SAG-AFTRA told members that talks with the major Hollywood studios will resume Friday after being “on standby” Thursday.
The guild said bargaining was paused on Thursday while its negotiating committee was “awaiting a response” from the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers on the issue of so-called artificial intelligence, as well as an unspecified “comprehensive counter proposal.”
“The Negotiating Committee was on standby today awaiting a response from the AMPTP on both the AI counter and the comprehensive counter proposal,” the guild said in the message that was also posted Thursday night on its social media profiles. “Our team looks forward to continuing bargaining with the companies tomorrow.”
Prior to the resumption of talks, studio insiders expressed optimism that a deal could be reached on artificial intelligence usage, seeing streaming compensation and minimum rates as the biggest hurdles to securing a deal. Insiders say the two sides have made significant progress on those issues, allowing them to proceed to discussions on AI.
SAG-AFTRA chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland told TheWrap during the early weeks of the strike that the guild would be meticulous in its negotiations on AI, working to ensure that the contract would satisfy members’ demands for control over whether their likeness and performances are used to create digital replicas.
SAG-AFTRA also told members in a memo last week that the two sides had remained “far apart” on other issues outside of streaming and AI. The comprehensive counterproposal presented by the guild negotiating committee last Saturday contains proposed terms on labor items related to various types of performers represented by SAG-AFTRA including singers, dancers and stuntmen, among others.
It is yet to be seen whether AMPTP reps and the SAG-AFTRA negotiating committee will once again negotiate through the weekend as they did last week. With the strike reaching 112 days and counting, studios fear that time is running out to salvage the 2023-24 TV season, and that a failure to reach a deal will force more films to be moved from their 2024 release slots, as was the case for Paramount’s “Mission: Impossible 8” and Disney/Pixar’s “Elio.”
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