Studios Ramp Up Production Prior To SAG Strike

As it stands, Hollywood studios are deadlocked in their contract negotiations with the Screen Actors Guild. That news stirs up foul memories of a year ago, when the Writers Guild of America was at a similar juncture with the studios… Soon after that there were no TV shows for about half a year.

And we all know what that did last year’s TV season.

In anticipation of the worst (which has ironically become the norm in these days and times), studios are turning to the pre-strike protocols they devised after the 2007 WGA strike, pushing as many films as they can into production so that the 2010-2011 movie roster doesn’t end up barren.

Check out the studio by studio list of the films that are either currently in production, or are headed into production in light of the looming strike.

The list of movies being fast-tracked are as follows:

COLUMBIA

• Ruben Fleischer-directed “Zombieland”
• Phillip Noyce-helmed “Edwin A. Salt” with Angelina Jolie
• Stephen Chow-directed “The Green Hornet” with Seth Rogen

DISNEY

• Tim Burton-directed “Alice in Wonderland”;
• “Tron” sequel;
• Robert Zemeckis-produced motion-capture film “Mars Needs Moms”;
• Jon Turteltaub-directed “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” with Nicolas Cage;
• Walt Becker- helmed “Wild Hogs 2″

FOX

• James Cameron-directed “Avatar”
• Shawn Levy-helmed “Date Night,” with Steve Carell and Tina Fey
• “A-Team”
• “Ramona”
• Chris Columbus-directed “Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief”
• “Diary of a Wimpy Kid”
• John Carney-directed “Town House”
• “Alvin and the Chipmunks 2″
• Tom Bezucha-directed “Orbit”
• Rick Famuyiwa-helmed “Family Wedding”

MGM

• Drew Goddard-directed “The Cabin in the Woods”
• Kevin Tancharoen-helmed “Fame”
• “The Matarese Circle,” which David Cronenberg is negotiating to direct Washington
• Darren Aronofsky-helmed “RoboCop”

MARVEL
(Paramount distributing)

• Jon Favreau-directed “Iron Man 2″ with Robert Downey Jr.
• Kenneth Branagh-helmed “Thor”

MIRAMAX

• John Madden-directed “The Debt” with Helen Mirren
• “Man on a Train”
• “Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark”

NEW LINE

• “Torrente”
• “Sex and the City 2″
• Wesley Strick-directed “A Nightmare on Elm Street”
• Len Wiseman-helmed “Gears of War”

PARAMOUNT

• Kenny Ortega-directed “Footloose” with Zac Efron;
• M. Night Shyamalan-helmed “The Last Airbender”
• “Morning Glory”
• “Beverly Hills Cop”
• “Us and Them”

UNIVERSAL

• Edgar Wright-directed “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World,” starring Michael Cera
• Untitled Nancy Meyers-helmed comedy with Meryl Streep and Alec Baldwin
• Peter Billingsley-directed “Couples Retreat” with Vince Vaughn;
• Gore Verbinski-helmed “BioShock”
• Nicholas Stoller-directed “Get Him to the Greek”
• Ridley Scott-helmed “Nottingham” with Russell Crowe

WARNER BROS.

• Clint Eastwood-directed “Human Factor” with Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon
• Mark Neveldine/Brian Taylor- helmed “Jonah Hex”
• “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” the David Yates-directed final, two-part installment in the franchise, which begins production in February;
• Alcon-financed “Book of Eli,” the Hughes brothers-directed Denzel Washington starrer
• Louis Leterrier-helmed “Clash of the Titans”
• Zack Snyder-directed “Suckerpunch.”

Not to worry, Summer movie enthusiasts: just about all of your big budget sequels (Transformers 2, Night at the Museum 2, Angels & Demons) are safely in production. Doomsday epic 2012 is also going to make the cut. Any other new films that studios hope to get off the ground, however, are going to face major problems without actors to act in them. But we’ll cross that bridge if and when we come to it. For now, negotiations continue.

Personally I’m glad Iron Man 2, Thor, Green Hornet and Avatar made the cut; I’m hoping that Bioshock and Gears of War will be worthy of their excellent video game sources–and I’m praying that Jonah Hex is going to turn out well. Hex was badass on that Batman: The Animated Series episode.

How about you? Any movies you’re glad are in the pipeline? Any films you wish they’d kept on the shelf?

(Thank Variety for putting the list together.)