SAG-AFTRA Negotiations With AMPTP May Extend Past June 30 Contract Expiration Deadline

The Writer Guild of America said Wednesday that “we stand in solidarity with SAG-AFTRA as they bargain for a contract that truly works for all their members.” It’s the first comment the WGA has made on the SAG-AFTRA talks since the actors’ union last week extended its contract until July 12 to allow negotiations for a new film and TV contract to continue.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer SAG-AFTRA and the studios will keep talking beyond the midnight Friday contract deadline, as they remain at odds on issues like streaming residuals and artificial intelligence. The union has agreed to extend the contract to July 12. The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers and SAG-AFTRA made the announcement in a joint statement just before 7 p.m. Friday. In a message to its membership, SAG-AFTRA said the leadership had decided unanimously to extend the contract “in order to exhaust every opportunity to achieve the righteous contract we all demand and deserve.”

UPDATED with joint statement: SAG-AFTRA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers agreed Friday to extend their current film and TV contract until July 12 to allow bargaining on a new deal to continue, both sides said this evening. The current contract had been set to expire tonight at midnight PT, after which it would have likely meant a second major Hollywood guild would be on strike against the studios.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer SAG-AFTRA negotiators are meeting again Friday with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, as the industry waits in nervous anticipation of a potential “double strike.” The contract expires at midnight, and the actors union could call a strike as soon as Saturday if no deal is reached. The actors would join the Writers Guild of America, which has been picketing outside the major studios since May 2. The two sides have been exchanging proposals over the last week, and SAG-AFTRA leaders have said publicly that the talks have been productive. But it’s still not clear whether enough progress has been made to get to a deal.

SAG-AFTRA’s negotiations for a new contract are making headway “in some areas” but not in others, Fran Drescher, the guild’s president, said in an interview today on ABC’s Good Morning America.  

With the news that SAG/AMPTP negotiations could push into next week, international acting unions are for the most part taking a cautious approach to supporting a potential actors strike.

EXCLUSIVE: With 54 hours to go before SAG-AFTRA’s current contract with the studios expires on June 30, both sides are considering extending their negotiations until next week or slightly later.

Oscar winners Meryl Streep, Jennifer Lawrence and over 400 other actors have addressed SAG-AFTRA leaders in an open letter — and are threatening to strike if a harder line is not drawn regarding contact deals.   

More than 300 actors including many big names have signed a letter to SAG-AFTRA leadership urging them to take a hard line in the negotiations for a new film and TV contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.

More than 300 actors have signed a letter addressed to the SAG-AFTRA Leadership and Negotiating Committee.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer Netflix is poised to score big from two tax incentives that are moving through the state legislatures in California and New Jersey this week. In California, the legislature is set to approve a five-year extension of the state’s $330 million incentive for film and TV production. For the first time, the tax credit will be refundable — meaning that companies like Netflix, which does not have California tax liability, will be able to benefit. And in New Jersey, the legislature is moving forward on a significant expansion of a state incentive for film and TV infrastructure. That expansion is designed in part to help Netflix redevelop Fort Monmouth, a former military base on the Jersey Shore, as a production facility.

interview this past spring, Duncan Crabtree-Ireland told TheWrap that SAG-AFTRA’s leaders believe it could benefit actors if properly regulated so that performances and likenesses can’t be used without proper compensation and consent.If talks aren’t successful, SAG-AFTRA could end up joining WGA in a strike; members voted to authorize a strike ahead of contract talks earlier this month by an overwhelming 97%. If that happens, studios will face a strike by two separate guilds at once for the first time since 1960, when a double strike held by writers and actors led to the establishment of residuals for TV reruns.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer With less than a week to go before their contract expires, the leaders of SAG-AFTRA are striking an optimistic note about the progress of negotiations. In a video sent to members on Saturday, union president Fran Drescher and chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland say they hope to be able to achieve a deal with the studios. If they do, that would avert a “double strike,” in which performers would join the Writers Guild of America on picket lines outside the major studios. “I just want to assure you that we are having an extremely productive negotiations that are laser-focused on all of the crucial issues you told us are most important to you,” Drescher said. “We’re standing strong and we’re going to achieve a seminal deal.”

SAG-AFTRA leaders told their members today that the guild’s ongoing contract negotiations have been “extremely productive” and that they “remain optimistic” that a fair deal can be reached with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.

The longest day of the year was this week, and SAG-AFTRA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers sure could use the extra hours to keep negotiating as the June 30 deadline to reach a deal before the current contract expires is only a week away.

Andy Cohen is setting the record straight about his longtime friendship with John Mayer.«I was on Howard Stern last week and he asked me about my friendship with John Mayer and I said, 'Yeah, you know,' said kind of flippantly and offhandedly that we love each other,» Cohen shared during his radio show, SiriusXM’. «It became headline news and the more it became headline news, the more butthurt I got over it.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer Prosecutors on Thursday accused “Rust” armorer Hannah Gutierrez Reed of tampering with evidence by handing off drugs to another person on the day of the fatal shooting on set. Gutierrez Reed’s lawyer, Jason Bowles, said the new charge came without prior notice or evidence to support it. “Something is rotten in Denmark,” Bowles said in an email. “This stinks to high heaven and is retaliatory and vindictive.” Gutierrez Reed is already facing a charge of involuntary manslaughter in the October 2021 death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.

Billy Ray and Todd Garner are back for Week 6 of the Writers Guild standoff on Deadline’s Strike Talk podcast. Click below to listen.

The Television Critics Association has officially cancelled its upcoming summer press tour as the WGA, DGA and SAG-AFTRA are at different points of negotiating new contracts with the AMPTP.

SAG-AFTRA and the studios have begun negotiations for a new film and TV contract. The talks, which got underway Wednesday morning at the Sherman Oaks offices of the studios’ reps the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, come two days after the guild’s members voted 97.9% in favor of authorizing a strike if an acceptable deal isn’t reached by the end of the month.