WGA/SAGAFTRA Strike Discussion Thread | SAG Ratifies Contract

[filmlover]

2 minutes ago, Plain Old Tele said:

I mean, I’m sure Paramount is thrilled by the possibility not to have Tom Cruise promoting their movie in the final run-up to release. And not having Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling to glam things up as Barbie hits their big push too.

 

Timing might not be the absolute *worst* for movies like that but it’s not exactly ideal for the studios either.  

Mission: Impossible will almost certainly have its world premiere before June 30 (which will mark the beginning of a long holiday weekend for many due to 4th of July falling on a Tuesday, or a week before the movie opens), so I don't see that being an issue. I can see the Barbie argument, though to be fair, that movie's entire promo tour feels like it's been going for a whole year now lmao (it remains an extremely rare occurrence for the Internet really push a movie before the studio actually does).

[Dementeleus]

Just now, filmlover said:

Mission: Impossible will almost certainly have its world premiere before June 30 (which will mark the beginning of a long holiday weekend for many due to 4th of July falling on a Tuesday, or a week before the movie opens), so I don't see that being an issue. I can see the Barbie argument, though to be fair, that movie's entire promo tour feels like it's been going for a whole year now lmao (it remains an extremely rare occurrence for the Internet really push a movie before the studio actually does).

Yes, re: the MI world premiere. But they usually trot the stars out for the regional premieres too (at least some of them), not to mention wrangle them for morning shows, news shows, late night shows, etc. Those would all be affected. 
 

Anyway, scuttlebutt is the AMPTP will aim for a SAG deal before the end of June, and at that point they’ll have been able to write off all their force majeure contracts, and *then* they’ll start wrangling a deal with the writers. But obviously, like some writer () said, nobody knows anything. 

[filmlover]

7 minutes ago, Plain Old Tele said:

Yes, re: the MI world premiere. But they usually trot the stars out for the regional premieres too (at least some of them), not to mention wrangle them for morning shows, news shows, late night shows, etc. Those would all be affected. 
 

Anyway, scuttlebutt is the AMPTP will aim for a SAG deal before the end of June, and at that point they’ll have been able to write off all their force majeure contracts, and *then* they’ll start wrangling a deal with the writers. But obviously, like some writer () said, nobody knows anything. 

The majority of which are down for the count right now due to the WGA strike. 

 

I imagine there's gonna be a lot more urgency to strike a deal with SAG-AFTRA then there will be WGA (since the issues the former is facing have been in development long before the latter went on strike), if only to ensure that there won't be a total production stoppage. But we'll have to wait and see, indeed!

 

[BoxOfficeFangrl]

12 hours ago, filmlover said:

The majority of which are down for the count right now due to the WGA strike. 

 

I imagine there's gonna be a lot more urgency to strike a deal with SAG-AFTRA then there will be WGA (since the issues the former is facing have been in development long before the latter went on strike), if only to ensure that there won't be a total production stoppage. But we'll have to wait and see, indeed!

 

Only the late night shows. Some daytime talk shows have no WGA writers on staff and aren't affected by the strike, so actors still make appearances. Many of the daytime shows pretape or end their seasons in June-July and wouldn't have been on the summer movie PR circuit anyway.

 

There's always the morning shows, which have actors on all the time but are partly news-based, so there are new episodes year round. The weekend editions of morning shows often feature well-timed extended celebrity profiles.

 

 

 

If the actors strike, then that's a whole different story. And aren't news anchors/talk show hosts part of SAG-AFTRA themselves? The last SAG strike was well before the merger. There are TikTok stars in SAG-AFTRA now; will it be "phones down", too? Though I'm guessing any strike would be against movie/TV show production companies and not, like, the FOX affiliate in Topeka, Kansas or wherever. Still, local news is probably also in danger of being outsourced to AI, so...

Edited June 7, 2023 by BoxOfficeFangrl

[Porthos]

 

This could go in about six or seven different threads (and I'll probably go ahead and cross post it in one of the main streaming threads that sees a good amount of traffic), but I'm posting it here because it pretty much highlights why I was personally incredibly pessimistic about there not being a WGA strike and why I am mostly to somewhat pessimistic about SAG-AFTRA avoiding one.

 

Put simply: The streaming model is fucked and it isn't going anywhere.

 

It's a pretty long read so it might be best done in pieces, and I am quite sure there will be bits (or large swaths) of the article that folks will disagree with and that's fine.  I mostly highlight it because it speaks to how incredibly broken the current model is.  It also highlights how incredibly unhappy just about everyone inside the entertainment industry is with the current model.

 

Got a lot more to say about the topic, but I might save that for whatever streaming thread I also throw this in.

[Dementeleus]

^^ My only comment is that high-level agent is an idiot. lol

[Porthos]

1 hour ago, Plain Old Tele said:

^^ My only comment is that high-level agent is an idiot. lol

 

4 hours ago, Porthos said:

and I am quite sure there will be bits (or large swaths) of the article that folks will disagree with and that's fine. 

 

Yes, I thought that might prickle/annoy some, which is why I said the bit above in my original post.  But I felt the rest of the piece far outweighed some... choice comments from some agents like the one you're referencing. 

Edited June 8, 2023 by Porthos

[filmlover]

I'm mostly curious how a potential SAG strike would impact the movies that are currently being made but are being filmed outside the US (Deadpool 2, Beetlejuice 2...I assume Twisters is also filming in another country since that will require a lot of studio set work as well). Do those projects automatically stop or do they continue working since they don't really have to worry about being picketed (have to assume the overwhelming majority of members from all these guilds live in the US, in particular LA and NYC where the work is).

[Ryan Reynolds]

27 minutes ago, filmlover said:

I'm mostly curious how a potential SAG strike would impact the movies that are currently being made but are being filmed outside the US (Deadpool 2, Beetlejuice 2...I assume Twisters is also filming in another country since that will require a lot of studio set work as well). Do those projects automatically stop or do they continue working since they don't really have to worry about being picketed (have to assume the overwhelming majority of members from all these guilds live in the US, in particular LA and NYC where the work is).

total shutdown

[grim22]

28 minutes ago, filmlover said:

I'm mostly curious how a potential SAG strike would impact the movies that are currently being made but are being filmed outside the US (Deadpool 2, Beetlejuice 2...I assume Twisters is also filming in another country since that will require a lot of studio set work as well). Do those projects automatically stop or do they continue working since they don't really have to worry about being picketed (have to assume the overwhelming majority of members from all these guilds live in the US, in particular LA and NYC where the work is).

No actors means no filming. 

[Dementeleus]

In theory they could film with non-union actors in countries without union crews. (They’re partially doing this with Gladiator 2 at the moment.)

[Cappoedameron]

Just for the record I saw some people say that SAG joining the strike could mean this could take 3 months to resolve.

 

When the writers last went on strike if memory serves that took 7 months to resolve that strike.

 

3 months is a much better wait then 7 months, and with the shutdown of Hollywood the process will be sped forward to find a resolution.

Edited June 8, 2023 by Cappoedameron

[SpiderByte]

11 hours ago, grim22 said:

No actors means no filming. 

It'll be interesting if SAGs strike rules will include no promotion either. If that happens right before SDCC every TV and movie panel that isn't animation is gonna have to pull out basically last minute. Not to mention films releasing in July like Oppenheimer and Mission Impossible.

Edited June 8, 2023 by SpiderByte

[filmlover]

9 minutes ago, SpiderByte said:

It'll be interesting if SAGs strike rules will include no promotion either. If that happens right before SDCC every TV and movie panel that isn't animation is gonna have to pull out basically last minute. Not to mention films releasing in July like Oppenheimer and Mission Impossible.

Think everyone assumes "no promotion" is part of the rules of a potential SAG strike.

 

Key word being "potential" because this seems like the one guild that everyone would want to have a quick resolution to, WGA strike or not. It's a coincidence that all the expiration dates for these contracts ended up being so close to each other.

[SpiderByte]

37 minutes ago, filmlover said:

Think everyone assumes "no promotion" is part of the rules of a potential SAG strike.

 

Key word being "potential" because this seems like the one guild that everyone would want to have a quick resolution to, WGA strike or not. It's a coincidence that all the expiration dates for these contracts ended up being so close to each other.

The reason I'm not sure is because I don't know if promotion is necessarily a SAG thing, since it's not like non-union actors don't also do press stuff. We've seen writers and such not show up to premieres but those seemed to be more solidarity things rather than "not allowed to go" situations 

Edited June 8, 2023 by SpiderByte

[dudalb]

11 hours ago, SpiderByte said:

The reason I'm not sure is because I don't know if promotion is necessarily a SAG thing, since it's not like non-union actors don't also do press stuff. We've seen writers and such not show up to premieres but those seemed to be more solidarity things rather than "not allowed to go" situations 

Thing is almost all contracts with actors include a clause requiring them to do promotion for a film. That makes it a union issue.

[dudalb]

I think Colbert and the other hosts are really angry that the strike is keeping them off air with the news of Trump's Federal Indictment coming down...

[Cap]

23 hours ago, SpiderByte said:

It'll be interesting if SAGs strike rules will include no promotion either.

https://deadline.com/2023/06/actors-strike-hollywood-movie-industry-impact-release-dates-comic-con-1235412068/

 

 

[grim22]

2 hours ago, Cap said:

https://deadline.com/2023/06/actors-strike-hollywood-movie-industry-impact-release-dates-comic-con-1235412068/

 

 

What even is this intro?

 

 

Six weeks into the writers strike, the early returns on summer studio films have been some of the best since Covid brought the exhibition business to a screeching halt. 

 

What's the first part of that sentence got to do with the second part, trying to make the reader subconsciously associate the two.

[Dementeleus]

This dumb ass motherfucker. 
 

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/bmf-producer-suspended-lionsgate-drove-at-striking-writers-1235511085/