Joey King Joins the SAG-AFTRA Picket Lines with Friends Logan Lerman & Kaitlyn Dever, Says 'Strike Is So Necessary'

Oppenheimer” and 89% and 8.2/10 for “Barbie“), Hollywood is looking at a skewed rerun of another box office showdown from July 2008.Fifteen years ago, Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight” broke the opening weekend record with $158 million, but Meryl Streep’s “Mamma Mia!” also nabbed what was at the time the largest Friday-Sunday debut ever ($28 million) against a $100 million-plus opener. History may be repeating itself, with Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” looking to clear triple digits right as Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” hopes to open on par with the over/under $50 million launches of “Interstellar” and “Dunkirk.” The record set in 2008 against a Nolan epic may be set again this weekend *by* a Nolan epic.

The entertainment industry is heading for change as Hollywood actors join writers on the picket line.  

We are just a few days away from Season 2 of “Minx” arriving on Starz. Yes, Starz.

On the edge of what is bound to be the domestic box office’s third $200M+ weekend thanks to Barbie and Oppenheimer, the motion picture industry’s fret is whether the great post-pandemic moviegoing rebound is about to screech to a halt due to the SAG-AFTRA strike and actors prohibited from promoting.

It’s Day 5 of the SAG-AFTRA strike and Day 79 of the WGA strike. 

It’s Day 4 of the SAG-AFTRA strike and Day 77 of the WGA strike.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Christian Bale is probably not going to play Batman again after “Batman Begins,” “The Dark Knight” and “The Dark Knight Rises.” The Oscar-winning actor told ScreenRant last summer that he would only play Batman for a fourth time if Christopher Nolan was directing, but Nolan doesn’t appear to be interested in returning to the comic book genre. YouTuber HugoDécrypte asked Nolan point blank if he would make “another superhero movie.” Nolan bluntly answered, “No.” The question came during a speed round in which HugoDécrypte also asked the “Oppenheimer” filmmaker if he “could make a TV show one day.” Nolan also answered “no.” The director wasn’t as definitive when asked if he would want to direct a “Star Wars” movie. Nolan passed on giving an answer.

Sean Gunn, the actor who played the lovable townsman on the hit show, is calling out Netflix for his lack of residual pay. Sean, the 49-year-old brother of Marvel and DC director James Gunn, shared with on Friday that he was out on the picket line for the first day of the SAG-AFTRA strike to mainly «protest Netflix.» The streaming service currently streams all seven seasons of as well as the 2016 revival, . Sean played Kirk in all seven seasons of the show, as well as all four episodes of the revival, both of which star Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel as the beloved mother-daughter duo Lorelai and Rory Gilmore«I was on a television show called for a long time that has brought in massive profits for Netflix,» Sean told. «It has been one of their most popular shows for a very long time, over a decade.

Christopher Nolan has confirmed that he will “absolutely” not be working on more films until after the Hollywood strikes end.This week (July 13), the cast of Nolan’s new film Oppenheimer walked out of the UK premiere at the moment an actors’ strike began.The national board of SAG-AFTRA (Screen Actors Guild–American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) – Hollywood’s largest union, which represents 160,000 actors and performers – voted unanimously to strike, according to The Los Angeles Times.SAG-AFTRA was seeking better pay and working conditions in the age of streaming, while other negotiations related to safeguards against the unregulated use of artificial intelligence in the industry.Thousands of Hollywood productions are therefore currently paused, and Nolan discussed the meaning of the strike in an interview with BBC News, saying: “It’s not about me.”Asked whether he would be working on new films during the strike, he responded: “No, absolutely. It’s very important that everybody understands it is a very key moment in the relationship between working people and Hollywood.“This is not about me, this is not about the stars of my film.”The AMPTP said in a statement that “a strike is certainly not the outcome we hoped for as studios cannot operate without the performers that bring our TV shows and films to life”.“The Union has regrettably chosen a path that will lead to financial hardship for countless thousands of people who depend on the industry,” it added.The separate WGA (Writers Guild Of America) strike, which began on May 2, occurred following unsuccessful negotiations with AMPTP, who represent major Hollywood studios like Netflix, Disney, Apple, Amazon, Paramount, Warner Bros.

Christopher Nolan sees the insistence by striking SAG-AFTRA and WGA members that studios and streamers limit the use of artificial intelligence stems directly from the explosion of streaming over the past decade-plus.

shared a heartfelt message to his 3.2 million Instagram followers on Thursday night citing that he won’t be able to promote the upcoming superhero film due to the SAG-AFTRA strike.“We had so much great stuff aligned and I really wish that we could get it to you guys but we need to stand on the right side of history and because of that we’re planting our feet in the ground,” Maridueña said. “With that being said, this is a fantastic movie and you know, it needs to be seen on the bigger screen.”Maridueña also asked fans to support the movie and he gave a shout out to the Blue Beetle Battalion which have posting viral content on social media about the movie.

#SAGAFTRA Picket Line Interview: #MCU Legend & #SAG, #WGA & #DGA member @ClarkGregg says "I feel like we're kind of fighting to keep the soul in the art form" pic.twitter.com/7SWpjbvqGbGregg wasn’t the only actor on the picket line concerned about AI. Christopher Clawson, another SAG member who also happens to have a master’s degree in innovation and technology from the University of San Diego, hopes to see the unions “come up with a very specific language that will protect performers.”“The thing that scares me is that the studio’s know more about what these capabilities are, than the union,” Clawson said. “Because they’re the ones who get pitched this stuff, you know? They’re the ones with the deep pockets.

San Diego Comic-Con had Hall H had been reserved two Saturdays from now for a presentation by Legendary, which I hear was to strut out Dune: Part Two and the studio’s next Monsterverse movie. However, that’s not happening now due to the SAG-AFTRA strike.

William Earl During a press conference Thursday, SAG-AFTRA leadership announced that the union was going on strike, and picketing started up Friday. In New York, the four locations were announced as HBO / Amazon, Warner Bros. Discovery / Netflix HQ, Paramount and NBC Universal. In Los Angeles, 8 sites were announced, including Warner Bros., Amazon / Culver Studios, Fox, Paramount, Netflix, Sunset / Gower, Disney and Sony. Corporate greed was at the center of messaging on day one of joint picketing from SAG-AFTRA and the WGA. When the bus carrying SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher and the rest negotiating committee arrived outside of Netflix offices, they were mobbed by media and fellow protesters as they inched their way down the sidewalk along Sunset Boulevard.

Well, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav already put his foot in his mouth responding to the WGA writers’ strike, so now it’s Bob Iger‘s turn.

SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher will be on the picket lines Friday on the first day of the guild’s strike against the film and television industry. She’ll be joined by Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, the guild’s national executive director and chief negotiator, and members of the guild’s negotiating committee.

Fortunately for HBO, “House Of The Dragon” is permitted to carry on with season two filming in the U.K., despite the SAG-AFTRA strike.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer Jeff Zucker is not shopping for CNN, according to one of the backing partners of his new media venture. Gerry Cardinale, the private equity player and founder of RedBird Capital, partnered with International Media Investments last year to launch a $1 billion media acquisitions engine run by Zucker. Reports were rampant in June that Zucker was looking to take CNN off the hands of Warner Bros. Discovery, after running the news network for decades before resigning in 2022 over a consensual workplace affair. “No,” Cardinale said on Thursday when asked if he and Zucker were looking to buy CNN, speaking on stage at the Variety and Sportico Sports and Entertainment Summit in West Hollywood. “I would not have the longevity that I’ve had if I ran my business running around town talking about deals in a way that’s, frankly, disrespectful to David Zaslav. I’m kind of amused and irritated by it.”

The actors strike is “probably” going to last a while, according to SAG-AFTRA leadership.

The Los Angeles Times.It will mark the first time in more than 60 years that actors and writers have gone on strike simultaneously.Here is everything we know about why actors are poised to strike this week.SAG-AFTRA – is Hollywood’s largest union, which represents 160,000 actors and performers – and the Writers Guild of America (WGA) are seeking an increase in base pay and residuals in the age of streaming, while other negotiations relate to safeguards against the unregulated use of artificial intelligence in the industry.The WGA strike, which began on May 2, occurred following unsuccessful negotiations with AMPTP, who represent major Hollywood studios like Netflix, Disney, Apple, Amazon, Paramount, Warner Bros. and others.Since the strike was announced, a number of films and TV shows have shut down production in solidarity.

House of the Dragon” can continue filming in the U.K. despite the SAG-AFTRA actors strike, Variety can reveal. Just as the U.S. actors union announced a strike Thursday, sources confirmed that production is planned to proceed as scheduled on the second season of the “Game of Thrones” prequel. The HBO series’ cast is composed of primarily U.K. actors who are working under contracts governed by the local union, Equity. As such, the series is technically allowed to continue filming because Equity members aren’t legally allowed to strike in solidarity with the U.S. union.

AMPTP from the June 30 deadline through July 12, the actors guild formally called for a strike during a press conference on July 13 led by SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher and lead negotiator Duncan Crabtree. With Hollywood already largely shut down this summer by the writers strike, which has been ongoing since May 2, the actors strike will complicate things even further. First and foremost, all production will now be forced to shut down completely. Prior to this, some projects had managed to stay up and running by working off of already completed scripts and simply not having any writers on set — including big-budget productions like the second season of HBO’s “House of the Dragon.” Amazon just recently wrapped filming on Season 2 of “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” in the U.K., making it one of the priciest shows to come in under the wire. Variety has confirmed that “House of the Dragon” will remain in production, however.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large The dark prince of the unscripted world is plotting his next chapter: Mike Darnell is exiting Warner Bros. Television Group after a decade with the studio, a move he decided to make after a restructuring would have altered his role at the company. Darnell, who had served as president of unscripted television for Warner Bros., and Warner Bros. Television Group chairman/CEO Channing Dungey were set to announce the change on Thursday. As part of the new structure, Darnell won’t be replaced; instead, the alternative and unscripted divisions that reported to Darnell will now report directly to Dungey. Darnell had a year left in his current contract with the studio.

Barbie film to be shown in the country’s cinemas, but have asked Hollywood distributors to blur the lines on a child-like drawing of a world map, which allegedly shows China’s disputed maritime claims.The film about the Mattel doll – directed by Greta Gerwig and starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling – is set to open in the south-east Asian nation on July 19.The censors began examining Barbie last week after Vietnam reportedly banned the film over scenes featuring a map showing the so-called nine-dash line, which China uses to justify its claim to the South China Sea.Beijing claims territorial ownership over almost the entire South China Sea, despite rival claims from other south-east Asian countries, including the Philippines, Malaysia and Vietnam.However, after “meticulous” scrutiny of the film, Philippine censors were satisfied that the “cartoonish map” did not depict the nine-dash line.“Instead, the map portrayed the route of the make-believe journey of Barbie from Barbie Land to the ’real world’, as an integral part of the story,” the censorship board said (via The Guardian).“Rest assured that the board has exhausted all possible resources in arriving at this decision as we have not hesitated in the past to sanction filmmakers/ producers/distributors for exhibiting the fictitious ’nine-dash line’ in their materials.”Despite being satisfied, the censors have still asked Hollywood studio Warner Bros. to “blur” the controversial lines on the map.

The London premiere of Universal’s largely anticipated title Oppenheimer is set to go ahead this evening despite a possible SAG-AFTRA strike on the horizon. 

Zack Sharf Digital News Director As thousands of moviegoers gear up for double features of Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” and Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer,” one person taking joy in the “Barbenheimer” craze is Nolan himself. Although his movie will be battling “Barbie” at the box office, Nolan recently told IGN that “it’s terrific” to have both summer tentpoles open on the same day. “Summer, in a healthy marketplace, is always crowded, and we’ve been doing this a long time,” Nolan said. “I think for those of us who care about movies, we’ve been really waiting to have a crowded marketplace again, and now it’s here and that’s terrific.” Cillian Murphy, who stars in the title role of “Oppenehimer,” agreed with Nolan, telling IGN: “I think it’s great. I mean, I’ll be going to see ‘Barbie.’ I can’t wait to see it. I think it’s just great for the industry and for audiences that we have two amazing films by amazing filmmakers coming out the same day. Could spend a whole day in the cinema, what’s better than that?”

