Talks between actors and Hollywood studios broke down bitterly on Wednesday night, dashing any hope that the artists’ three-month strike would end soon.
The studios announced that they had suspended contract negotiations, saying the gap between the two sides was too wide to make it worth continuing, despite an offer as good as the one that recently ended the writers’ strike.
The actors union denounced the “intimidation tactics” of its opponents and said they were grossly misrepresenting their offers.
On October 2, for the first time since the strike began on July 14, the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists resumed negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents studios, streaming and production companies. in strike negotiations.
When negotiations with the writers resumed last month, their strike ended five days later, but no similar progress was made with the actors union.
Contract negotiations between Hollywood actors and studios are suspended, the studios report in a statement.ZUMAPRESS.com
The studios abandoned talks after seeing the actors’ most recent proposal on Wednesday.
“It is clear that the gap between AMPTP and SAG-AFTRA is too great and the talks are no longer taking us in a productive direction,” AMPTP said in a statement.
The SAG-AFTRA proposal would cost companies an additional $800 million annually and create “an unsustainable economic burden,” according to the statement.
Since the studio’s most recent proposal with actors on Wednesday, talks have reportedly died down. REUTERS
In a letter to members sent early Thursday, SAG AFTRA said that figure was overestimated by 60%. The union said its negotiators were “deeply disappointed” that the studios had broken off talks.
“We have negotiated with them in good faith,” the letter said, “even though they submitted an offer last week that was surprisingly worth less than what they were proposing before the strike began.”
Actors have been on strike over issues including pay increases for streaming programming and control over the use of their artificial intelligence-generated images.
The actors union condemned the “intimidation tactics” of its opponents, and said its negotiators were “deeply disappointed” by the breakdown of talks.REUTERS
The AMPTP insisted that its offers had been as generous as the agreements that ended the writers’ strike and awarded a new contract to the directors’ guild earlier this year.
But the union’s letter to actors said the companies “refuse to protect artists from being replaced by AI, refuse to raise their salaries to keep up with inflation, and refuse to share a small portion of the immense income that THEIR work generates them. “
From the beginning, the conversations with the actors had nothing to do with the push that sparked marathon nights and weekend sessions in the writers’ strike and ended the work stoppage.
Writers Matthew Weiner, left, and Semi Chellas carry signs at the picket line in front of Netflix on Sept. 27, 2023, in Los Angeles. Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP
Actors and studios had taken several days off after resuming activity, and there were no reports of significant progress despite the direct involvement of studio heads, including Disney and Netflix, as there was in the writers’ strike. .
However, the writers had their own false start in the negotiations. A month before the success of the talks, the initial attempt to resume negotiations ended within a few days.
Members of the Writers Guild of America voted almost unanimously to ratify their new contract on Monday.
Its leaders touted their deal as achieving most of what they had sought when they went on strike nearly five months earlier.
They declared their strike over and sent the writers to work on September 26.
Late-night talk shows returned to the air within a week, and other shows, including “Saturday Night Live,” will soon follow.
But without actors, production of scripted shows and movies will remain on hold indefinitely.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn