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DGA Reaches Tentative Deal On Ads Pact
Casting Directors, Studios Reach Tentative Deal; Ratification Vote Set For Sept. 15
Details of the agreement will remain under wraps, Teamsters Local 399 business agent Steve Dayan said today, until the membership approves or rejects the deal. The Los Angeles branch of the union, which reps about 300 of the 500 or so casting directors and associates, will vote on September 15. No official word on when Local 817, the New York branch, will vote but the same date is likely. The current three-year collective bargaining agreement expires September 30. Under it, the weekly base rate for casting directors on a film is $2,500 and $2,000 for TV. The union’s new deal with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, achieved in just four sessions of negotiations, would be the third between the studios and casting directors, who organized under the Teamsters banner in 2005.
Teamsters Urge Casting Directors To Take Pilot Jobs, Assistant Issue Shelved
EXCLUSIVE: It looks like the standoff between casting directors and TV studios over salaries for casting assistants may be over but not in the way casting directors had hoped. I hear today’s meeting between representatives for AMPTP, the casting directors and their union, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, didn’t resolve the outstanding issue: casting directors’ request for the studios to play for a casting assistant on every pilot, in addition to a casting associate. Now the teamsters have sent out this email advising casting directors to go get jobs on pilots. I hear some casting directors who had held off out of solidarity with their brethren, are now trying to get the positions that were once offered to them, but it is not clear if they will be able to do so. The union said it will address the issue in its next union contract negotiations and at a meeting tomorrow night. “I think the teamsters misadvised them,” one source noted. “They should have approached gently and then delivered ultimatum.” Here is the teamsters’ email:
From your Steering Committee:
We had a meeting with the AMPTP today, January 19, 2011. As a result, our goal of achieving adequate staffing on pilots will be addressed in this year’
Is The Standoff Between Casting Directors & Studios On Pilots Headed For A Resolution?
There is a sense of cautious optimism in the TV casting circles this evening that the stalemate over hiring outside casting directors for pilots might come to an end tomorrow. The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents the TV studios, has called a meeting with representatives of the casting directors for midday tomorrow. At the heart of the problem is casting directors’ request to get “adequate staffing” or that studios pay for an assistant in addition to the casting director and casting associate on every pilot, something that studios have been balking at. Since this is not an union issue and it is not covered by the casting directors’ basic agreement with the studios, there is nothing to negotiate at the meeting tomorrow, a casting director source stressed. “We are going to listen to what they have to say and are hoping to come to some type of understanding of each other’
UPDATE: Casting Directors vs Studios: Studios Digging In, CDs 'Holding Strong'
The ongoing dispute between casting directors on pilots and TV studios continues with no end in sight. As we first reported on Thursday, studios have not been able to sign deals with casting directors for the past couple of weeks over the issue of pay for casting assistants. While studios pay for casting directors and associates, casting directors in many cases have to foot the bill for an assistant, a non-union position not covered by the casting directors’ contract with AMPTP. Casting directors now insist that studios cover the cost for that, with the fate of 80+ broadcast pilots that have to be cast in the next 2 months at stake.
I hear the studios are still not budging. ABC Studios, which has received a number of early pilot orders over the past 2 weeks, has begun to cast them internally. Other studios are preparing to do the same. Over the past 48 hours, we also had the first deal with a casting director that closed without the assistant provision. Casting agency La Padura & Hart Casting, whose credits include the High School Musical franchise and such NBC series as Heroes and The Event, has signed on to work on the 20th Century Fox TV-produced NBC drama pilot Playboy. There are reportedly a number of deals with other casting directors on pilots that are closed … Read More
Standoff Between Casting Directors And TV Studios Threatens Primetime Pilot Season
EXCLUSIVE: The broadcast networks are starting to pick up drama and comedy pilots for next fall. But who will cast them? I hear no deal with casting directors for the pilots ordered since the beginning of the year have closed as casting directors and TV studios are in a bitter standoff. The issue at hand is who will pay for casting directors’ assistants and associates, with casting directors demanding that the studio pick up the tab. I hear in the past TV studios would sometimes cover those costs on a case-to-case basis but this time, casting directors have banded together to demand that this becomes a standard industry-wide practice. The TV studios have refused, and the two sides are now at a standstill.
In 2005, the film and TV casting directors became unionized, joining the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. So I hear the teamsetrs have now gotten involved in the conflict and are meeting with the studios. “It will be very interesting,” one talent agent said. The timing of the action seems carefully chosen as it jeopardizes the broadcast networks’ pilot season, the most intense production period on the TV calendar. Some 80+ pilots are cast from January to March every year by the broadcast networks and delaying the start of that process could wreak havoc in the networks’ upfront plans. (The last time the networks’ pilot season was pushed … Read More
Can Gore Verbinski Crack 'Walter Mitty' After So Many Others Tried?
20th Century Fox confirmed today that the studio is taking yet another crack at remaking the 1947 Danny Kaye classic daydreamer comedy The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, with Gore Verbinski at the helm. It’s good to see Verbinski on a big film after he jumped off the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise to direct Bioshock and then that project didn’t happen. But Verbinski is following in the footsteps of a spectacular crop of directors and stars who never cracked the remake, in about 22 years of trying. That includes directors Steven Spielberg, Ron Howard, Mark Waters, with Jim Carrey [...]
MRC, Universal Make 20 Pic, Five-Year Pact
EXCLUSIVE: Media Rights Capital and Universal Pictures closed a deal that will put up to 20 MRC-generated films through the studio distribution pipeline over a five-year period. The pact begins in 2011.
