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With Hollywood studios currently floating offers on AI protections, the sharing of streaming numbers, and residual raises to Writers Guild of America members, SAG-AFTRA members have reached Day 33 on the picket lines hoping to get the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) to the bargaining table.
Thus, the SAG-AFTRA negotiating committee released a statement Monday with an update to their Interim Agreement: The actors’ union will no longer permit any Writers Guild-covered projects produced in the U.S. to receive an Interim Agreement (Interim Agreements permit independently produced and financed productions not affiliated with AMPTP that abide by SAG-AFTRA conditions to continue filming or casting).
The modification occurred after SAG-AFTRA staff and attorneys sat down with the WGA to discuss how the striking unions could best support each other (unlike SAG, the Writers Guild did not create any Interim Agreements for members). Prior to the new change, 15 to 20% of approved productions were under WGA-contracts, SAG chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland said on a call with the media Tuesday. The change will not affect past productions that were already approved.
“For the projects that were approved prior to this change in policy, our understanding is most of that writing is done and was done prior to the beginning of the writers’ strike,” said Crabtree-Ireland, “because these were productions that were set to begin and then did not start because of that.”
There won’t be any writing by WGA members on approved projects moving forward, Crabtree-Ireland added. But the decision to allow WGA-contracted projects to continue under the SAG agreement has received criticism. SAG actor and comedian Sarah Silverman posted to her social media on July 27 and said she declined work on an indie project because independent productions will ultimately end up on AMPTP’s streaming services. In addition, the SAG negotiating committee released a statement July 30 about approved projects:
“The union thoroughly vets and approves each and every project seeking an Interim Agreement. Regardless of the size of the budget or the renown of the cast, these projects have been confirmed to be separate from the AMPTP and entirely independent, except for in extraordinary circumstances mandated by legal considerations, such as Tehran,” an Apple TV+ series shot in Greece and subject to international laws. “It is important to note that the terms of the Interim Agreement have been designed by our Negotiating Committee and the Contracts Department to reflect the terms we are bargaining for in negotiations. The independent producers must agree to all of the terms, without exception, including the very proposals that the AMPTP rejected.
Crabtree-Ireland reiterated this during Tuesday’s media call, explaining, “The Interim Agreement provides empirical proof that the terms that we have put on the table with AMPTP are not only realistic, but are actually desirable and usable by producers in this industry.”
As of Aug. 13, more than 200 productions have received an Interim Agreement, including Michael Mann’s Ferrari, A24’s Death of a Unicorn starring Jenna Ortega, A24’s Mother Mary starring Anne Hathaway, and Bride Hard starring Rebel Wilson. Faith-based series The Chosen was one of the first television shows to receive one.
