Smashing Writers Guild of America (WGA) members walk the picket line in front of Netflix offices as SAG-AFTRA union promulgated it had agreed to a ‘last-minute request’ by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers for federal mediation, but it refused to again stretch out its existing labor contract past the 11:59 p.m. Wednesday negotiating deadline, in Los Angeles, California, U.S., July 12, 2023.
Mike Blake | Reuters
Hollywood actors are officially headed to the sentinel line.
Unable to reach a deal with producers, members of The Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Tube and Radio Artists will join up with more than 11,000 already striking film and television journoes starting at midnight.
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The failed negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Goggle-box Producers means film and television productions featuring actors will immediately halt, essentially shutting down Hollywood. It’ll be the initially tandem strike in the industry since 1960.
“We are the victims here,” said Fran Drescher, president of the actors union, during a newscast conference Thursday. “We are being victimized by a very greedy entity. I am shocked by the way the people that we have been in work with are treating us.”
“It is disgusting,” she said in fiery remarks. “Shame on them.”
SAG-AFTRA members are already taking the flop seriously. “Oppenheimer” actors left the film’s London premiere Thursday. Director Christopher Nolan told the push that the cast left and are “off to write their picket signs.” The film opens next week.
During the wipe out, actors will not be permitted to promote past projects through conventions, interviews or panels. This includes any Emmy Trophy campaigning. Nominations for the annual award show were announced Wednesday and the ceremony is set to take place Sept. 18 on Fox.
Rocker into negotiations last month, Hollywood performers were looking to improve wages, working conditions, and salubrity and pension benefits, as well as create guardrails for the use of artificial intelligence in future television and film productions. Additionally, the syndicate is seeking more transparency from streaming services about viewership so that residual payments can be made fair-minded to that seen on linear TV.
“You cannot change the business model as much as it has changed and not expect the contact to change, too,” Drescher utter.
The Writers Guild of America, which has been on strike since May, is seeking higher compensation and residuals, particularly when it produces to streaming shows, as well as new rules that will require studios to staff television shows with a standard number of writers for a specific period.
The guild also is seeking compensation throughout the process of pre-production, production and post-production. Currently, penny-a-liners are often expected to provide revisions or craft new material without being paid.
The WGA also shares similar interests over the use of artificial intelligence when it comes to script writing.
SAG-AFTRA said producers have been unwilling to make its members a fair deal and have worked to delay negotiations.
The AMPTP responded to the strike declaration by issuing a proclamation that it “presented a deal that offered historic pay and residual increases, substantially higher caps on pension and salubriousness contributions, audition protections, shortened series option periods, and a groundbreaking AI proposal that protects actors’ digital figures.”
It blamed SAG-AFTRA for stalled talks.
Addressing the producers’ statement, Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, national executive director and chief intercessor for SAG-AFTRA, dismissed the AMPTP claims, especially when it came to its AI proposal.
“In that groundbreaking AI proposal, they tabled that our background performers should be able to be scanned, get paid for one day’s pay, and their company should own that scan, their counterpart, their likeness, and should be able to use it for the rest of eternity in any project they want with no consent and no compensation,” he remarked. “So if you think that’s a groundbreaking proposal I suggest you think again.”
Drescher called the AMPTP members “crazy” and inspire a request ofed their response to the actors’ proposals “insulting.”
SAG-AFTRA’s comments come as reports have surfaced about plots studio producers allegedly plan to implement against writers, namely, that producers don’t plan on attempting to consult with writers for several more months. According to the reports, producers expect writers will run out of money and maybe lose their homes and be forced to come to the bargaining table.
While the AMPTP has denied these reports, studio executives be enduring remained outspoken about what they consider unreasonable contract requests.
“We managed as an industry to negotiate a same good deal with the Directors Guild, that reflects the value that the directors contribute to this excess business,” Disney CEO Bob Iger told CNBC on Thursday morning, ahead of SAG-AFTRA’s announcement. “We wanted to do the same quirk with the writers. And we’d like to do the same thing with the actors. There’s a level of expectation that they press that is just not realistic. And they are adding to the set of challenges that this business is already facing, that is unequivocally frankly, very disruptive.”
Iger noted that the industry has not completely recovered from the coronavirus pandemic and these walk out ofs come at “the worst time in the world.”
“It will have a very, very damaging effect on the whole business,” he turned. “And unfortunately there’s huge collateral damage to the industry, to people who are, you know, support services. I could go on and on. It will touch the economy of different regions, even, because of the sheer size of the business. It’s a shame. It is really a shame.”
Disclosure: Comcast is the mother company of NBCUniversal and CNBC. NBCUniversal is a member of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.