Hollywood’s Filmmaking Continues Despite L.A. Wildfires
The New York Times
Because of costs, few movies are shot locally, leaving the industry in a surreal spot: reeling from personal loss with much of the business untouched.
Over the past week, as eight wildfires destroyed vast portions of its home metropolis, Hollywood found itself violently impacted — and, at the same time, barely impacted at all.
With thousands of homes destroyed, many of them in neighborhoods favored by producers, executives, agents and stars, and roughly 300,000 people under evacuation orders or warnings, little work got done at studio headquarters. Some studios closed entirely, and others encouraged employees to work remotely.
Consider the impact of the fires on Disney alone. As of Monday, 64 Disney employees had lost their homes and hundreds more had been evacuated, including Robert A. Iger, the chief executive, and three members of his senior leadership team.
Mr. Iger has been overseeing Disney’s relief effort from a hotel, approving $15 million for community services and rebuilding efforts, arranging for Disney employees who have lost their homes to receive two months of free furnished housing and opening Disney’s studio wardrobe warehouses to employees who need clothes and shoes. He has also been calling Disney employees who lost their homes.
“I want them to know that people at the top of the company are looking after them, that we care,” Mr. Iger said by phone on Monday. “We’re going to go through some really tough times here, but we’ll get through it together.”
Meanwhile, Disney’s movie assembly lines — like the rest of Hollywood’s — have been almost completely unaffected.
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