Just yesterday I posted an article about the SAG/AFTRA strike potential for the very first time and one thing I mentioned was how Tom Hanks added his name to a petition calling on actors to endorse a deal reached by AFTRA. “The Hollywood Reporter” made a big deal about it, but I guess Hanks’s pull in Hollywood may not be what it used to be, or what THR thinks it may be as USA Today is now reporting that Jack Nicholson, Viggo Mortensen, Nick Nolte, Josh Brolin, and Rosanna and Patricia Arquette and other actors will come out in support of the Screen Actors Guild’s negotiating team and call for AFTRA to return to the bargaining table in a new ad to run Thursday. The news came to “USA Today” via “a person familiar with the situation.”

It seems there may be a rift in Hollywood as the folks on the other side of the line aligning with Hanks include the likes of Alec Baldwin, Kevin Spacey and a bunch of folks many of you may not know.

Now realize, there are some folks that belong to both SAG and AFTRA and some that belong solely to SAG. AFTRA stands for American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and Viggo Mortensen doesn’t see them as a help as much as he sees them as a hindrance saying, “In the current issues that we are dealing with, I would say that AFTRA is one of the main stumbling blocks… They are not working for actors and SAG is.”

Here’s the interesting thing. The current contract expires on Monday, but the results of the AFTRA vote will be announced on July 8, which means there will already be a week-long period of time in which there is absolutely nothing in place, that is unless SAG allows its actors to continue working and promoting their films in the meantime. It has to certainly be the reason the press junket for The Dark Knight is coming up this weekend as opposed to closer to the film’s July 18 release. Also in July some films such as The X-Files: I Want to Believe will be extremely hurt should their talent not be allowed to promote the film. “X-Files” has been off the air now for six years and the public is going to want a refresher, and in a big way.

Yesterday I mentioned how films such as Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and Ron Howard’s Angels and Demons will be going on hiatus soon, for how long is unknown. You can click here to read the complete article and see the larger list of films that are in jeopardy of being held up or, even worse, shut down.
The Los Angeles Times offers up the following list of films that may not begin filming or will have to stop filming.

• Nottingham (Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe)
• Funny People (Adam Sandler, Seth Rogen, Eric Bana, Leslie Mann and Jonah Hill)
• Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins (McG and Christian Bale)
• Night at the Museum 2: Escape from the Smithsonian (Ben Stiller)
• Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (BIG FUCKING ROBOTS)
• Angels and Demons
  (Ron Howard and Tom Hanks)
• Hannah Montana: The Movie (Miley Cyrus)
• Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (Jake Gyllenhaal)
• Shrink
  (Kevin Spacey)
• The Surrogates (Jonathan Mostow and Bruce Willis)
• A Thousand Words (Brian Robbins and Eddie Murphy)
• 2012 (Roland Emmerich with John Cusack and Amanda Peet)
• Lost for Words (Hugh Grant and Ziyi Zhang)
• Tooth Fairy (The Rock)
• The A-Team (John Singleton)
• Alice In Wonderland (Tim Burton’s Live-Action version)
• The Jetsens (Robert Rodriguez)
• The 28th Amendment (Phillip Noyce)

The sticking points remain, such as higher minimum wages, residual payments for all Internet content, jurisdiction over all productions targeted only at the Web, and an increase in payments for appearances in DVDs.

Jonathan Handel, a former Writers Guild of America associate counsel, is quoted in the “USA Today” article and seems confident there won’t be a strike, as he feels there just may be nothing in place for some time, “I think we’re in this gray sort of Netherworld where we neither have a strike nor a contract for some period of time,” Handel said. “There always will be a deal eventually, the question is when.”

Who knows what will happen, but we don’t have too long to wait and find out.

Related post categories: The Industry Insider : Actors Strike, AFTRA, Jack Nicholson, Josh Brolin, Nick Nolte, SAG, Tom Hanks, Viggo Mortensen

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