Industry News :: AFTRA, studio talks continue

05/23/08 By Dave McNary, Variety.com

Go to Original

With the issue of online clips continuing to loom large as a rallying point, AFTRA and the majors have completed a dozen days of negotiations on the union's primetime contract.
Talks will resume Friday morning at the headquarters of the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers in Encino with no decision yet on whether to work through the weekend. The bargaining is taking place under a news blackout.

Both AFTRA and SAG - which are bargaining the deal separately for the first time in three decades - have insisted that they can't accept the AMPTP's clips proposal for new media. The majors, citing the massive amounts of pirated clips, have asked the thesps to give up the right to approve online use of their images.

The Screen Actors Guild's due back at the table on Wednesday for its feature-primetime negotiations following a three-week recess for the AFTRA talks, which had inititally been envisioned as being completed by now.

SAG leaders have repeatedly emphasized the importance of the clips issue to its members, asserting that actors need to remain in control of the exploitation of their images; the companies have asserted that the consent requirement would prevent such a business from becoming financially feasible.

SAG's been holding a variety of member meetings this week about the negotiations, including videoconfernces with the Chicago, Miami and San Francisco branches and a Wednesday meeting in Los Angeles with about two dozen high-profile actors.

Both the SAG and AFTRA contracts expire June 30. SAG's been putting pressure on the studios by signing at least 95 interim deals with indie feature producers that would allow actors to continue working on select projects even if a strike occurs.

The SAG guaranteed completion contracts are available only to independent feature productions that have neither financing nor distribution deals with any AMPTP-repped company.

Some of the projects include pics on The Film Department's slate: romantic comedy "The Rebound," starring Catherine Zeta-Jones and Justin Bartha; "Law-Abiding Citizen," a thriller starring Gerard Butler; WWII thriller "Brothers in Arms," directed by Marcel Langenegger; "The Other Side of Paradise" and romantic comedy "Earthbound."

Other projects with SAG waivers include Roaring Leo's drama "Shifting the Canvas," Oliver Strone's biopic "W" and "Let It Ride," a thriller directed by Simon West for Mace Neufeld.