A lot of people were saying that this wasn’t going to happen. The writer’s strike has been going on for over 90 days and it’s shown no sign of slowing down. Meanwhile, some producers took to media the other day to brag that they’ll happily wait it out until the writers lose their homes and are forced to come back to work. Well, there might have been a slim chance of that tactic working while they were on their own, but as of around 20 minutes ago, the SAG (Screen Actors Guild) has declared their own strike.
This marks the first time since 1980 that both the WGA and SAG were on strike at the same time. To give you an idea of how big a deal this is, it means that all filming involving SAG actors is now effectively shut down. All promotion is shut down, and we mean all. Just minutes ago, the cast of Oppenheimer got up and walked out of the London premiere of the film when word came down about the strike. Here’s what Christopher Nolan told reporters:
“I have to acknowledge the work of our incredible cast, led by Cillian Murphy,” Nolan said from the stage. “The list is enormous — Robert Downey Jr, Matt Damon, Emily Blunt, Florence Pugh, Kenneth Branagh, Rami Malek and so many more. … You’ve seen them here earlier on the red carpet. Unfortunately, they are off to write their picket signs for what we believe to be an imminent strike by SAG, joining one of my guilds, the Writers Guild, in the struggle for fair wages for working members of their union.”
If you can think of a film or TV show that is currently in production, or slated for reshoots, you can bet that it’s now been shut down. This also means that there’s a good chance there will be no SAG members in attendance at San Diego Comic-Con Next Month.