Studios to Negotiate All Remaining Open Items in Friday Talks With SAG-AFTRA
The AMPTP is set to meet with SAG-AFTRA on Friday afternoon with the intention of negotiating all remaining open items.
As previously reported by TheWrap, the guild paused bargaining this past Thursday while its negotiating committee was “awaiting a response” from the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers on the issue of artificial intelligence, as well as an unspecified “comprehensive counter proposal.”
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 said the two sides had made progress on those issues, allowing them to proceed to AI-related negotiations.
The use of AI is seen as a major sticking point for actors who are concerned that it will be used to replace, or at least devalue, their contribution to onscreen performances while studios would prefer to use whatever tools the growing technology allows to streamline and cut costs.
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.
It is not known if the AMPTP reps and the union negotiating committee will again work through the weekend as they did last week.
With the strike nearing four months since its July 12 start, studios fear that the 2023-2024 TV season may become a casualty along with more major theatrical releases missing their intended release date. In recent weeks, Disney/Pixar’s “Elio” and Paramount’s “Mission: Impossible 8” moved out of 2024 to new summer-of-2025 release dates.
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