Zack Sharf Digital News Director The official trailer for Warner Bros.’ “Wonka” gave moviegoers a first look at Timothée Chalamet’s singing and dancing chocolatier. It also dropped a surprise at the very end: Hugh Grant sporting green hair and orange skin as an Oompa Loompa. How did such casting come about? Thank “Wonka” director Paul King, who previously cast Grant as the villainous Phoenix Buchanan in “Paddington 2.” “Going back to the book, and reading all those poems, and hearing [the Oompa Loompas’] voice as a very sort of cynical, sarcastic, cruel, funny, but wicked voice, I went, ‘Oh… That’s sort of a bit like Hugh!’,” King told Empire magazine. “It was a real light bulb moment – you go, ‘Hugh Grant’s an Oompa-Loompa! Yes please! Merry Christmas, with a bow on it.’”

Besides TV Academy Chairman and CEO Frank Scherma’s brief reference to “the ongoing guild negotiations” at the top of the nominations announcement, today has been mostly Emmy business as usual, with television industry types and fans celebrating the ones who landed nominations and lamenting those who were snubbed.

Entertainment Weekly has canceled its annual Comic-Con bash due to the uncertainty around a SAG-AFTRA strike, as a negotiating deadline between Hollywood studios and the acting guild looms. “As we continue to wait and see how the SAG contract negotiations resolve, we have made the difficult decision to cancel Entertainment Weekly’s Comic-Con Bash,” an EW spokesperson said in a statement.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer SAG-AFTRA has agreed to a last-minute call for federal mediation of its contract, but indicated it will not extend its deadline for deciding whether to go on strike beyond Wednesday at midnight. That would appear to leave relatively little time for a mediator to avert a strike, which could begin as soon as Thursday morning. In a statement on Tuesday afternoon, the union emphasized that “time is running out” and made clear that relations between the two sides have become extremely strained. “The AMPTP has abused our trust and damaged the respect we have for them in this process,” the union said. “We will not be manipulated by this cynical ploy to engineer an extension when the companies have had more than enough time to make a fair deal.”

Last minute calls are being made by Hollywood chiefs to try and prevent an actors strike.

Warner Bros has begun rounding out the cast for DC franchise resetter Superman: Legacy, studio chief Peter Safran has announced in a new piece with Vanity Fair, with Nathan Fillion (Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3), Isabela Merced (Madame Web) and Edi Gathegi (The Harder They Fall) coming aboard.

Marking the DC superhero’s first time on the big screen, Warner Bros. Pictures’ “Blue Beetle” hits theaters later this summer.

SAG-AFTRA strike, with just a day to go before the contract deadline. A group of CEOs and senior executives, including Disney chief Bob Iger, Warner Bros. Discovery’s David Zaslav and Netflix’s Ted Sarandos, gathered by conference call Monday evening to discuss the urgent situation with SAG-AFTRA poised to go on strike as soon as Thursday. In addition to the executives discussing efforts to bring in a federal mediator, talent agency chieftains including Ari Emanuel of WME and Bryan Lourd of CAA have reached out to SAG-AFTRA leaders in recent days to offer assistance that could stave off a second Hollywood work stoppage this summer.

At just 27, Timothée Chalamet has played a wide range of characters already in his career. There’s plenty of precocious and/or troubled youths in his filmography, like the upstart Henry V in “The King,” Frank Herbert‘s hero Paul Atreides, or the cannibal drifter Lee in “Bones And All.” But this winter, Chalamet plays an altogether different type of young man in the first musical of his career: Willy Wonka in Paul King‘s “Wonka.” READ MORE: The 100 Most Anticipated Films Of 2023 King’s prequel to Roald Dahl‘s 1964 novel “Charlie And The Chocolate Factory,” “Wonka” sees Chalamet don the eccentric candymaker’s top hot and cane after Peter Sellers and Johnny Depp.

Allen & Co.’s annual Sun Valley Conference is known for drawing an A-list roster of execs from across the media and tech realms, with a generous sprinkling of sports commissioners, politicos and other notables added to the mix.