Actor Tom Hanks is keen to see the Oscar ceremony held as usual,
and urged studios to return to the negotiating table to end a
writers' strike that threatens to disrupt the climax of Hollywood's
awards season.
The Golden Globe ceremony scheduled for Sunday has already been
scrapped, and will be replaced by a news conference few stars are
likely to attend. The People's Choice Awards were also scaled back
and subsequently bombed in the television ratings.
Now all eyes are on the Academy Awards, the movie world's
biggest night, which are due to take place on February 24.
"The show must go on, that is one of the tenets of everything,"
Hanks told Reuters in London.
"I am a member of the board of governors of the Academy, and we
definitely want to put on a great show and honor the films that
have come out in the course of the year," he said on the red carpet
at the premiere of his film "Charlie Wilson's War."
Hanks said corporate bosses should remember that many people,
from carpenters to caterers, were suffering as a result of the
strike by about 10,500 Writers Guild of America members over their
dispute with major film and TV studios.
"There are caterers and carpenters ... and electricians and
gaffers," the 51-year-old said. "There are a lot of people out
there associated with the industry, for whom the sooner this work
stoppage is over the better.
"I just hope that the big guys who make big decisions up high in
their corporate boardrooms and what not get down to honest
bargaining and everyone can get back to work."
The star of box office hits "Forrest Gump" and "The Da Vinci
Code," and twice a best actor Oscar winner, added that a shift in
the way screenwriters were rewarded for their work was needed in
the Internet age.
"The delivery systems, the revenue streams, just the very
presentation media is now going to be a brand new place," he said
in a brief interview on Thursday.
One of the key issues in the ongoing writers' dispute is how
they will earn money when their work appears on the Internet.
Warner Bros has told about 1,000 television and film production
workers that an unspecified number of layoffs will soon be
announced due to the strike.
(China Daily/Agencies January 11, 2008)