SAG strike news: Universal Studios accused of pruning trees to remove shade for picketing actors and writers
Los Angeles picketers are scattered between several studio lots
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Your support makes all the difference.Universal Studios has been accused of trimming the trees that lined its studio lot and provided shade for striking actors and writers.
On Monday (17 July), following the first weekend of the historic Hollywood shutdown, comic Chris Stephens tweeted a photo showing the bare trees.
“Quick shoutout to the good people at @UniversalPics for trimming the trees that gave our picket line shade right before a 90+ degree week,” Stephens wrote.
SAG-AFTRA negotiators unanimously recommended a strike after talks with the AMPTP broke down last week.
Additionally, the Writers Guild of America has been on strike since early May. Both groups demand increases in base pay and residuals in the streaming TV era, plus assurances that their work will not be replaced by AI.
Fran Drescher, former star of The Nanny and SAG president, said studios’ responses to the actors’ concerns had been “insulting and disrespectful”.
In light of the historic double strike, several actors and writers have shared personal horror stories of Hollywood studio greed.
Meanwhile, Disney CEO Bob Iger condemned the threatened strike action as “very disruptive” at the “worst time” as well as calling the expectations of writers and actors “not realistic”.
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Will the Emmys be affected by the strike?
Last week, the nominations for the 2023 Emmys were announced, with Succession and The Last of Us leading the pack.
Typically, the awards ceremony is held in September and broadcast live, but there could be a delay this year because the strike’s rules bar members from participating in various promotional events, most notably awards shows.
A final decision is expected to be made by the end of July.
Read the full list of nominees here.
HBO’s ‘The White Lotus’ also picked up a large amount of nominations
Brian Cox says actors’ strike could last until the end of the year
In an interview on Friday (15 July) with Sky News, the 77-year-old British actor said the strike “could get very, very unpleasant” and “could go on for quite some time”. He said: “They’ll take us to the brink and we’ll probably have to go to the brink.”
Cox also addressed actors’ concerns about the use of AI in film and television production, such as using artificial intelligence to write scripts or generate actors’ likenesses without consent. “We don’t know the extent to which it can operate,” he said. “It’s the boogeyman, it really is the boogeyman.”
Should you cancel your streaming subscriptions in solidarity with actors and writers?
For those interested in supporting the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strike, there are several things you can do.
While it may seem counterintuitive, you should not cancel your streaming subscriptions, actor Dave Wallace tweeted. In fact, he argued that doing the exact opposite “would actually be more supportive”.
Meanwhile, Neil Gaiman addressed a fan on Tumblr who asked if going to see Barbie in theatres would be “crossing the picket line” and whether they should “wait until the strike has been resolved”.
“No, it’s not crossing a picket line to go and see anything,” the Good Omens author responded. “Continuing to go see your movies, watch your shows, streaming your favourites is one of the best ways to support the WGA and SAG-AFTRA right now.”
He explained that consuming content “helps immensely to show the studios the value of the work that writers and actors do”.
“If you don’t go, it hurts writers and actors,” Gaiman said. “Studios can say, ‘Well, actually Barbie only made $X dollars, Oppenheimer only made $Y dollars, only so many thousands of people watched Good Omens 2, obviously there isn’t enough money to go around.
“See the stuff you want to see with reckless abandon,” he encouraged.
All non-members of SAG-AFTRA who hope to someday join, take warning
While SAG-AFTRA strike guidelines bar its members from posting any promotional material for studios during the strike on social media, there’s an additional caveat for those who hope to gain future membership too.
“Any non-member seeking future membership in SAG-AFTRA who performs covered work or services for a struck company during the strike will not be admitted into membership in SAG-AFTRA,” it explicitly states under the website’s strike Dos and Don’ts.
So for all those social media influencers, who hope to someday join the actors’ guild, refrain from promoting projects made under SAG contracts on social media.
Although, for all those influencers who were already invited to Disney World’s Saturday premiere of Haunted Mansion, it’s understood that their red carpet presence was already cleared.
