Blake Lively's "It Ends With Us" Production Halted by WGA Strike

"It Ends With Us" is the latest project paused as a result of the Writers' Guild of America (WGA) strike taking place in the United States.

The WGA pickets have temporarily shuttered "It Ends with Us", a movie that has been shooting in various locations including Weehawken and Jersey City in New Jersey. 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, the movie is following WGA guidelines, even though signatory studio Sony Pictures is aboard to distribute the modestly budgeted movie and that should be enough for it to be left alone. Those talks continue.

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. 

The movie did film last Wednesday through Friday because WGA called off picketing because of poor air quality.

This week, the Teamsters crossed the picket line but IATSE crew members did not, which shut down production. 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. 

The WGA strike began on May 2. More than 11,000 members of the WGA Writers are taking action over pay and a greater share of the profits from streaming services.

They are also campaigning for a higher salary floor and would like reassurances regarding fears on the use of artificial intelligence in scriptwriting, asking the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers for a guarantee that it won’t be “used as source material,” thereby negating the need for actual writers.