Strike in Hollywood stops actors after screenwriters

Heartfelt speech by the president of the union SAG AFTRA Fran Drescher (the most famous babysitter on television) made a move for the actors’ strike on July 14, 2023, who join the writers who are now on strike for 93 days. A compact bloc that the directors didn’t join thanks to an agreement made a few weeks ago. This is the first strike since 1980. The actors took to the streets along with the writers to picket in front of the studios.

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August 3rd: writers and actors would be ready to return to the negotiating table with AMPTP vendors, small steps that can help reach an agreement. The actors of the solar pickets express doubts, but also hope that an agreement will be found. Meanwhile stars donate 1 million for his alliance to help actors in trouble from George Clooney to Julia Roberts, from Meryl Streep to Arnold Schwarzenegger, the list is getting longer by the day and 15 million have already been raised. An exception has been granted for Luc Besson’s Dog Man, with a cast that may be in Venice to promote a film that is not produced by major studios.

Movies and series blocked (or threatened)

Latest updates

July 25: Taking advantage of the break to change scenery, filming the second season Silage they also stop in the UK Fund 3 which has not yet been officially renewed, but filming was supposed to start in Prague stops. SAG-AFTRA licensed the production of the tenth season When the heart calls

Hallmark is filming Season 11 before the debut of Season 10, which begins on July 30. It is likely that in this case it is considered an independent production. Production is just as independent. gray house The series, starring Kevin Costner and Morgan Freeman, is produced by Costner and still doesn’t have a US distributor, even if Paramount Global distributes it overseas. This is a 6-episode series about three women who, according to General Grant, helped him win the Civil War.
There was also a storeroom. summer book with Glenn Close.

21 July: Made in Thailand aliens Noah Hawley for FX but without the SAG-Aftra cast. According to the deadline, the production is subject to Equity Agreements (English), and the actors who are part of the English union must appear on the set so as not to violate the agreement. Sidney Chandler, the main character, is definitely not in Thailand, and Alex Lawther will be on set.
There Apple Tehran series will be able to finish shooting in Athens, it seems, because Apple took over later, and the series was not originally an American studio.
The union gave about 40 films the opportunity to continue filming as they are considered independent (2 from A24). Among them are Observers which aroused curiosity as it was distributed by Warner Bros’ New Line, which however is only a distributor and the film is made in Ireland with equity agreements (e.g. House of the Dragon).

July 18: series Selected it will be possible to finish the fourth season, because the union recognizes the series for the fact that it was filmed not by a studio, but by an independent production. All films considered independent continue in the same way. Instead it stops Interview with a Vampire despite filming overseas and with an international cast.

the 14 th of July

While it’s easy to see why all projects filmed in the US stand still, for those filmed abroad, the situation is, as expected, more complicated. Through deadline we know, for example, that slow horsesan Apple TV+ series that would film scenes with the SAG-AFTRA cast and then continue without them, essentially with the British; Castle HBO and Rings of Power they would stop firing. Below is a list organized by timeline for films and TV shows filmed overseas:

• House of the Dragon, filmed between the UK and Spain, is a UK syndicated stock show.
• Sky Jackal and Peacock Day is filmed in London, Budapest, Croatia and Austria.
• Industry is a show of shares
• Bad sisters: Sharon Horgan continued to write during the strike and will be filming in Ireland
• “Doctor Who” with Nkuti Gatwa must go further
• Noah Hawley’s Alien on FX is in pre-production in Thailand.
• “White Lotus” is on hold due to a writers’ strike.
• Emily in Paris already on break
• Paddington in Peru
• Amateur video with Rami Malek, filmed in the UK
• Gladiator 2 filmed in Morocco
• Radley with Damian Lewis
• Mortal Kombat 2 is filming in Australia
• The wicked are at great risk

Manufacturers response

There AMPTP Film and Television Producers Alliance he responded to the actors by saying that the union had chosen a path that would lead to economic hardship for thousands of people. Rumors have been circulating for days now that the producers are determined to bankrupt the writers before returning to negotiations.

The producers claim to have proposed a historic deal that boosted wages and residual incomes, with increases in pensions and health insurance, coverage during hiatuses for series now running fewer and fewer episodes and for auditions, and an agreement to protect the actors’ image. from artificial intelligence.

Aftermath of the actors’ strike

WITHThe consequences are easy to imagine: union members will not be able to work during the strike. And work is also participation in presentations and events. It is no coincidence that in London at the presentation Oppenheimer the cast did not engage in other activities after the red carpet. Premiere Special Operation Lioness, The Paramount+ series starring Nicole Kidman and Zoe Saldana has been cancelled. Various festivals are having a hard time, the Toronto Film Festival said they are continuing to work in the hope of a solution, and from Venice they say “we can only wait and see what happens.” The risk is that there may only be American directors presenting films without Hollywood stars at various festivals.

Among the serials in production continue to work Dragon House filmed in London, as well as in Industry

and in Hungary resume filming Dunes: The Sisterhood. This is because the actors are mostly non-American and are subject to the English Equity Accords, which expressed solidarity with their American counterparts but have other agreements allowing them to work.

Requests

As in the case of screenwriters, the essence of the protest is related to residual, to income from films and television series in various catalogs, which producers continue to receive from subscriptions, but from which actors and screenwriters receive very little. Definitely less than they made from syndication (reselling the series to various local channels), DVDs and various rentals. It is no coincidence that producers remove some titles and even sell products (HBO sells old Netflix series in the US, for example).

Added to these demands are demands to abolish the phenomenon of offline recording of test videos for actors, and sometimes free mini-rooms for screenwriters who are encouraged to develop scripts that will be paid only on demand. Essentially, writers and actors are demanding more redistribution of profits from producers who, in turn, complain about constant losses, only to pay bonuses and millions in salaries to CEOs.