A crew member on Apple TV+’s scrapped Metropolis production has told of their shock at finding out the project would be discontinued, describing the news as “devastating”.
Production company Universal Content Productions (UCP) confirmed on Monday that the $188 million sci-fi series, which had begun pre-production at Docklands Studio Melbourne, would not be moving forward as a result of rising costs and uncertainty relating to the US Writers’ Strike.
Around 100 crew had already started work on the project. They include workers who have been on the project since November and have turned down other jobs due to the lengthy nature of the production. Ultimately Metropolis was expected to create jobs for 700 cast and crew and a further 2,500 employees, and benefit another 700 local businesses and service providers.
One of those involved, who has been working on the project full-time since March and spoke to IF on the condition of anonymity, said although they had expected the US Writers’ Strike to have an impact, there was optimism that the dispute would be resolved in time to allow filming to start.
“[On Monday morning] I started thinking there was a bit of stalling going on, in that we needed to spend money on things but we were just being told to wait, which I thought was weird,” they said.
“It’s not a big surprise but it’s a shock. [We were] originally meant to film in September but because of the strike that had been moved to January 2024.
“I’ve said no to other jobs in between, so it’s pretty devastating, but it’s also the risk of this industry.”
With Metropolis having booked out Docklands, attention now turns to whether there is sufficient activity in the short term to plug the gap left by the series.
While VicScreen noted yesterday that the state had a “healthy pipeline of film and television projects slated for production”, the crew member to whom IF spoke, who has been given three weeks to pack up, admitted they may have to look elsewhere to find immediate work.
“I might have to go interstate, which is disruptive for your personal and family life,” they said.
“But there will be people out of work until jobs come to Melbourne. The studio had booked everything out so no one was able to come to Melbourne. As soon as people can get here, there will be work, but there is definitely going to be a lull in people employed.”
It’s a view shared by Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA) entertainment crew and sport organiser for Victoria, Paul Stanley, who said getting crew into another production was “probably not going to happen as soon as everyone would like” but that the union was happy to work with Matchbox and VicScreen on providing a quick solution.
“There have already been so many people anticipating this work,” he said.
“The reason for investment with the federal and state screen incentives is for growth and jobs, and it’s had the opposite effect at this stage, so I think everyone will be trying to work together on making sure there is not just one but a couple of productions to start as soon as possible.”
Stanley encouraged people affected to get in touch with the MEAA if they had any concerns about the amount of notice they’d been given.
“Some people may have a bit of time to wrap out and pack up but they should get in touch if they have any questions about that,” he said.