The actors’ strike has reached 117 days, and initially, it was hoped that the week-plus of intensive negotiations would continue into the night last night as intended. Unfortunately, the talk between the two parties has not found a way to get any closer to a settlement. Yesterday was spent with the Four Horsemen of the studios taking a virtual meeting with SAG-AFTRA chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland. AMPTP boss Carol Lombardini was joined by Netflix‘s Ted Sarandos, NBCUniversal’s Donna Langley, Warner Bros Discovery CEO David Zaslav and Disney’s Bob Iger for their intermittent presence in negotiations since this last round had commenced on October 24.
Deadline has reported that their session on Monday, November 6, had been planned to go all day, but after the afternoon of talks, SAG-AFTRA called it the rest of the night. Talks are said to resume today. However, it is not known when the meeting will be reconvening. A studio insider told Deadline that yesterday’s meeting was not in vain, “This was a productive session, some work still required before there’s a deal. There’s still some serious daylight between us, at least as of right now.” Talks between the two factions will interestingly continue after the AMPTP slid on a paper across the table their “best, last and final offer.”
A big issue in these talks is the ever-lingering threat of AI. While the writers’ strike involved the same set of concerns, a deal had been reached between the writers’ union and the studios eventually, and the AMPTP was said to seal the deal with “an expanded version of what the WGA agreed to.” However, SAG-AFTRA is keen to read the fine print on the protection of digital scans of actors and the nature of their re-use. The actors’ guild issued a letter to their members that said, “There are several essential items on which we still do not have an agreement, including AI. We will keep you informed as events unfold.” A studio exec told Deadline that despite the studios offering up their best, last and final offer on AI terms, “It’s not bulletproof, everyone has to recognize that.”