support for the productions that are either shot here or elsewhere to ensure they’re able to move forward fluidly.”

Pechels de Saint Sardos says that unrelated to the strike, animation production in Ottawa has decreased because of inflation after experiencing a surge during the COVID-19 pandemic when there was high demand for entertainment content in a format that does not require the use of talent on camera or large crews.

The WGA walkout has also so far not affected the capital’s movie-making, particularly its Christmas fare, which the Ottawa Film Office (OFO) has been promoting to attract more festive flicks to shoot in the city.

Two Christmas features – Hallmark’s A Christmas Homecoming and Gnome for Christmas, which is produced by Shane Boucher and Caitlin Delaney, according to the Ontario Creates website – are currently filming in Ottawa.

Last year, 16 holiday movies were shot in the region, which contributed $28.5 million to Ottawa’s economy.

Cutler adds that the OFO’s map of filming locations for Christmas movies has over 900,000 hits.

But while film production continues in Ottawa, there is sensitivity to the WGA members on strike.

“The creative industries are vital contributors to the health of our economy and our quality of life,” says Cutler. “So it’s important that the creatives’ works in all sectors and roles are valued and compensated for the work they’re doing.”

As Teoli added: “We have faith in the negotiators working to resolve this situation in the best interests of all involved and have high hopes for a speedy resolution.”

Last week, the Directors Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers began bargaining talks over a new deal, which, if achieved, could end the WGA’s impasse with the studios.

Image courtesy of Bell Media