TV and movie productions are coming to a halt.
The Screen Actors Guildthe union that represents American film and TV actorsis going on strike tonight at midnight.
They’re joining the Writer’s Guild of America, who have been on strike for 74 days. It comes at a time when film and TV production in Arizona was just starting to ramp up again
“Everybody’s going to be walking off sets. So this is shutting down Hollywood,” Tucson Filmmaker Mark Headley tells me.
Actors are going from in front of the camera to the front of the picket line, joining writers who have been on strike for more than two months.
Both groups are concerned about the future use of artificial intelligence and residuals in the streaming TV era.
“Streaming evidently does not pay everybody residuals,” says Headley. “There’s only the major actors. So, there’s some validity on both side.”
TV and movie productions shutting down will impact Arizona eventually, according to Film Tucson.
“We’re not deeply impacted yet but I think if this continues in the fall it’s going to hurt us,” says Film Tucson Director Peter Catalanotte.
Catalanotte knows film and TV production in Tucson is slow during the summer months. He says Arizona’s new film tax rebatewhich offers studios up to $75 million in incentives this yeardid spark a lot of interest from Hollywood before the writers strike.
“The incentives really were a shot in the arm for us,” Catalanotte says. “We got a lot of studios interested, sort of lining up for some different projects, but they immediately put those things on hold when the strike started. We understand. So we’re just hoping to see everything resolved quickly and fairly so that way can all get back to work this fall.”
For Headley, the actors and writers going on strike will not impact his work. He’s marketing his new film “Single Minded” and will start shooting a new feature film here in Tucson this weekend.
Mark Headley: “Sometimes I’ll use SAG actors and sometimes I’ll use independent. There’s a lot of non-union talent in Arizona. Pat Parris: “So you can continue to go on?” Mark Headley: “The indies, the indies can go on.”
Disney CEP Bob Iger calls the writers’ and actors’ strikes “disturbing.” He says demands are “not realistic,” coming at the “worst time,” citing the industry is still emerging from COVID restrictions in recent years.