SAG actors’ strike news: Kevin Bacon joins picket as studio horror stories go viral

House of the Dragon is set to continue filming in the United Kingdom this summer despite the Screen Actors Guild strike – due to local union rules.

The second season of the HBO series is likely to proceed with production as scheduled, Variety reported on Thursday (13 July). The cast of the Game of Thrones prequel is primarily composed of British actors working under Equity contracts, rather than SAG-AFTRA. As a result, Equity members aren’t legally allowed to strike in solidarity with the US union, according to the outlet.

UK law prohibits Equity union from legally calling a strike in support of SAG-AFTRA

Tom Cruise reportedly spoke with reps SAG-AFTRA and AMPTP about issues like film promotion and AI, as well as some specifically concerning stunt professionals.

According to Deadline, the actor pushed SAG-AFTRA to consider allowing member promotion of studio projects during the strike.

A source told the outlet that this discussion wasn’t specifically concerning the 61-year-old actor’s latest film Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, but it was instead an acknowledgment of the power promotion has in influencing box office results, which are crucial for the industry post-pandemic.

Actor Mark Ruffalo has urged his fellow stars to work with indie producers, following the news that SAG-AFTRA will soon be signing “interim agreements” with truly independent producers that will allow many of them to make projects during the strike, as long as they are not affiliated with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.

“Then we just do what we always do – create great content and they can buy it, or we take it out ourselves and WE share in those sales,” he tweeted. “They’ve created an empire of billionaires and believe that we are no longer of value. While they hang out in the billionaire boy summer camps laughing like fat cats, we organise a new world for workers.”

In a statement shared with the PA news agency, Clooney said: “This is an inflection point in our industry. Actors and writers in large numbers have lost their ability to make a living.

“For our industry to survive that has to change. For actors that journey starts now.”

In a video posted to Instagram, Baldwin congratulated the union for calling the strike in order to protect its “rank and file” members.

“I don’t think anybody really wants a strike but they don’t want to continue under the unfair contracts that we’re working under now,” he said.

“So congratulations to everybody and I hope this is over right after we get everything we want.”

Along with film premieres, Comic-Con, 90s Con and many more promotional events that are expected to be negatively impacted as a result of the actors’ strike, fall film festivals are also “f***ed”, one studio executive put it bluntly.

“You can’t premiere movies anywhere without your stars,” the executive told Variety. “No stars, no movie.”

The Telluride, Toronto and New York film festivals, which are scheduled for this fall, are at risk of being derailed by the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike, should it last for months.

Colorado’s famed Telluride Film Festival, which is to run from 31 August through 4 September, could potentially remain the least impacted as it doesn’t hold press conferences or step-and-repeats like many others do.

“Telluride will be mostly unaffected,” one studio executive told the outlet. “I can’t say the same for the others.”

The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) is expected to take place from 7 September through 17 September, followed by the New York Film Festival from 29 September until 15 October.

It’s unknown how long the Hollywood shutdown could last, however, SAG is ready for “the long haul”. So until studios and SAG come to an agreement on a fair contract, this fall might be a risky season for TV and film.

Production across the industry is being impacted by the protests

“Streaming residuals” has become a buzzworthy term thanks to the ongoing strike. Now, if you felt like it was too late to ask: What exactly are streaming residuals? Have no fear, The Office’s David Denman has broken it down for you.

“Netflix, they created a model that everyone else followed,” the actor told The Associated Press while on the picket lines in Los Angeles, “which is, we’re going to buy you out. We’re going to pay for your services for a cycle, which would be three months.

“And it doesn’t matter if you watch that show one or you watch it 100 times, you’re not going to get any more money because more people watched it. The only person that makes more money is the person who licensed that to Netflix.”

Offering an example, he continued: “So Universal [Studios] licensed that to Netflix. And when it was the number one show on Netflix, they’re able to make a significant profit off of that, but that doesn’t trickle down to the blue-collar actor like me.”

Now that Hollywood is effectively shut down, leaving networks scrambling to rework their fall 2023 TV schedule, CBS has announced its revised lineup.

The network originally released its fall schedule in May, which included several of its scripted programmes set to return.

However, with the ongoing joint strike of actors and writers, CBS has been forced to adjust to the new landscape by adding a large number of unscripted shows and acquired programming, according to Variety.

This means that the network will import several shows from its broader Paramount universe. So, on Sundays at 9pm, viewers can expect to see Paramount’s original hit series Yellowstone make its broadcast debut on CBS, starting from season one.

While SAG-AFTRA strike guidelines bar its members from posting any promotional material for studios during the strike on social media, there’s an additional caveat for those who hope to gain future membership too.

“Any non-member seeking future membership in SAG-AFTRA who performs covered work or services for a struck company during the strike will not be admitted into membership in SAG-AFTRA,” it explicitly states under the website’s strike Dos and Don’ts.

So for all those social media influencers, who hope to someday join the actors’ guild, refrain from promoting projects made under SAG contracts on social media.

Although, for all those influencers who were already invited to Disney World’s Saturday premiere of Haunted Mansion, it’s understood that their red carpet presence was already cleared.

“If an influencer is already under contract to promote struck work, then the influencer should fulfill their work obligation,” the guidelines add.

For those interested in supporting the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strike, there are several things you can do.

While it may seem counterintuitive, you should not cancel your streaming subscriptions, actor Dave Wallace tweeted. In fact, he argued that doing the exact opposite “would actually be more supportive”.

Meanwhile, Neil Gaiman addressed a fan on Tumblr who asked if going to see Barbie in theatres would be “crossing the picket line” and whether they should “wait until the strike has been resolved”.

“No, it’s not crossing a picket line to go and see anything,” the Good Omens author responded. “Continuing to go see your movies, watch your shows, streaming your favourites is one of the best ways to support the WGA and SAG-AFTRA right now.”

He explained that consuming content “helps immensely to show the studios the value of the work that writers and actors do”.

“If you don’t go, it hurts writers and actors,” Gaiman said. “Studios can say, ‘Well, actually Barbie only made $X dollars, Oppenheimer only made $Y dollars, only so many thousands of people watched Good Omens 2, obviously there isn’t enough money to go around.

“See the stuff you want to see with reckless abandon,” he encouraged.