Dispatches From The Picket Lines: Strikers Rip Studios At First NYC Rally Since SAG-AFTRA Talks Broke Down; “It Tactics”, Says David Simon

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer SAG-AFTRA negotiations have ended for the day, as the studios and the union plan to keep working on a deal to end the 107-day strike. It’s not clear yet when the next bargaining session will be, as negotiators are still working out the schedule. The union delivered its latest response on Saturday, and is awaiting word back from the studios.

EXCLUSIVE: Sky Studios has put in development a comedy series about medieval Essex from The Great writer Ava Pickett and Big Talk Studios.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer The CEOs of four major entertainment companies offered SAG-AFTRA on Tuesday an improved bonus for the most-watched streaming shows, as well as higher increases in minimum rates. But the studios are still not offering a cut of total streaming revenue, which the actors union has made the centerpiece of its demands to end its 104-day strike. SAG-AFTRA is expected to deliver its response to the studios’ latest proposal today.

This is day 103 of SAG-AFTRA strike.

Conor McPherson, the five-time Tony nominee behind the plays Girl From the North Country and The Seafarer, has been set to adapt into a straight play the first novel and film of Suzanne Collins‘ trilogy The Hunger Games. It will mark the franchise’s first-ever live stage adaptation, and a fall 2024 debut in London is planned.

Looks like all those early concerns about whether name stars would walk the picket line ended up being a waste of energy: a strike captain on Saturday recognized Day 100 of the SAG-AFTRA strike by calling out many of the big names who joined the rank and file in those daily protests.

This is day 99 of the SAG-AFTRA strike.

Negotiations between the studios and the striking actors guild may have come to a sudden halt last week, but according to Netflix today everyone is still talking – even when they aren’t.

Kevin Spacey was met with a standing ovation last night (October 16) as he returned to the stage for the first time since being cleared of sexual assault charges.Spacey performed a brief scene from the Shakespeare play Timon Of Athens at a theatre in Oxford, during a lecture held in memory of the late conservative philosopher Roger Scruton.Evidently, the extract had been chosen for a reason. Douglas Murray, the conservative columnist who delivered the lecture and invited Spacey to perform in Oxford and delivered the lecture, told the Times that Timon of Athens was about what “happens when a society drops a person for no reason”.Views of Scruton’s legacy remain divisive, and while his work was admired by conservatives, he has been accused of fuelling modern anti-immigrant sentiment.In July, Spacey was acquitted of all nine charges he was facing, including seven counts of sexual assault, one count of causing a person to engage in sexual activity without consent, and one count of causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity.He was accused of sexual offences against four men, alleged to have taken place between 2001 and 2013.

This is Day 96 of the SAG-AFTRA strike.

SAG-AFTRA headquarters Thursday, continuing to negotiate a new contract with the heads of four major studios. But on Wednesday evening, he got a call from the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers informing him that the talks were off. “I was taken completely by surprise,” said Crabtree-Ireland, the chief negotiator for the actors union.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer Talks between SAG-AFTRA and the major studios have broken down, as the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers said Wednesday that the gap between the sides is “too great.” The key stumbling block is a union proposal to share in streaming revenue, which the AMPTP says would cost $800 million a year. SAG-AFTRA wants a share of streaming revenue for all union-covered shows — both made-for-streaming and films and TV shows licensed from other platforms — which would go well beyond the success-based bonus won by the Writers Guild of America.

After less than two weeks, the latest negotiations between SAG-AFTRA and the studios and streamers have broken down and been “suspended,” according to the AMPTP

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor NBCUniversal content chief Donna Langley has vowed that the top executives involved in contract negotiations with SAG-AFTRA will devote the time it takes to reach a new deal. Langley, who is chairman of NBCUniversal Studio Group and chief content officer of NBCUniversal, declined to say much about the state of talks with the performers union during her address Wednesday evening at Bloomberg Media’s Screentime conference in Hollywood. But she did express that her executive counterparts in the negotiating room — Disney’s Bob Iger, Netflix’s Ted Sarandos and Warner Bros.

Three filmmakers assessing the impact of 2023’s dual strikes took a less-than-upbeat tone, citing uncertainty about the state of SAG-AFTRA negotiations with the AMPTP and the ongoing threat posed by artificial intelligence.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer Negotiations on a new SAG-AFTRA contract have finished for the day and are set to continue on Wednesday, as the two sides work to resolve the 88-day actors strike. The union and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers announced the update in a joint statement on Monday evening. “SAG-AFTRA and the AMPTP held negotiations and have concluded for the day,” the statement read.

This is Day 86 of the SAG-AFTRA strike. 

EXCLUSIVE: Talpa Studios entertainment format The Floor is in production in Ukraine, as a response to the devastating war that continues to cripple the Eastern European country.

This is Day 83 of the SAG-AFTRA strike. 

Jimmy Kimmel returned to the air for a new episode of his late-night show Jimmy Kimmel Live on Monday (October 2) after a months-long break due to the writers strike.