SAG-AFTRA
Hollywood studios and major streamers met with SAG-AFTRA leadership on Saturday to lay out more ambitious plans in an effort to end the actors’ strike.
The union sent a memo to its members after the meeting, saying the negotiating team was now reviewing what it said was the companies’ “last, best and final offer.” It urged members to ignore extraneous speculations and rumours.
An expanded set of CEOs attended Saturday’s bargaining session, along with major studios and streamers and SAG leadership. The Hollywood Reporter has learned
Behind the scenes, top executives say they may hold talks for now — or until the new year — if SAG-AFTRA doesn’t agree to what a studio-side source said is “more than three times the value of the deal.” The last contracts incorporated together.”
Studios have told SAG leadership in recent days that if there is no resolution by the first or second week of November, their 2024 summer movie slates will be disrupted; Ditto for the upcoming TV season, which has already suffered.
“It’s a very good deal for them; They got everything they wanted and they came back for more,” the source said, adding that if a deal isn’t reached by the end of this week or early next week, “that means we’re done.”
As for the final offer, studios and streamers classified as key concessions, including more favorable AI protection than the recently awarded WGA contract (Actor’s needs regarding AI protection are very different from writers’, higher pay increases in 40. years and a brand new streaming residual based on performance metrics.
After the studios made their latest offer to top union negotiators on Friday night, the two parties met on Zoom on Saturday. Disney’s Bob Iger, NBCUniversal’s Donna Langley, Netflix’s Ted Sarandos and Warner Bros. Studio heads, including Discovery’s David Zaslav, attended earlier negotiating sessions with SAG-AFTRA this year, as well as with the Writers Guild of America before the union struck a deal in late September. – but Saturday’s group was overwhelming.
Top executives from Paramount, Sony, Apple and Amazon were also in attendance, meaning all the major traditional Hollywood studios were represented along with three tech giants with major film and TV ambitions.
The turnout was a serious sign of the SAG-AFTRA strike entering its 114th day. As of Saturday, sources gave mixed answers as to when a deal might be done, with some more hopeful than others that the talks could conclude sooner. The SAG-AFTRA negotiating team met Saturday morning to prepare for the day’s bargaining session.
Oct. On the 24th both parties returned to the negotiating table and met. Iger, Langley, Sarandos and Zaslav attended some of those meetings, but recently AMPTP president Carole Lombardini has been conducting conversations on behalf of the studios. .
A week ago, an expanded group of top executives met with SAG-AFTRA chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland and union president Fran Tresher to share, among others, their television and film production schedules and how they are doing. reaches an end.
Those on the call included Sony Pictures Chairman Tony Vinciguerra, Paramount CEO Brian Robbins, and Amazon Studios’ Mike Hopkins and Jennifer Salke, in addition to the four regular executives who had attended previous negotiating sessions.
Nov. 4, 2:45 p.m: Updated with meeting details and SAG report.
Kim Masters contributed to this report.
