In early March, Deadline unveiled a new project set to be produced by Martin Scorsese: a narrative feature adaptation of the deadly 1982 avalanche that subsumed the Alpine Meadows ski resort near Lake Tahoe.
The project sounded like the latest fascinating dive into American history from the auteur behind Killers of the Flower Moon and The Irishman. One problem? Hollywood’s powerful writers’ union is barring members from working on the project.
On Wednesday the Writers Guild of America West issued a notice to members forbidding them from contributing to Wall of White thanks to a few of the project’s announced contributors. Producer Randall Emmett is on the union’s strike/unfair list — a directory of no-go collaborators for unionized writers — while production company and financier Convergence Entertainment Group is not a signatory to the union’s contract.
“The Guild’s working rules prohibit members from working for or selling literary material to companies or individuals who are on the Strike/Unfair List, or who are not signed to the current MBA,” the union reminded members. The Los Angeles Times was the first to report the WGA note.
The Hollywood Reporter has reached out to Convergence Entertainment Group’s co-president and Scorsese’s representatives for comment.
Emmett was first ixnayed by the union in 2020 due to claims from the WGA West that his and fellow producer George Furla’s companies, Emmett Furla Oasis Films and Pumped, LLC, owed hundreds of thousands in compensation, pension & health contributions and interest to four writers on the television project Pump. At one point, Arnold Schwarzenegger was attached to Pump, which was set up at CBS Television Studios.
At the time, an attorney for Emmett and Furla told THR that his clients were actively attempting to resolve the situation. The attorney further accused the WGA West of attempting to circumvent the legal system and “black list” his clients. Emmett and Furla remain on the strike/unfair list.
The union also flagged Convergence Entertainment Group to its members in 2024. That year the union banned members from working with Fifty Feet Movie, LLC and producer Steve Smalls due to an alleged failure to post a surety bond; Convergence — where Emmett was, according to the union, a managing member — was the project’s corporate guarantor. Fifty Feet Movie, LLC worked on the films Cash Out, Alarum and Epiphany, which according to the union Emmett produced under the pseudonym “Ives.”
Scorsese is attached to Wall of White as a producer alongside Emmett, according to the Deadline story. The film, which is set to be based on the 2021 documentary Buried: The 1982 Alpine Meadows Avalanche, is actively seeking a director.
Scorsese and Emmett have a working relationship from past passion projects of the director’s. The two worked together on 2016’s epic religious drama Silence, which took 28 years to bring to the screen, and 2019’s mob and corruption drama The Irishman, which itself languished for years as Scorsese sought his desired budget.
