A double strike of historic significance that effectively shuts down Hollywood production. This is how The Washington Post comments on the result of the vote of the union of American actors and television and radio artists (SAG-AFTRA), whose 160 thousand members officially join the strike of the association of film and television writers (WGA) from Friday. The last time – and the only time – this situation happened 63 years ago. The screenwriters’ strike has been going on since the beginning of May.
Hollywood
21:17 13. 7. 2023 (Updated: 22:30 13/07/2023)
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The last joint strike of the actors’ and screenwriters’ unions took place in 1960 (illustrative photo) | Photo: Mike Blake | Source: Reuters
“After more than four weeks of negotiations, the AMPTP producer union – which brings together the biggest studios and streaming platforms, including Amazon, Apple, Disney, Netflix, Sony, Paramount, Warner Bros Discovery and NBCUniversal – is unwilling to offer a fair deal on key issues that are for you important,” SAG-AFTRA said in a statement its chairwoman, actress Fran Drescher.
Like the striking screenwriters, actors fear that their profession is being threatened by ever-evolving artificial intelligence tools and that streaming platforms are cutting their wages. The reaction of representatives of film studios and streaming platforms to the demands of the unions were allegedly “an insult the enormous contribution of actors to the functioning of the film industry”.
Screen Actors Guild President Fran Drescher announces an actors strike and rips the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers:
“They plead poverty … when giving hundreds of millions of dollars to their CEOs … Shame on them. They stand on the wrong side of history.” pic.twitter.com/X3gcrYmUq6
— The Recount (@therecount) July 13, 2023
“We had no choice,” Drescher stated, known as the protagonist of the 1990s sitcom Babysitter to Watch, in a fiery speech in front of journalists. “We are the victims here. They make us very greedy entities. I am shocked by the way the people we worked with treat us. How they claim to be losing money on all sides, yet give hundreds of millions of dollars to their CEOs. It’s disgusting. Shame on them. He’s on the wrong side of history right now.”
Negotiations were not helped by reports that studio representatives wanted to “bleed out” striking unionists and “drag out negotiations until they start losing apartments and houses.” “It’s a necessary evil,” he described the strategy pro server Deadline unnamed source.
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The producers’ union (AMPTP) described the development as “deeply disappointing”. “It’s the union’s decision, not ours,” it says in a statement to the media, which also states “breakthrough conditions” that the unions should have rejected. Walt Disney Studios boss Bob Iger called the strikers’ demands “yes”. unrealistic and liquidating for the entire industry.
During Thursday’s press conferencewhich officially confirmed the start of the union strike at midnight, chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland informed the journalists present that one of the terms proposed by the AMPTP was that they would “scan” the extras and then pay them for a day’s work.
“They proposed that production companies would then own this scanned likeness of them and use it in perpetuity in any project — without consent or financial compensation to the actor,” Crabtree-Ireland outlined.
The strike of American screenwriters has lasted for 71 days and has disrupted television production and the filming of big-budget films for the entire season. One of the very first “victims” was the popular talk show, which has been broadcast from the record since May.
The actors went on strike in 2000, for example. Their six-month protest is still one of the longest in the history of the entertainment industry. The current actors’ and writers’ strike, as the Washington Post points out, the last time – and also the only time – took place in 1960. At that time, Ronald Reagan, the later American president, was the head of the actors’ union. The double pressure on the studios at that time, among other things, brought the actors a share of the sale of film rights for television.
No filming, no promo
After all, actors’ unions represent more “leverage” in the American film industry than screenwriters. While the WGA represents roughly 11,000 canine members, SAG-AFTRA brings together 160,000 actors, journalists, singers, voice actors, radio workers and other media professionals.
And as the American servers remind, the strike does not only prohibit members of actors’ unions from participating in film or television filming, but also the promotion of film and television projects within the framework of premieres, press conferences, film festivals, fan events such as Comic Con and on social networks.
America Ferrero, Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling at the European Premiere of Barbie | Photo: Maja Smiejkowska | Source: Reuters
However, the timing required that the actors of three of the most anticipated films of this summer, namely the seventh part of the action series Mission: Impossible, which enters the world cinemas this week, were able to cut the premiere wheel across several continents, as well as the live-action film about the Barbie doll and the drama Oppenheimer on the father of the atomic bomb. They premiere next week.
The Variety server already reported on Wednesday that Thursday the London premiere of Oppenheimer moved an hour earlier, just to preempt the possible announcement of a strike. However, Studio Universal will probably have to marry the New York premiere of the film, which is planned for July 17.
In particular, the start of the autumn filming season and the presentation of the Emmy TV Academy awards, which were held on Wednesday, are now at risk published nominations. The Academy, together with Fox television, the broadcaster of the ceremony, it is a translation of its term from mid-September to November or even January next year.
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2023-07-13 19:17:00
#Hollywood #stopped #Actors #unions #joined #screenwriters #strike #unsatisfactory #negotiations
