Fifth Season Cuts 12% Of Workforce Due To Writers & Actors Strikes

EXCLUSIVE: BBQ Brawl has been picked up for a fifth season by Food Network.

Brent Lang Executive Editor When Patricia Arquette decided to make her feature film directing debut with “Gonzo Girl,” she made a promise to her cast. “I told them that I would always edit everything for the acting — even if the camera work wasn’t the best in that take or some thing didn’t match from a continuity perspective,” she says a week before the movie’s big premiere at the Toronto Film Festival. “I don’t think someone has ever edited my performance directly for the acting, so I wanted to do this greedy, delicious thing for my ensemble.

EXCLUSIVE: Negeen Yazdi, Senior Vice President, Film Development & Production at Fifth Season, is departing the company. The well-liked veteran exec has been with Fifth Season (formerly known as Endeavor Content) for the past six years, helping to build its film slate and managing the film development team alongside Dan Guando. Deadline understands that her departure is amicable and that she will remain attached to select projects in an executive producer capacity. It is also understood this is unrelated to the recent staff cuts at Fifth Season, which were spurred on as a result of the impact of the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes.

EXCLUSIVE: Amid some uncertainty over the level of pre-sales business possible at Toronto and the AFM due to the strikes, a handful of packages are beginning to emerge.

Duncan Crabtree-Ireland Labor Day is more than a long weekend of beaches, barbecues and block parties. It’s a national celebration marking the economic and social contributions of American workers. How ironic, then, that SAG-AFTRA members are observing this 141st Labor Day on strike against a global industry that refuses to fairly recognize the contributions of the workers who power its economic success.

EXCLUSIVE: Caleb Landry Jones has built an eclectic resumé since he first appeared as Boy on Bike in 2007’s No Country for Old Men. His diverse credits include X-Men: First Class, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri, Get Out and Nitram, Justin Kurzel’s 2021 mass murder drama which earned Landry Jones a Best Actor prize in Cannes. 

Trustees of the SAG-AFTRA Health Plan have unanimously agreed to a one-calendar-quarter extension of health coverage for certain qualified participants who would otherwise lose coverage on Oct. 1, 2023. The extension accounts for jobs that may have been lost in May and June of this year due to the Writers Guild strike. The WGA has been on strike since May 2, SAG-AFTRA since July 14.

A new Gallup Poll released Wednesday finds an overwhelming majority of Americans support writers and actors over studios in the ongoing dual Hollywood strikes.

Breaking Bad cast members reunited on the picket line in support of the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA) strikes.Bryan Cranston (Walter White), Aaron Paul (Jesse Pinkman), Jesse Plemons (Todd Alquist), Betsy Brandt (Marie Schrader) and others were seen striking outside Sony Pictures Studios on Tuesday (August 29).Speaking to the crowd (via The Hollywood Reporter), Cranston said: “We’re not making [the studios and streamers] the enemy. They are not villains.

The release of “Dune: Part Two,” one of the fall’s most anticipated films, has been postponed from November until next year, Warner Bros. confirmed Thursday.

Selome Hailu The staff of Fifth Season has been hit with layoffs for the second time this year. 30 staffers — roughly 12% of Fifth Season’s workforce — were let go on Thursday, following the layoffs of eight staffers in April.

This is Day 114 of the WGA strike and Day 41 of the SAG-AFTRA strike. 

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer The 2023 writers strike has focused attention on recent developments like artificial intelligence and the transition to streaming. But for film writers, the key issue in the strike has been a constant battle for more than a generation: How do you get paid for a script once it’s finished? Screenwriters have long been asked to do free revisions before turning in a “first draft” to the studio, which triggers payment. Typically they agree, even though the Writers Guild of America contract sets out minimum rates for revisions and polishes.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor As SAG-AFTRA clocked its 40th day on strike, the union’s chief negotiator has called for leaders of Hollywood’s major studios and streamers to step in to bring the sides to a new deal and get the industry back to work. Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, SAG-AFTRA’s national executive secretary and its chief negotiator, said the union has had outreach from industry insiders who aim to help with basic communication between SAG-AFTRA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.

Husslup, the talent discovery platform founded by former Amazon exec H Schuster, has established a number of initiatives designed to help writers and freelance creatives during the writers and actors strikes.

EXCLUSIVE: Troy Kotsur, the Oscar-winning star of CODA, will open the inaugural edition of the Little Venice Film Festival.

This is Day 109 of the WGA strike and Day 36 of the SAG-AFTRA strike.

FX’s fifth season of multi-award winning series, Fargo, is returning on Tuesday, Nov. 21 at 10 p.m. ET/PT. The network today also unveiled first look images from the new season and revealed more details on the plot of the Noah Hawley-created TV series spawned from the Oscar winning 1996 Coen Brothers movie.

Parks and Recreation reunited on the picket line in support of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA) strike.Adam Scott (who played Ben Wyatt), Aubrey Plaza (April Ludgate) and Nick Offerman (Ron Swanson) appeared alongside other former members of the cast and crew on Friday (August 11) outside Amazon Studios in Culver City, California.Others on the picket line included Retta (Donna Meagle), Jim O’Heir (Jerry Gergeich), Ben Schwartz (Jean-Ralphio Saperstein), Alison Becker (Shauna Malwae-Tweep), Kirk Fox (Joe Fantringham), Joe Manda (Morris Lerpiss), Colton Dunn (Brett Hull), Susan Yeagley (Jessica Wicks) and show creator Michael Schur.Sharing pictures on Instagram, including with Sam Elliott (Ron Dunn) and Pawnee’s miniature horse Li’l Sebastian, Yeagley wrote: “Parks and Recreation Day on the picket lines. What a thrill to see the sweet family again.

Motion Picture Sound Editors is waiving dues payments for its members for the current year “in consideration of the ongoing strikes” by SAG-AFTRA and the Writers Guild. The waiver was approved unanimously by the organization’s board.