SAG Talks, Not Much Happens
Heading into the holiday weekend, there are no fireworks coming from the Screen Actors Guild.
The union briefly resumed talks with the Alliance of Motion Picture and TV Producers today, but the meeting ended with SAG asking for more time to review the new contract the studios have proposed.
On Tuesday, SAG executive director Doug Allen said the deal as it stands is sorely lacking in the new-media residuals department.
SAG reps said they would contact the AMPTP on Monday, but no other sit-downs have been scheduled. The actors’ previous contract with the alliance expired yesterday at 12:01 a.m.
“On Wednesday, we met at SAG’s request for four hours to answer SAG’s questions about our final offer,” the AMPTP said in a statement. “SAG asked for more time to study our final offer and indicated it will contact the Producers on Monday. We remain hopeful that SAG will advise that it is accepting our final offer.”
SAG has yet to call for a strike-authorization vote and has expressed its intention to keep its 120,000 members working under the auspices of the old contract until a new one can be hammered out.
“Guild negotiators are engaged in, and committed to, the negotiating process and are confident that an equal commitment from management will allow the parties to reach a fair agreement that serves the needs of Screen Actors Guild members, their employers and the industry,” read the statement issued by SAG Wednesday after talks ended.
As of today, cameras were still rolling on 17 major studio films, including the Da Vinci Code sequel Angels & Demons, according to a list compiled by the Hollywood Reporter, which also counted Toy Story 3 and five other animated films in production.
Executive producer of Lost and Heroes interested in pirates — just not the ones you would think
If you take Jesse Alexander, the Executive Producer of the popular series Heroes and Lost, and add the word ’pirates’, what do you think you would get? Well, it could be a show featuring pirates that have superhuman abilities who crash into an island that really isn’t an island at all. If you were thinking that, then you would be way off base. If you’re thinking more in the realm of information-sharing pirates you would be taking a step in the right direction.
It seems that Jesse Alexander is teaming up with Matt Mason, author of The Pirate’s Dilemma for a show about modern-day piracy and how important it is for today’s society. For those not familiar with the book, Mason makes an argument that the open source culture that we now have with information sharing is changing the shape of economies and breaking down walls that allow easier access to software, music, television shows, and other forms of media and technology. According to a post on TorrentFreak, the show will aim to educate people on how piracy has been an innovator in our society and how it will shape our future. A teaser of the show can be found on TorrentFreak as well as Mason’s own blog.
It will be interesting to see if this show ever comes to fruition and, if it does, what network it will air on. Despite the power of Alexander behind it, I’m not sure how networks will react to a show on how the potential pirating of their material is a good thing for them. This is especially true after the battle they went through during the Writers Strike and the one they are currently fighting with the Screen Actors Guild. Then again, by the time this show comes to air the environment may have changed.
SAG: The Show Must Go On, For Now
The Screen Actors Guild has agreed to disagree for the moment.
As the clock on the union’s contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and TV Producers continues to tick toward its 12:01 a.m. expiration date, SAG announced Monday night that it has agreed to let members continue to work under the terms of their existing deal until further notice.
The two sides are scheduled to reconvene Wednesday afternoon.
The AMPTP, which represents major studios and networks, issued a last-minute offer this evening reportedly worth an additional $250 million in compensation to working actors, but SAG executive director and chief negotiator Doug Allen indicated that the stipulations aren’t quite up to snuff for them yet.
“This offer does not appear to address some key issues important to actors,” Allen said in a statement. “For example, the impact of foregoing residuals for all made-for-new-media productions is incalculable and would mean the beginning of the end of residuals.”
A spokeswoman for the alliance said that its reps will meet with SAG’s people on Wednesday to further discuss and explain the current offer, not to entertain counterproposals.
“In short, our final offer to SAG represents a final hope for avoiding further work stoppages and getting everyone back to work,” the AMPTP said in a statement.
The latest proposal was described as comparable to the tentative deal the AMPTP struck with the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists last month.
The results of AFTRA’s vote on the new deal are expected in by July 8.
Strike Deadline Looms for Hollywood Actors
To strike or not to strike? That is the question dogging Hollywood.
But while filmmakers, TV producers, casts and crews are holding their collective breaths with the Screen Actors Guild contract due to expire at midnight, union president Alan Rosenberg says there is no immediate work stoppage in the, um, works.
“We have taken no steps to initiate a strike authorization vote by the members of the Screen Actors Guild,” he says in a statement. “Any talk about a strike or a management lockout at this point is simply a distraction.”
Right now, SAG has a seemingly bigger headache to deal with firstthe very real threat of all-out civil war with its sister union, the American Federal of Television & Radio Artists. AFTRA reached a separate agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers weeks ago, triggering infighting among the thespian set.
In one corner, stars like Viggo Mortensen, Laura Dern, Jack Nicholson and Holly Hunter have urged AFTRA to vote down the pact, claiming it undercuts much of the Screen Actors Guild’s agenda, which focuses on new media pay scales, DVD residuals and a bigger say over product placement.
In the other corner: Tom Hanks, Susan Sarandon, Kevin Spacey and Alec Baldwin, all of whom back the AFTRA deal, claiming it will create new opportunities for actors.
George Clooney has attempted to play peacemaker, calling for Hanks and Nicholson to meet together to help hash out a truce.
SAG is ponying up $150,000 worth of advertisements, robo-calls and email blasts to persuade AFTRA folks to just say no to the contract.
AFTRA’s national executive director, Kim Roberts Hedgpeth, labels such tactics “appalling” and “divisive.”
“Whether the attempts by a sister union to interfere in the ratification of your contract are motivated by politics, fear, naïveté, inexperience, or the intention to do harm to your union, there is an undeniable reality: It is a disgrace,” she says in a message posted on the union’s website.
Unlike the Screen Actors Guild, which covers actors in film and television, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists represents thesps in live events (a remnant of its history repping radio acts) and video, which includes some cable and reality shows. However, with the advent of series shot in digital video, the two unions have been squabbling over jurisdictional rights.
But with both SAG and AFTRA’s contracts set to end at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, the question remains: Will the industry once again see another walkout like the crippling three-month Writers Guild of America strike that ended in February?
As the unions battle it out over whose terms will ultimately prevail, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers is trying to head any potential work stoppage off at the pass, taking out ads in Monday’s trades calling a strike “harmful and unnecessary.”
AMPTP says a work stoppage would result in $2.3 billion in lost wages and more than 37,000 people out of work.
“The industry is shutting down because SAG’s Hollywood leadership insisted on 11th-hour negotiations and dragging these talks into July so they can continue attacking AFTRA,” the rep said in a statement.
SAG says it will continue negotiating with producers for “as many hours as it takes” to make sure its concerns left out of the AFTRA deal are satisfied.