Ted Hope On The “Combative Environment” At Amazon, Why He Is Skeptical Of SAG-AFTRA’s Interim Agreements & The Future Of Indie Filmmaking — Locarno

The actors strike is bringing old colleagues back together.

Universal Studios Group Chair Pearlena Igbokwe has said there is determination from all sides to find an “equitable” solution to the Hollywood labor strikes.

The Glee cast came out in full force for the SAG-AFTRA Strike on Wednesday (August 23)!

Ahead of its world premiere in competition at the 80th Venice Film Festival, Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla, which follows the Presleys from the perspective of the King’s young bride, has secured a SAG-AFTRA Interim Agreement.

“It’s a mad way to make a film, and I’m not sure it’s not something I would rush into again,” director Hope Dickson Leach said of the process behind her latest feature, the Edinburgh competition title The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. 

The power of a single vote was on full display yesterday in Nashville, where actor and stuntman Bill “Bilbro” Yarbrough defeated his nearest rival by a single vote to win a seat on the guild’s national board of directors.

Away we go. Manchester United are back on the road in the Premier League seeking a cure to the travel sickness that blighted their 2022-23 season.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter “The Peripheral” has been canceled at Amazon’s Prime Video, Variety has learned. The news comes despite the fact that Amazon renewed the show for a second season back in February. The series, based on the William Gibson novel of the same name, debuted on Amazon on Oct.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer SAG-AFTRA announced Monday that it will no longer grant interim agreements to independent projects that were written under a Writers Guild of America contract. The union has already given permission for 207 independent projects to continue to film during the strike, including ones with stars like Jason Bateman, Anne Hathaway and Matthew McConaughey. SAG-AFTRA argued that the agreements supported the strike because they involved independent producers who agreed to all of the union’s demands.

Reese Witherspoon is looking forward to her next chapter following her divorce from Jim Toth — but she’s not rushing into a new romance.

John Bleasdale Guest Contributor Locarno can’t get enough of Ted Hope. Five years after receiving the festival’s Raimondo Rezzonico Award, the producer of modern indie classics such as “The Wedding Banquet” and “The Ice Storm” shook things up yesterday at Locarno’s StepIN think tank with an Out of the Box keynote, a sweeping blast on the state of the industry. It resonated hugely with senior European industry executives who are often now battling the very same issues which Hope zeroed in on.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent “What’s the Deal With Independent Cinema?” was the theme of the Locarno Film Festival’s StepIn think tank where a select group of European and international industry players exchanged views and took part in working sessions to discuss the state of the indie film industry. The unique event, now at it 11th edition, kicked off Thursday with an “out-of-the-box” introduction by feisty U.S.

Veteran indie producer Ted Hope opened Locarno’s industry symposium Thursday afternoon with a provocative keynote during which he declared: “The indie film system is fucked.”

Luc Besson’s DogMan has become one of the first films to receive a SAG-AFTRA interim agreement that will allow talent to do press during the upcoming festival season. Actors will be allowed to promote the pic at its upcoming premiere at the Venice Film Festival.

EXCLUSIVE: Bella Thorne (Divinity) and Jack Kilmer (Palo Alto) have been set to topline The Tower, one of 102 projects to have been granted a SAG-AFTRA Interim Agreement following the launch of the actors strike. Also set for the fantastical drama, from filmmaker Adam Sigal (Nandor Fodor and The Talking Mongoose), are Cam Gigandet (Violent Night) and Chris Mullinax (Chariot).

EXCLUSIVE: Tubi has picked up Underdeveloped, a mockumentary from Brian A. Metcalf, starring Thomas Ian Nicholas, Tom Arnold and Mark Pellegrino. It will premiere globally September 8 on Fox Entertainment’s free streaming service Tubi. As an independent production with no direct ties to members of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television, it also is one of the latest projects to receive a waiver from SAG-AFTRA amid the actors strike, so filming can move forward.

Mattel is renewed its licensing agreement with Warner Bros. Discovery Global Consumer Products, continuing as the studio’s toy licensee in preschool, plush, dolls, vehicles, games, and novelty toy categories.

SAG-AFTRA will hold a mass rally in Times Square on Tuesday morning. It’s expected to be the biggest rally in NYC since the strike began on July 14. Celebs scheduled to attend the “Rock the City for a Fair Contract” rally include Bryan Cranston, Steve Buscemi, Christian Slater, Lauren Ambrose, Christine Baranski, Matt Bomer, Tituss Burgess, Liza Colón-Zayas, Gregory Diaz, Jennifer Ehle, Nancy Giles, Danai Gurrira, Jill Hennessy, Marin Hinkle, Stephen Lang, Arian Moayed, Wendell Pierce, Corey Stoll and Merritt Wever.

SAG-AFTRA has granted more waivers in recent days that give permission to indie projects to shoot during the current strike, including the independent film The Summer Book starring Glenn Close. Other recent projects that will be allowed to shoot include the TV series Underdeveloped and Sight Unseen.

EXCLUSIVE: For those awards strategists wondering whether stars from indie U.S. films can promote at the fall film festival troika, SAG-AFTRA National Executive Director and Chief Negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland says “We’re looking at that issue.”