UK Actors Union Equity Gear Up To Protest In Solidarity March With SAG-AFTRA On Friday

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.

While Viola Davis’ upcoming movie G20 reached a temporary agreement with SAG-AFTRA to continue filming, she is taking a step back amid the ongoing union strike.

Sophia Scorziello editor Viola Davis is stepping away from producing “G20,” announcing the decision in a statement signaling support for Hollywood’s ongoing strikes. Like over 100 other independent films, the upcoming action thriller received an interim agreement from SAG-AFTRA to continue production through the ongoing actors strike. But Davis won’t move forward with filming, setting a precedent for A-list talent negotiating the prospect of continuing work as the actors’ guild and AMPTP wait to reach an agreement.

Variety. The wide-ranging Zoom Q&A covered topics including the upcoming fall film festivals and more existential matters — like, how are small talent PR firms expected to survive when clients are forbidden to do press? The call, which was scheduled last week, comes at a sobering time for publicists confronting the financial realities both the SAG-AFTRA and Writers Guild of America strikes have presented.

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.

Adam B. Vary Senior Entertainment Writer The perils of artificial intelligence to the entertainment industry came to San Diego Comic-Con on Saturday, with SAG-AFTRA national executive director Duncan Crabtree-Ireland joining a panel of voice actors organized by NAVA, the National Association of Voice Actors, to discuss the specific hazards AI is already posing to the profession. “We’ve got to reject the idea that this is just something that’s going to happen to us and we can’t say anything about it,” Crabtree-Ireland said at the outset of the panel, about whether AI could devastate the entertainment industry. “I think it definitely could, the question is whether we’re going to let that happen.”

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.”

Following SAG-AFTRA’s clearance of AppleTV+’s Israeli spy series Tehran and New Line’s horror movie Watchers –prolific projects from AMPTP studios that the guild remains in talks with– in their interim agreement process, some producers and filmmakers in town have been miffed.

Succession star Brian Cox has said the actors strike will “affect British Equity far worse than it will probably affect SAG-AFTRA.”

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent French film guilds representing authors, directors and producers have released a joint letter pledging their “full solidarity” with the SAG-AFTRA and WGA double strike. “This battle that’s shaping tomorrow’s industry crosses borders. It’s also ours,” reads the letter, which was signed by the ARP (authors, directors, producers) and SRF (society of French directors), the governing body of Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight. The letter says the double strike “signals a turning point where the questions of sharing of wealth and integration of new models and AI are central.”

Editor’s note: Almost a week into the first joint strike by the actors union and the writers guild since 1960, there are picket lines all over LA and NYC. Yet there are no new negotiations planned between SAG-AFTRA or the WGA and the studios and streamers. Despite the silence and divisions between the parties, SAG-AFTRA National Executive Director and Chief Negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland insists that a pathway to a new contract and a better future for all is possible.

Manori Ravindran Executive Editor of International U.K. actors union Equity has planned rallies in London and Manchester to support the SAG-AFTRA strike. The org revealed on Tuesday that it will hold a demonstration in London’s Leicester Square and Manchester’s Media City at 12 p.m. on Friday (July 21). Speakers at the London rally will include Equity general secretary Paul W. Fleming, Equity president Lynda Rooke and MP John McDonnell. The events will also feature “speakers from the entertainment industry and trade union movement.” “In our sister union’s fight we stand in unwavering solidarity, and we will not allow the U.K. to become a back door to undermine the strike,” said Equity in a statement.

UK actors union Equity is to rally in solidarity with SAG-AFTRA later this week in London and Manchester.

The Hollywood Reporter.The 61-year-old reportedly rallied against the takeover of artificial intelligence in a statement now echoed by thousands of actors and entertainers in Hollywood, who are striking with the Writers Guild of America (WGA) for the first time in over six decades.Cruise hopped on the call in a desperate bid to get the AMPTP to re-evaluate its stance on AI in the TV and film streaming era.The actor’s latest “Mission: Impossible” movie has ground to a halt as a result of the strike action, as have dozens of other high-profile projects, including the “Avatar” sequel, “Gladiator 2” and “Deadpool 3.”During the Zoom call, Cruise also addressed the guild’s stance on stunt actors, according to the outlet.The actor asked the AMPTP to allow performers to continue on with their press tours following the strike, due to the “fragile state of movie theaters” following the pandemic.He said promoting films is just as “important” to the actors as it is to the studio, the outlet adds.The union protecting Hollywood’s biggest A-listers on Thursday joined forces with screenwriters on the picket line after voting to shut down production across the entertainment industry, which may result in a drought of shows and movies in the near future.The SAG-AFTRA unanimously voted to stop working after their contract expired and talks broke off with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), which represents streaming giants like Disney, Netflix, Amazon and others.The strike marks the first time the 160,000-member-strong SAG-AFTRA has walked off film and TV jobs since 1980.The actor-screenwriter strike is the first joint walkout in more than six decades.Both SAG-AFTRA and the WGA are demanding a rise in pay and

After AMPTP called their AI proposal to SAG-AFTRA yesterday “groundbreaking”, the actors’ union National Executive Director and chief negotiator, Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, still begs to differ.

Actors’ Equity president Kate Shindle is urging stage actors to “proactively and aggressively avoid breaking” the SAG-AFTRA strike by inadvertently accepting struck work.

The ongoing strike by Hollywood actors has the potential to disrupt UK film production as US companies consider shifting filming to Britain, according to Equity, the British performers' union. In solidarity with their American counterparts, who are engaged in a dispute with Hollywood studios, Equity has issued a warning to US companies intending to move productions to the UK.

Fran Drescher is speaking out in response to the controversy surrounding her recent trip to Italy and meetup with Kim Kardashian.

Actors’ Equity Association, the union representing stage theater actors and stage managers, expressed solidarity with the SAG-AFTRA actors strike against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, saying “Nobody should step in front of a camera fearing that today’s work will be mined, manipulated or repurposed in the future without consent or compensation.”