Welcome back to the blog readers. Well, it has happened. After 118 days, the SAG-AFTRA strike is finally over, and things can start getting back to normal. There is a lot to unpack here, and still a lot to do before the strike is officially over and production begins again. So worry not, my little tadpoles. We will break everything down and explain what got us to this point, the end of the longest actors strike in history.
But first, a little backstory. The contract SAG-AFTRA had with the studios initially expired on June 30, but the two sides had negotiated to continue talks for another 2 weeks. These talks stalled, and the actors decided to strike on July 13. This led to the infamous incident of the cast of Oppenheimer (2023) walking out of its London premiere, even though it had started an hour early. The strike officially began the next day and the industry, which had already been dealing with the WGA being on strike since May, was basically crippled. Nothing was being written, nothing was being filmed. Although the writers strike ended on September 28, with writing on most productions picking up.
In the meanwhile, there were projects that were given a "SAG interim agreement" during the strike, which allowed production on certain things to continue for various reasons. One of those main reasons was if the film is being distributed by A24. A24 has skyrocketed over the past few years with some of the best films in that span. Take films like Ex Machina (2014), The Witch, Room (both 2015), and Hereditary (2018) that put them on the map. You also have films like Moonlight (2016), Lady Bird (2017), Midsommar (2019), The Lighthouse, Uncut Gems (both 2019), Minari (2021), Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022), Past Lives and Talk to Me (both 2023). Some of the most critically acclaimed films in the last decade have been distributed by this small studio. And what makes it all the more brutal is that A24 accepted what SAG was asking for. Therefore, production and marketing on films like The Zone of Interest, The Iron Claw, Priscilla, Dream Scenario (all 2023), and Death of a Unicorn (2024) was allowed to continue, with the premiere of The Iron Claw happening not too long ago.
Another reason that certain productions got a SAG interim agreement is because some productions happened overseas. Although a series like Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (2022-present) wrapped filming prior to the strike, it was an international production based in London. Another major production that was based in London was the HBO series House of the Dragon (2022-present). Filming did not wrap before the strike started, but was allowed to continue because the production was based in the United Kingdom. Even though some of the actors are a part of SAG, the production was covered not under SAG, but under the UK union called Equity. And there are laws in the UK that prohibit solidarity strikes, so if the cast of House of the Dragon had struck in solidarity with SAG, they would face legal trouble. There are some international films with SAG "interim agreements" and some other series as well. One such film was the Hungary based Dune: The Sisterhood. That series, which serves as a prequel to Denis Villeneuve's Dune (2021) and Dune: Part Two (2024), was allowed to continue filming and was even renamed to Dune: Prophecy with an expected release in the fall of 2024.
The strike also affected films that were completed prior to the strike. The strike caused films to shift release dates, with some even a full calendar year later. Some of the most notable release dates that were shifted include Dune: Part Two (November 3, 2023 to March 15, 2024), Challengers (September 15, 2023 to April 26, 2024), Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (December 20, 2023 to March 29, 2024), Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (March 15 to April 12, 2024), Kraven the Hunter (October 6, 2023 to August 20, 2024), A Quiet Place: Day One (March 8 to June 28, 2024), Snow White (March 22, 2024 to March 21, 2025), the now untitled sequel to Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One (2023) (June 28, 2024 to May 23, 2025) and the untitled sequel to Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021) (July 14 to November 8, 2024). Some films were even taken off the release schedule indefinitely, including Magazine Dreams, Problemista, They Listen, and The Bikeriders.
Now obviously there are a whole lot of productions and schedules that were affected by the strike. Most things could not film for the 118 days the strike lasted. A whole bunch of Marvel, Warner Brothers, Netflix, and many various sets have been collecting dust for the last four months. Some of the notable projects that have seen a pause in production include Deadpool 3 (the one I am the most gutted about), Beetlejuice 2, Gladiator 2, It Ends With Us, Mortal Kombat 2, Mufasa: The Lion King, The Movie Critic, Paddington in Peru, Sonic the Hedgehog 3, Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse, Twisters, the third and fourth Avatar films, and The Conjuring: Last Rites. Series that paused production include Andor, American Horror and Sports Story, American Horror Stories, Daredevil: Born Again (the footage shot before suspension was scrapped and the series will begin production next year with a showrunner and new writers and directors), Euphoria, Interview with the Vampire, The Last of Us, One Piece, The Sandman, Outer Banks, Stranger Things, Welcome to Derry, and the spinoffs of The Walking Dead. Some series were even canceled, like the Prime Video series A League of Their Own (2023), a series that was greenlit for a second season. Other series that were canceled were The Peripheral, Pitch Perfect: Bumper in Berlin (both 2023), The Venery of Samantha Bird (which was canceled during production), and Entertainment Tonight Canada (renewed for a nineteenth season but later canceled after its eighteenth). So here is to hoping that these films and series can get the balls rolling in the next few weeks and months.