“If an influencer is already under contract to promote struck work, then the influencer should fulfill their work obligation,” the guidelines add.
CBS adjusts fall TV schedule amid Hollywood shutdown
Now that Hollywood is effectively shut down, leaving networks scrambling to rework their fall 2023 TV schedule, CBS has announced its revised lineup.
The network originally released its fall schedule in May, which included several of its scripted programmes set to return.
However, with the ongoing joint strike of actors and writers, CBS has been forced to adjust to the new landscape by adding a large number of unscripted shows and acquired programming, according to Variety.
This means that the network will import several shows from its broader Paramount universe. So, on Sundays at 9pm, viewers can expect to see Paramount’s original hit series Yellowstone make its broadcast debut on CBS, starting from season one.
The Office star David Denman gives clear explanation of streaming residuals
“Streaming residuals” has become a buzzworthy term thanks to the ongoing strike. Now, if you felt like it was too late to ask: What exactly are streaming residuals? Have no fear, The Office’s David Denman has broken it down for you.
“Netflix, they created a model that everyone else followed,” the actor told The Associated Press while on the picket lines in Los Angeles, “which is, we’re going to buy you out. We’re going to pay for your services for a cycle, which would be three months.
“And it doesn’t matter if you watch that show one or you watch it 100 times, you’re not going to get any more money because more people watched it. The only person that makes more money is the person who licensed that to Netflix.”
Offering an example, he continued: “So Universal [Studios] licensed that to Netflix. And when it was the number one show on Netflix, they’re able to make a significant profit off of that, but that doesn’t trickle down to the blue-collar actor like me.”
Blade to Yellowjackets: Every TV show and movie affected by historic Hollywood actors and writers’ strike
Production across the industry is being impacted by the protests
Studio executive predicts ‘fall festivals are f***ed’ amid actors’ strike
Along with film premieres, Comic-Con, 90s Con and many more promotional events that are expected to be negatively impacted as a result of the actors’ strike, fall film festivals are also “f***ed”, one studio executive put it bluntly.
“You can’t premiere movies anywhere without your stars,” the executive told Variety. “No stars, no movie.”
The Telluride, Toronto and New York film festivals, which are scheduled for this fall, are at risk of being derailed by the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike, should it last for months.
Colorado’s famed Telluride Film Festival, which is to run from 31 August through 4 September, could potentially remain the least impacted as it doesn’t hold press conferences or step-and-repeats like many others do.
“Telluride will be mostly unaffected,” one studio executive told the outlet. “I can’t say the same for the others.”
The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) is expected to take place from 7 September through 17 September, followed by the New York Film Festival from 29 September until 15 October.
It’s unknown how long the Hollywood shutdown could last, however, SAG is ready for “the long haul”. So until studios and SAG come to an agreement on a fair contract, this fall might be a risky season for TV and film.
George Clooney and Alec Baldwin have voiced strong support for the action
In a statement shared with the PA news agency, Clooney said: “This is an inflection point in our industry. Actors and writers in large numbers have lost their ability to make a living.
“For our industry to survive that has to change. For actors that journey starts now.”
In a video posted to Instagram, Baldwin congratulated the union for calling the strike in order to protect its “rank and file” members.
“I don’t think anybody really wants a strike but they don’t want to continue under the unfair contracts that we’re working under now,” he said.
“So congratulations to everybody and I hope this is over right after we get everything we want.”
Mark Ruffalo rages against Hollywood ‘fat cats’
Actor Mark Ruffalo has urged his fellow stars to work with indie producers, following the news that SAG-AFTRA will soon be signing “interim agreements” with truly independent producers that will allow many of them to make projects during the strike, as long as they are not affiliated with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.
“Then we just do what we always do – create great content and they can buy it, or we take it out ourselves and WE share in those sales,” he tweeted. “They’ve created an empire of billionaires and believe that we are no longer of value. While they hang out in the billionaire boy summer camps laughing like fat cats, we organise a new world for workers.”
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