Hollywood writers have been striking for three months, and a month ago actors joined them. Together they’ve been filling up picket lines outside the major studios in Hollywood. But the strikes aren’t only having an impact in California. The industry says it employs more than 1.7 million people outside that state, and pays them $158 billion a year in wages.
The strikes are affecting places like Montana — where 1923, a prequel to the show Yellowstone, was set to begin filming in June, before the writers strike halted production. Tina Buckingham is a casting director for the show. She told Yellowstone Public Radio this and other cancellations have been hard for businesses across the state. “It’s devastating to this industry because it trickles down. All of the food people, the restaurants, the people that would work on the movie. The lumber companies for building sets, the wranglers for the horses, and it goes on and on and on. The amount of money lost is tremendous.”
