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The Australian film and TV sector will be hit hard by the strike action in Hollywood, with a number of productions shooting or about to shoot here likely to grind to a halt as actors join writers in downing tools from this evening.
The Sam Neill/Annette Bening drama Apples Never Fall, currently in production in Queensland with an estimated budget of $79 million, will be one of the biggest shows locally to be affected by the industrial action, which has been sparked by concerns over residual payments from streamers and a refusal to regulate the use of artificial intelligence in the industry.
Annette Bening will fly back to the US on Friday, well short of the end of shooting on Apples Never Fall.Credit: AP
Writers are concerned that AI could be used to generate script ideas or even entire screenplays, while actors fear that studios and producers have begun to envisage a time when they can pay a day rate to an actor while having perpetual rights to use their virtual likeness in any way or format they choose.
Both are seen by many in their respective fields as existential threats to their future employment and earning abilities.
The industrial action will also prevent members of the actors guild from taking part in any publicity or marketing campaigns around work already completed and set for release during the strike period.
Production on Apples will stop at 5pm Friday, in line with the midnight deadline in LA for strike action to commence. The 160,000-strong actors’ union SAG-AFTRA voted overnight Thursday (Australian time) to go on strike as the battle with the studios and production companies represented by AMPTA (the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers) escalated.
The Mortal Kombat sequel, starring Lewis Tan as Cole Young, will be hit by the strike. Credit: Warner Bros
It follows the decision of the 11,500-strong Writers Guild of America to go on strike from May 2, and is the first time in 60 years that both guilds have simultaneously downed tools.
In June, the big-budget sci-fi series Metropolis became the first local casualty of the industrial dispute, as NBC Universal pulled the pin on the $180 million series, deep into pre-production at Docklands Studios Melbourne.
Now the future of a number of other shows is in doubt. A swift resolution to the dispute could see production resume, but a longer campaign could mean some are significantly rescheduled, or cancelled entirely.
Annette Bening, who stars as Joy Delaney in Apples Never Fall, the latest screen adaptation of a novel by Australian author Lianne Moriarty, bade the crew farewell on the Gold Coast on Thursday ahead of flying home on Friday.
The series, being made for US streaming service Peacock, was due to film until August.
Also hit by the industrial action is Mortal Kombat 2, which is currently shooting in Queensland. Production on the action movie, based on a computer game (the first movie was made in Adelaide with a budget of $42 million), was due to continue until September. But any scenes involving main cast are now likely to be put on hold (shots involving stunt or body doubles who are not SAG-AFTRA members are theoretically still permitted).
Sources indicate that at least one other big-budget production, as yet unannounced, is believed to be at risk as a result of the industrial action, which some anticipate could potentially drag on for the rest of the year.
By quirk of timing, though, some major productions have narrowly escaped impact. Season 3 of La Brea, for instance – another big-budget production filmed in Queensland, following its relocation after two seasons in Victoria – has recently wrapped.
Others, such as The Office Australia, will be untouched because the cast contains no SAG-AFTRA members.
The biggest star tours of the year – around the releases of Barbie and the latest Mission: Impossible movie – narrowly squeaked through before the strike action, which would have made it impossible for the likes of Margot Robbie and Tom Cruise to give interviews or walk the red carpet without being seen to have crossed the picket line.
The cast of Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer demonstrated just how fraught this issue is on Wednesday night in the UK when they walked the red carpet ahead of the film’s premiere but then left it in anticipation of the imminent vote in favour of strike action.
Addressing the audience inside the Leicester Square cinema, Nolan praised the work of his cast, including Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Florence Pugh, and Robert Downey Jr, before adding, “unfortunately they’re off to write their picket signs for what we believe to be an imminent strike by SAG”.
To a burst of applause and cheering, Nolan said the actors’ industrial action added to the campaign by “one of my guilds, the Writer’s Guild, in the struggle for fair wages for working members of the union, and we support them.”
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