On The Heels Of Pandemic And The Streaming Revolution, Hollywood Goes To War:
Good afternoon, Insiders. It’s been a crazy week because the SAG strike is still being felt all over the world. Max Goldbart was here to give you the latest news. Here is where you can sign up.
Observe how Ron Perlman reacted to a story that the studios wanted to keep the writers on protest long enough for them to lose their houses. This will give you an idea of how angry people are in Hollywood right now.
On June 7, SAG-AFTRA and Hollywood’s big companies and streamers started official contract talks. There were a lot of people in the room.
Total Of 80 Members Form Both Side Met At Alliance Of Motion Picture And Television Producers Headquarters:
About 80 people from both the management and labor sides met at the Alliance of Motion Picture as well as Television Producers’ headquarters in Sherman Oaks on the initial day of what everyone understood would be tough negotiations for the performers union, and these has been upon strike since July 13.
The head of SAG-AFTRA, Fran Drescher, was a big part of the negotiations, but she wasn’t there on Day 1. But on that day, Drescher had no problem being heard.
Fran Drescher Spoke To The Group Via Video Conference Call:
She spoke to the group through a video conference call while in Paris for a family wedding. But she didn’t have any trouble getting the attention of the boss. In July, the Screen Actors Guild as well as the American Federation of Radio and Television Artists went on strike.
They joined the Writers Guild of America in asking for better wages and stable employment and bringing attention to the fact that the streaming boom has made the differences between the film and TV industries even bigger. Both writers and artists have gone upon strike at the exact same time for the very first time within over 60 years.
Janet And Tony Placed The Union Meeting On Their House:
Janet Leigh as well as Tony Curtis had a union meeting at their home in Beverly Hills, which was full of people. Desi Arnaz wrote an open letter to the business about how he felt, while Lew Wasserman worked quietly on the numbers behind the scenes.
In 1960, when both actors as well as the Writers Guild of America were on strike at the same time, Ronald Reagan led the Screen Actors Guild via the war. This was the final occasion that Hollywood had so much labor trouble at the same time.
On The International Level Things Are More Difficult:
Things have been a bit more difficult on the international level. We’ve spent the last week digging deep into shows that fall between the cracks. These are shows that are ordered by U.S. networks yet are filmed abroad with mostly foreign casts.
House of the Dragon was the initial project to say it would keep going, but other projects have shown how seriously each one is taken.
Union Find Out That Fx Is Filming In Thailand Without SAG Player:
In the last twenty-four hours, we’ve learned that FX’s Alien is filming in Thailand without SAG players and that Disney+’s Andor, which is being shot in the UK, is in the same situation but will have to stop soon.
Peter White’s article says that Apple TV+’s Tehran is one of an array of shows to get a SAG-AFTRA interim deal. It joins shows like Dakota Fanning’s The Watchers as well as Sam Raimi’s Don’t Move, as well as the popular faith-based show The Chosen.
These different cases show how hard it is to take a one-size-fits-all approach to shooting in today’s tense world, and there will be more like them in the future. Hollywood has become fully at war within its own “Apocalypse Now” double feature, having survived the plague.
11,000 Writer Are On Strike Since May:
When thousands of members of Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Broadcasting and Television Artists went on strike last week, joining the 11,000 Writers Guild of America screenwriters who were on protest since May, a smaller fight went nuclear right in time for the release of “Oppenheimer.”
As striking actors and writers swarmed studio lots and streamer offices, Puck’s Matthew Belloni wrote, “The town has burned to the ground.”
Drescher was sure that streaming had altered the business model sufficiently that the agreement would have needed to be redone from top to bottom.
It was surprising for people who are accustomed to making small changes to language that has grown over decades. People laughed regarding being “scolded” through the actor who got renowned as the main character of the 1990s CBS show “The Nanny.”
From June 7 on, talks with SAG-AFTRA as well as AMPTP went forward in fits and starts, until an angry moment around midnight upon July 12 caused everything to fall apart.
From the management’s point of view, SAG-AFTRA took too much time within the beginning giving lectures and comments from union members regarding the different types of jobs that SAG-AFTRA covered, such as extras, background players, and dancers.
Tom Cruise Spoke To The Group Via A Video Call:
Justine Bateman, who has a lot of skills and is outspoken about labor problems, talked to the room regarding AI. Tom Cruise spoke to the group through a video call to get them to support trick artists.
There was also anger that SAG-AFTRA gave the studio officials a long list of claims without putting them in order of importance at the beginning.
It was clear that a fight was coming over streaming residuals, but some things came as a surprise, like the need for a 14% increase in most minimums in the first year of the deal. Through the time talks fell down, that number was down to 11%.
AMPTP Gave It’s First Written Answer In Opposite To SAG- AFTRA Demands:
On June 17, the AMPTP gave its first written answer to the long list of requests from SAG-AFTRA. SAG-AFTRA’s counterproposal arrived six days later. Over the next three days, both groups made and rejected a number of AI-related suggestions.
After a lot of discussion, SAG-AFTRA leaders decided on June 30 to give a 12-day contract extension so that talks could continue. On July 1 and 3, the AMPTP as well as the union sent each other two more letters about AI and other things.
On July 6, a smaller group of people from both sides talked about AI in the sidebar. Between July nine and twelve, both sides made two more counteroffers.
On the last long day of talks, Wednesday, both sides met with two government judges who were dropped in by the AMPTP at the request of SAG-AFTRA and other industry insiders like CAA’s Bryan Lourd and Endeavor’s CEO Ari Emanuel.
After spending hours going back and forth between the two camps’ private rooms, the negotiators saw that the two sides were far enough apart to make a deal that night.