While MRC partners Modi Wiczyk and Asif Satchu have done repeat business at Universal, this is a new wrinkle in their formula of assembling and funding film packages with big stars and directors, and then licensing distribution to studios on a case by case basis. Those deals were structured to give creative freedom and maximum upside to stars and directors, and eventual ownership stakes in the films when copyrights [...]
SAG National Board Approves Joint Bargaining Agreement With AFTRA
Los Angeles and New York, (March 13, 2010) – Screen Actors Guild National Board of Directors today approved 78 percent to 22 percent a joint bargaining agreement with American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) for the negotiation of successor agreements for the contracts covering theatrical motion pictures and primetime dramatic television. The AFTRA National Board of Directors previously approved joint bargaining at its meeting February 27, 2010.
The motion was approved and reads:
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17 Film Directors Walk Into A Bar…
EXCLUSIVE: How many movie directors does it take to make a comedy pic? Try 17.
Ryan Kavanaugh’s Relativity Media has signed on to co-finance an untitled comedy. Each of those directors are shooting segments for a film styled in the vein of 1970s sketch comedies Kentucky Fried Movie and Groove Tube. Like those predecessors, this will wear its R-rating like a badge. Relativity confirmed it’s making the picture, but wouldn’
Lionsgate Board To Review Icahn Offer
SANTA MONICA, CA, and VANCOUVER, BC, March 1, 2010 — Lionsgate (NYSE: LGF), today announced that it has received an unsolicited tender offer from Carl Icahn to acquire up to 13,164,420 common shares for USD $6.00 per share in cash. Together with the stock he already owns, this would constitute approximately 29.9% of the outstanding common shares of Lionsgate.
Consistent with its fiduciary duties and in consultation with its financial and legal advisors, Lionsgate’
Jake Scully Weighs In On Oscar Race…
Some snarkster sent this to me a few days ago. I think it deserves equal time since Nicolas Chartier’s email has gotten so much publicity:
From: Jake Sully
I hope all is well with you. I just wanted to write you and say I hope you liked Avatar and if you did and want us to win, please tell (name deleted) and your friends who vote for the Oscars, tell actors, directors, crew members, art directors, special effects people, if everyone tells one or two of their friends, we will win and not a film that grossed $6M at the box-office, we need [...]
Jake Sully Weighs In On Oscar Race…
Some snarkster sent this to me a few days ago. I think it deserves equal time since Nicolas Chartier’s email has gotten so much publicity:
From: Jake Sully
I hope all is well with you. I just wanted to write you and say I hope you liked Avatar and if you did and want us to win, please tell (name deleted) and your friends who vote for the Oscars, tell actors, directors, crew members, art directors, special effects people, if everyone tells one or two of their friends, we will win and not a film that grossed $6M at the box-office, we need [...]
Leonardo DiCaprio Still In Thriller Mode
Leo DiCaprio is taken with Prisoners, an Aaron Guzikowski-scripted drama that Alcon Entertainment partners Andrew Kosove and Broderick Johnson bought last year. At the time, they signed Antoine Fuqua to direct. He has since dropped out. DiCaprio’
SAG National Board Votes To Try To Bargain Jointly With AFTRA For TV/Theatrical Contract
The SAG National Board of Directors met via videoconference in Los Angeles and New York:
Los Angeles, (January 31, 2010) – Screen Actors Guild National Board of Directors voted today to seek engagement with AFTRA in a joint bargaining agreement for negotiation of the Television/Theatrical Contract. Approved 82 to 18 percent, the resolution states:
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Christina Hendricks is Lovely in Red
Christina Hendricks brought her girls out to celebrate at the Director’s Guild Awards. I’m sure the directors appreciated her (and her girls’) attendance, too.
Hell, if you don’t already watch the TV show Mad Men, then you should start: you can enjoy those tits Christina on a weekly basis.
Photos by Fame Pictures
SAG National Board Votes To "Seek Engagement" With AFTRA To Bargain Jointly On Next TV/Theatrical Contract
The SAG National Board of Directors met via videoconference in Los Angeles and New York:
Los Angeles, (January 31, 2010) – Screen Actors Guild National Board of Directors voted today to seek engagement with AFTRA in a joint bargaining agreement for negotiation of the Television/Theatrical Contract. Approved 82 to 18 percent, the resolution states:
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'Up' Not Down With H'wood Guild Awards
In answer to your questions: Disney/Pixar’s Up is ineligible for the Writers Guild awards because the animation studios are not signatory members of the union. (Kinda bites them in the ass at awards time, eh?) Up is technically eligible for the Directors Guild and Screen Actors Guild awards. “But it’ll be a cold day in hell before the directors or actors nominate an animated film,” one source tells me. Some years the DGA didn’t even include animated movies on the “reminders” list to members.
VIDEO: Ricky Gervais Promotes Today's Hollywood Disabilities Forum At UCLA
EXCLUSIVE: Here’s a little promo clip made by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant to help promote the Hollywood Disabilities Forum today at UCLA for actors, writers, directors, producers, casting directors, and industry pros:
Lindsay Lohan Dressed Up As A Vampire
Earlier last week, Lindsay Lohan admitted that she doesn’t allow anyone to speak when HBO’s ‘True Blood’ comes on television. The actress really loves the show – so much in fact that she dressed up as a vampire and posted the pictures on Twitter.
Wonder if any casting directors subscribe to her feed? 
Click to see a full list of celebrities on Twitter.