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Production News -- New Series and Movie Threatened
Stardate: 6 April 01
New Series and Movie Threatened by Strikes
While Star Trek: Voyager will end its season in the nick of time and escape
unscathed, all of Hollywood is bracing for what could be crippling strikes from both
the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and the Screen Actors Guild (SAG), although
all parties involved are hoping to come to a resolution.
Should one or both of these strikes take place, production would shut down
across Hollywood on all films and television shows, including the upcoming fifth
Star Trek series and the next Star Trek feature film, both currently in pre-production.
What's under negotiation are the film and television contracts for each union, which
governs how writers and actors are compensated, what kind of credit they receive,
working conditions and other operational points.
First on the negotiation agenda for the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television
Producers (AMPTP) are the negotiations with the WGA, which are presently stalled,
but not over by a long shot. Negotiations between the WGA and AMPTP broke off
on March 1, but negotiations are expected to resume in April. The current Writer's
contract is set to expire May 2, leaving a very small window of time in which to
hammer out a new contract both sides can agree on.
Meanwhile, SAG, although prepared to begin negotiations now, will wait until
the WGA and the AMPTP have reached a resolution or until the WGA contact expires
to begin their negotiations.
The SAG contact with the AMPTP expires on over a month after the WGA's,
and SAG would prefer not to overlap with the Writer's negotiations. SAG spokesman
Greg Krizman told Daily Variety "We are likely to defer to the WGA at this point, if
only because our contract expiration is not until June 30."
Should the strikes be averted, production would proceed on schedule for films
and television programs, and the next Star Trek series could hit the airwaves as early
as this fall. However, should strikes occur, there's no telling when everything would be
back to normal.
As a side note, working with the Actor's union on the upcoming negotiations
will be Armin Shimerman (Quark on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine) who co-chairs
SAG's Wages and Working Conditions Committee.