It has been claimed that the ongoing strike by Hollywood actors could result in next year’s film releases being pushed back to 2025.
The three-month SAG-AFTRA strike continues after talks between actors and studios failed last week and the writers’ strike recently reached an agreement.
And it has now been claimed that both 2023 Christmas TV and 2024 film releases could be affected by ongoing strike action due to project halts.
Entertainment reporter Stephanie spoke about the actors’ strike and discussed possible delays during an appearance on BBC Radio 4 on Tuesday.
She said the 2023/24 TV season may not be “salvageable” due to the breakdown of talks, adding that Hollywood’s 2023 Christmas schedule could be affected by the action.
Delays: The ongoing strike by Hollywood actors could cause next year’s film releases to be pushed back to 2025, reports say (Jessica Chastain is pictured on the picket line in New York)
She also claimed that film releases in 2024 could be pushed back to 2025 as projects were put on hold due to the ongoing strikes that began in July.
When asked if Christmas TV would be affected, she said: “Probably yes!” There was hope that if they got actors out of strike by the end of this month, we could save some of the 2023/2024 TV season, as well as some upcoming film releases could retrieve.
“But now that studios are pulling out of negotiations, it looks like we won’t be able to salvage the television season and 2024 releases may be pushed back to 2025.”
She also claimed that the SAG-AFTRA actors were “worried” that they wouldn’t see as many big Hollywood names “vocally fighting for the strike like the big showrunners did on the writers’ side.”
Actors spotted on the picket lines in recent days include Jessica Chastain, Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge and Edward James Olmos.
Drew Barrymore recently came under fire for announcing her show’s return before the end of the writers’ strike, before quickly reversing the decision and her writers subsequently refusing to return.
Last week, talks between Hollywood actors and studios collapsed, dashing hopes of an early end to the three-month artists’ strike.
Studio bosses backed off, saying the SAG-AFTRA proposal of $800 million more per year meant “the gap was too big.”
Disruption: It has been claimed that both Christmas television and film releases in 2024 could be affected by the ongoing strike action (Jack Black is pictured on the picket lines).
Ongoing: The three-month SAG-AFTRA strike continues after talks between actors and studios failed last week and the writers’ strike recently reached an agreement
Support: Jennifer Coolidge is seen on the picket line at the SAG-AFTRA strike at Warner Brothers Studios in Burbank, California
The strikes began on July 14, with actors highlighting a range of issues, including pay and the use of artificial intelligence at the heart of talks.
The studios announced that they had suspended contract negotiations after making an offer as good as the one that recently ended the writers’ strike that has been going on since May.
The actors’ union condemned their opponents’ “bullying tactics” and said they were completely misrepresenting their offers.
On October 2, SAG-AFTRA resumed negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), which represents studios, streaming services and production companies in strike talks, for the first time since the strike began on July 14.
When negotiations with the writers resumed last month, the strike ended five days later, but no similar progress was made with the actors’ union.
Studios broke off talks after seeing the actors’ latest proposal last Wednesday.
“It is clear that the gap between AMPTP and SAG-AFTRA is too great and the discussions are no longer moving us in a productive direction,” the AMPTP said in a statement.
The SAG-AFTRA proposal would cost businesses an additional $800 million per year and create “an unsustainable economic burden,” the statement continued.
But in a letter to members sent early Thursday, SAG-AFTRA said the figure had been overestimated by 60 percent, adding that its negotiators were “deeply disappointed” that the studios had broken off talks .
“We negotiated with them in good faith,” the letter said, “despite the fact that last week they submitted an offer that was shockingly worth less than what they had proposed before the strike began.”
Actors are striking over, among other things, salary increases for streaming programs and control of the use of their AI-generated images.
The AMPTP insisted its offers were as generous as the deals that ended the writers’ strike and brought a new contract with the Directors’ Guild earlier this year.
However, the union’s letter to actors states that the companies “refuse to protect artists from being replaced by AI, that they refuse to increase their wages to keep up with inflation, and that they refuse to share a tiny portion of the immense revenue YOUR work generates for them.”‘
From the beginning, the actors’ conversations had nothing to do with the momentum that sparked the writers’ strike’s marathon night and weekend sessions and ended the work stoppage.
Slammed: Drew Barrymore came under fire for announcing her show’s return before the end of the writers’ strike, before quickly reversing the decision and her writers refusing to return
Strike Line: On September 12, WGA members were seen picketing outside Barrymore’s New York studios after Drew took steps to restart the talk show amid the strike
Action: The actors’ strikes began on July 14, with actors highlighting a range of issues, including pay and the use of AI at the heart of the conversations
Actors and studios had taken several days off after the resumption and there were no reports of significant progress, despite studio heads including Disney and Netflix being directly involved.
But the authors also had their own false start in the negotiations: a first attempt at resumption lasted only a few days a month before the talks were finally successful.
Members of the Writers Guild of America (WGA) voted almost unanimously on Monday to ratify their new contract.
Its leaders announced that their deal had achieved most of what they had sought when they went on strike nearly five months earlier.
They declared their strike over and sent the writers back to work on September 26th.
Late-night talk shows were back on the air within a week, and more shows, including Saturday Night Live, are soon to follow.
But since there are no actors, production of scripted series and films will be paused indefinitely.