Gear up for another strike...

To try to get talks started and avoid another long term strike when the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) contract runs out June 30, Tom Hanks, George Clooney, Meryl Streep, and Robert De Niro have ran full page ads in Variety and the Hollywood Reporter. The fear is that the guild will wait too long to begin talks in an attempt to gain leverage in negotiations. SAG’s leaders, however, say with four months to go, it’s too early.

SAG national exec director Doug Allen said, "Our ongoing member outreach has included, and will continue to include, conversations with high-profile television and movie actors as well as input from our member-driven wages and working conditions committee meetings. We are jointly conducting these wages and working conditions meetings with AFTRA. This process will conclude in the March [sic]. We will bargain with management at a time that will most benefit our members."

But, according to AFTRA topper Kim Roberts Hedgpeth, March 31 is the start date of negotiations only if the unions can sort out the details of joint bargaining.

Coming on the heels of the writers’ strike, which ended after 100 days on February 12, any drawn out negotiations could cripple the industry. To prepare for the writers’ strike studios could stock up on scripts. In the event of an actors’ strike, filming (or postproduction like looping) on movies would have to stop completely.

Indeed, it’s already having an effect. Movies have been rescheduled trying to push them ahead, causing casting conflicts and feelings of being “rushed”. While it’s feared that movies that have already suffered delays due to lack of scripts or needing rewrites will be further postponed in anticipation of a strike. Plans are being worked on for productions that may have to shut down in the middle.

Specifically, Steven Spielberg won’t begin filming The Trial of the Chicago 7 in April, Ron Howard has moved around his shooting plans for Angels & Demons, George Miller is hoping to finally start filming Justice League, but not until August when any strike should be over with, and Terminator Salvation will start in May - with cast and crew contractually obligated to start working again 48 hours after the potential strike ends.