Blake Lively Pic ‘It Ends With Us’ Paused By WGA Pickets; Reports Of ‘Mission: Impossible 8’ Stoppage Untrue – Update
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EXCLUSIVE, UPDATED with Teamsters saying they didn’t cross picket line: The WGA pickets has at least temporarily shuttered It Ends with Us, a movie that has been shooting in various locations that include Weekawken and Jersey City, NJ. Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni are starring and Baldoni is directing the film adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s bestselling novel, which Christy Hall adapted.
The film was first picketed and shut down on Monday, June 5, but there is a case to be made that because Wayfarer Studios is co-financing that the film is following WGA guidelines, even though signatory studio Sony Pictures is aboard to distribute the modestly budgeted film and that should be enough for it to be left alone. Those talks continue.
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On the day it shut down, It Ends With Us was supposed to lens at a park in Jersey City. The picketing led to an attempt to shoot a scene with a paddle boat at the Liberty Harbor Marina, but the pickets followed them and shooting was scrapped for the day. We’re told the film did film last Wednesday through Friday because WGA called off picketing because of poor air quality.
This week, we heard the Teamsters reportedly crossed the picket line but IATSE crew members did not, which shut down production. (UPDATE: A Teamsters Local 399 spokesperson said the Teamster Captain on the project said “not once nor ever did the Teamsters cross the line” on It Ends With Us.) There was a brief meeting with the crew outside of the location after which they were asked to go to base camp for an in-person meeting. While en route, the crew members got a text asking them whether they are ready to work under any circumstances. The majority were not willing to cross a picket line. At the in-person meeting, they were told production has been shut down for the day.
The production is taking this day by day, as the argument is that It Ends With Us being co-financed by Wayfarer should warrant some consideration. Neither the studio nor Wayfarer would comment.
Meanwhile, Deadline is told that web reports that Mission: Impossible 8 has been postponed by the WGA strike are untrue. We’re told that every effort right now is going toward promoting Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One, the first installment of a two-part storyline. Paramount opens the Skydance film July 12, and evidently an article on director Christopher McQuarrie was misinterpreted. It mentioned these films were challenged by the Covid pandemic and the WGA strike. That led some internet outlets to make the leap that the film won’t shoot because of the latter circumstance. That isn’t the case, we’re told. Cruise and McQuarrie are busy promoting the film, and that has always been the plan. They’ve shot some of the new Mission: Impossible, and they expect to resume later in the summer. Hopefully, the labor stalemate will be over by then.
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