The Elf cowered in response, fiddling with the clasp on his overalls. “How dare! Did I not put clothes on your backs!” bellowed the Shoemaker. So he pretended to be brave, so much so that he was: The Elf who’d piped up had much more to say, but found it intimidating to confront a giant. Getty Imagesīelow is an excerpt from “The Elves and the Shoemakers: a Grimm Little Tale of Givers and Takers,” provided to IndieWire. AI’ as striking members picket outside Warner Bros. A WGA (Writers Guild of America) sign reads ‘Humanity vs. The two sides are pretty far apart on the issues of AI, streaming residuals, and staffing minimums for writers’ rooms. The Writers Guild of America has been picketing the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers since May 2. Though Cameron has a prediction: “I do think ultimately that good will prevail.” In real life, we’re all still waiting to find out. The Shoemaker comes to realize that these shoes “have no sole,” per Monti’s press release. It then asks: “Will the Shoemaker swallow his pride and learn to respect the Elves? Or will his greed get the better of him?” Yeah, that’s the AI here.Īs is tradition in children’s books, “Givers and Takers” has a happy ending. Without his workers, the Shoemaker turns to the Cobbl-O-Matic, a machine that promises to manufacture shoes 10 million-times faster than any elf, and at a fraction of the price too. When the Shoemaker won’t give up the cheese (get it? money), the Elves protest his shop. In this version, the Elves take a stand against the mistreatment. “Things are going pretty good and why would he want anything to change? It’s the perfect system and he helped create it - it’s all, sadly, pretty analogous to real life,” Cameron said.Īlso analogous to real life is the Shoemaker’s dialogue in “The Elves and the Shoemakers: a Grimm Little Tale of Givers and Takers.” About 20 percent of what comes out of the antagonist’s mouth are actual quotes uttered by real studio executives during the WGA strike - you know, before crisis PR intervened. The cheap labor turned the Shoemaker from grateful to greedy.Ĭameron’s now-evil Shoemaker has “a dream of becoming stinkin’ rich.” His helpful Elves “infuse every stitch with a small piece of their hearts.” (Stop us when this all starts to sound familiar.) Cameron’s version presupposes that the Grimm’s Shoemaker got all too comfortable having those elves around to do his work. The original “Elves and the Shoemaker” is a short, sweet tale from the 1800s about collaboration a down-and-out shoemaker sees his business saved by mysterious helpers. “The Elves and the Shoemakers: A Grimm Little Tale of Givers and Takers” cover art by Brian Kesinger Photo courtesy of Helen Sun Really, it’s just “hard not to drive yourself crazy with that thought,” he said. After a couple of weeks, although it is so important to show up and be a physical presence, it’s hard to find active motivation beyond your own ideals.” “Marching endless circles around a studio lot where you know the executives that you are actively protesting against - and their decision making and their thinking - are literally not in the buildings. “The project itself has just been both a real community gut-check - in a lovely way - and a place of sanity, weirdly,” Cameron told IndieWire. Nowhere more so than in the “sanity” department. While it may be better to give, Cameron and the elves have also received from the process. About one-third of the $10,000 is to cover production cost the other two-thirds would be donated to the fund. In terms of charity, they’re already in the black. As of this writing, $3,815 has been raised the listed goal is $10,000, which Cameron said is “the least amount of money that made sense for the work that it would take.” The elves’ campaign, which aims to raise the financing to finish the book, is live on Indiegogo. All profits from the book will be donated to the Entertainment Community Fund. “The Elves and the Shoemakers: a Grimm Little Tale of Givers and Takers” is fully written art is a work in progress, it aims to be finished in December. And then there are the names who have already publicly supported the project, including Jamie Lee Curtis (a longtime children’s author herself) and Tony Cavalero (“The Righteous Gemstones”). There are “honorary elves” as well, including the book’s illustrator Brian Kesinger (“Tarzan,” “Frozen II”) and fellow WGA writer Laura Monti (“WandaVision,” Marvel’s upcoming “Agatha: Coven of Chaos”), who is handling press outreach. WGA Willing to Make a Deal with Individual Studios Outside of AMPTP
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