As midnight approached, SAG-AFTRA and AMPTP officials were in the big meeting room talking. Drescher, Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, the national executive director of SAG-AFTRA, and most of the bargaining committee, including Frances Fisher, Joely Fisher, Sean Astin, Samantha Mathis, as well as Sheryl Lee Ralph, were there at that late hour. At around 11:45 pm,
SAG-AFTRA told AMPTP that the union’s national board would decide on a strike for the last time early the next morning. At this point, it was clear that SAG-AFTRA was about to start the first strike in the entire entertainment business in more than 40 years.
The Strike Has Affected The Following TV Shows And Movies:
Deadpool 3:
Deadpool 3, the third installment in the Marvel character series, was put on hold because both of its stars as well as writers joined the strike. It was one of the largest endeavors that had to stop because of the strike.
Hugh Jackman posted a picture of his appearance as Wolverine with Ryan Reynolds, who plays Deadpool, on Instagram a few days before the stop.
Gladiator 2:
Paul Mescal as well as Pedro Pascal are in the Paramount movie, which has stopped filming in Malta. Variety says that when the strike started, the production had been in the middle of shooting a “complex sequence” alongside hundreds of extras in a copy of the Colosseum.
Mission Impossible:
The last Mission Impossible movie was supposed to start shooting after the press tour for Mission: Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One, however it has been put on hold until SAG-AFTRA and AMPTP reach a deal.
Part One Of Wicked:
The movie version of the 20-year-old Broadway show Wicked, which was being directed by Jon M. Chu, was only a few days away from being finished when it had to stop shooting.
Chu wrote on Twitter that they will get back to work once the strike is over, and added that the delay shouldn’t change the release date of winter 2024.
It Comes Down To Us:
The movie based on Colleen Hoover’s book It Ends With Us is no longer being made. Deadline says that only half of the movie has been shot so far. The film is directed through Justin Baldoni and stars Blake Lively as well as Baldoni to be the main couple.
List Of Movies And Television Series That Are Still Being Made:
Season 4 Of The Chosen:
A tweet from the show’s account says that season four of an independent production about Jesus of Nazareth will still be shot during the strike.
Update: I have good news! We just heard from SAG that our request for a waiver has been granted. On Monday, we’ll keep shooting. Within a follow-up tweet, they said that the television series has “agreed to all of SAG’s requests as well as their interim agreement” as well as that the whole season is paid for by donations.
Season 2 Of House Of The Dragon:
Due to union rules within the U.K., where the Game of Thrones predecessor House of the Dragon is filmed, the second season will still be made.
Most of the players in the show are from the U.K. and are covered by Equity U.K.’s local union contract. This means that they are neither required to strike alongside the U.S. union nor allowed to do so.
Season 3 Of Business:
Like the House of Dragon, HBO’s Industry has players from the United Kingdom who can’t officially strike with SAG-AFTRA.
Bride Hard:
This action comedy is directed by Simone West, who also directed The Expendables 2. Rebel Wilson plays the lead role. British actors, such as the stars of House of Dragon as well as Industry, are not part of SAG-AFTRA.
Mary Mother:
A24’s picture Mother Mary, which stars Anne Hathaway, Michaela Coel, as well as Hunter Schafer, has been given a SAG-AFTRA waiver because it is an independent film and is not connected to a company that is part of AMPTP.
But Lombardini tried one more time. She told the group that management had more to offer SAG-AFTRA if both sides agreed to keep talking and not go on strike.
Multiple people who were there say that Lombardi asked the union officials to stop the strike so that the talks could go on without the additional stress of a strike as well as the anger as well as emotion that would come with it.
Lombardini Stated To The union That Work Slowdown Will Affect The Whole Industry:
At one point, Lombardini became frustrated and asked the union officials to “be civilized” regarding how a work slowdown would affect the whole industry.
Not only do people have different ideas about what is polite and what isn’t, but they also have different ideas about which side broke off talks first.
On July 14, Crabtree-Ireland told reporters that SAG-AFTRA wouldn’t stop their strike, but they were more than ready to keep talking with AMPTP. But they turned down the offer.
AMPTP Stated That If They Went On Strike Then We Will Not Keep Up Talks:
Union officials say they were told within no clear terms that if SAG-AFTRA moved on strike, the AMPTP wouldn’t keep up talks. Crabtree-Ireland said, “They told us they weren’t expecting to come back to the table for a long time.”
This increase in stress happened after the AMPTP surprised the SAG-AFTRA team with the government judges, which upset them.
This made Drescher as well as Crabtree-Ireland so angry that they spent time earlier in the day calling at least four top Hollywood execs to make it clear that the union will fight for what it thinks is a fair deal.
The CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, David Zaslav, the co-CEO of Netflix, Ted Sarandos, and the co-chairs of Disney Entertainment, Dana Walden as well as Alan Bergman, were all called at the last minute.
At Allen & Co.’s yearly high-powered business moguls’ vacation in Sun Valley, Idaho, Zaslav, Sarandos, as well as Walden were all reached by going to the Sawtooth Mountains.
This week, Drescher talked about the calls to leaders in her live streamed virtual chat with Sen. Bernie Sanders on July 18.
“We told AMPTP’s negotiators, ‘We’ll call some of these CEOs as well as tell them that we’re your partners,'” Drescher said. “We are your business at its core. As Well As we need to put money into that pocket because the other one is squeezing us financially. It was like speaking to a brick wall.”
Crabtree-Ireland talked to media upon the fourteenth of July to be SAG-AFTRA began its initial day of picketing. He also talked about the CEO’s calls.
Crabtree-Ireland said, “We talked to them directly regarding what our top priorities were as well as the few things that were stopping us from making a deal.”