That was a lot of backstory and a lot to take in, but now we need to talk about what happened to get us to this moment and where we go from here to make sure this strike stays over. Here we go because it is a lot. The AMPTP and Sag met on October 2 to begin negotiations, their first meeting since talks broke off in mid-July. After 9 days of talking, negotiations broke down on October 11. On October 19, a Zoom call took place between multiple actors including George Clooney, Scarlett Johansson, Kerry Washington, Tyler Perry, Bradley Cooper, Meryl Streep, Jennifer Aniston, Robert De Niro, Ben Affleck, Laura Dern, Emma Stone, Reese Witherspoon, Ryan Reynolds, and Ariana Debose and SAG, where they proposed eliminating the caps on membership dues. SAG brass, notably president Fran Drescher, called the proposal unfeasible. Negotiations resumed on October 24 and continued through to November 8, nearly two weeks of straight negotiations. The studios even pressured SAG with a deadline of the week of Halloween to get a deal done or they would break negotiations until after the holiday season. On November 4, the studios submitted what they called their "last, best, and final offer," with SAG taking the weekend to read it over. On November 8, the studios gave SAG a 5:00pm PST deadline to tell them if a deal could be made, and Deadline reported less than an hour later saying the two sides reached a tentative deal. Now the key word here is "tentative." SAG's board themselves have to ratify the deal, which will happen on November 10, and at that point all 160,000 members of the union will vote on the deal themselves. The writers strike followed a similar process, with nearly all members of the guild voting to approve the deal.
While details about what exactly this new deal encompasses, there are some that have shared cliff notes pertaining to that. It is up to SAG-AFTRA to disclose what is in the deal, but they have promised it is valued at a billion dollars, and provides "extraordinary value." So far, what has been shared is that SAG has gotten increases to minimum compensation and pension and health plans, "unprecedented provisions for consent and compensation" to protect members from the threat of artificial intelligence (something I wrote about in my article discussing the start of the strike, which you can read here) and a "streaming participation bonus," which could mean that actors that star in streaming films and series may get proper accommodations. There is also something in the deal that sees background actors get increased compensation and "critical contract provisions protecting diverse communities." All of this is what has come out, but when SAG comes out and releases the nitty gritty of the deal, I will edit this article with the actual fine print so you can see for yourselves what the actors fought to get.
This six-month span where the writers and actors both went on strike has been a tough time for people. Hundreds of thousands of people were not working and being able to afford to live. Now that the fight is over, we can expect mostly everyone to get back to work in the coming weeks and months. There will be one issue that I think can cause problems if it gets to be too bad. The only issue that I can see turning into a problem is that now that all of these productions are going to be resuming, there will be a whole lot of infighting over crew. The thing about Hollywood before the strikes was that there were only so many productions going on at one time. With all of them resuming, I do fear some productions might not have the proper crew to continue, or productions that had certain crew may not have that same crew in a few weeks. I do have confidence that this issue can be resolved, but there need to be a certain few productions all going on at once.
I am elated that hundreds of thousands of people get to go to work now, and that people can promote the projects they have worked so hard on. Let's hope the actors got a deal that is fair for them, and fair for the industry as a whole. Thank you all so much for reading this longer post, and I will see you for my reviews of the season finale and the season as a whole of Loki.
POST-PUBLISH UPDATE: It is Tuesday, November 14, and we are one day removed from the release of the terms of the agreement that SAG-AFTRA's board reviewed and approved 86%. I did promise you all that I would post the link to what SAG got, so that is the goal of this post-publish update. This is what the union members themselves will be reviewing from today until December 5 (there are more members of SAG-AFTRA than the WGA, so that is why it will take more time). Thank you all again for reading this longer post, and let us all take pride in knowing the actors fought for a better future and got it.
Comments