The threat of an actor’s strike influences film production

There is a terrific article by Steven Zeitchik in today’s Hollywood Reporter: Strike effect mirrors class struggle.

A few excerpts:

“A strike absolutely makes it possible to get the quality of people you normally wouldn’t have a shot at,” said Mark Gill, co-founder of the Film Department, which is prepping as many as four movies to shoot during the strike, including Bart Freundlich’s cougar comedy “The Rebound” with Catherine Zeta-Jones. “If we don’t use this window now, we’re crazy. It’s the best opportunity we’ll have for years to come.”

The result could a baby boom of sorts for independently made movies with big names, a class that likely will emerge toward year’s end and early 2009. “It’s going to be one interesting Sundance next year,” one industry insider said.

The decisions also are affecting how producers are financing movies before going into production in the first place; several said they weighed independent financing more favorably compared with specialty division financing.

SAG and the AMPTP suspended negotiations Tuesday with no deal in place. While many in Hollywood believe that the actors won’t actually walk out, the perception of a strike has become its own reality. “Even if a strike doesn’t happen, it’s going to be very hard for a studio to get a movie going right away,” Plum Pictures principal Celine Rattray said. “That means July is going to be a really fun month for a lot of indies.”

and:

The SAG waivers, which serve as guarantee completion agreements, are playing out differently than the interim agreements did during the WGA strike, in which they mainly allowed for scattered rewrites. This time, they could prove critical for companies, particularly specialty divisions and mini-majors, who will use them to shoot now and deepen thin 2009 slates. (Before granting waivers, SAG is scrutinizing productions closely to make sure no signatory companies are involved even via informal distribution deals or small amounts of financing.)

Unlike the WGA strike, which was primarily a television strike, the potential SAG walkout is hitting film in all sorts of ways. The scribe stoppage came about abruptly and, because it concerned writers, froze many projects in development. That made its impact felt more sharply on TV.

But the SAG strike is working in exactly the opposite way. Because studios have had plenty of advance warning — and because it gums up projects farther along in the production process — its impact is felt in the more long-term business of the studios.

Read the whole article here in THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER