SAG-AFTRA Expands Interim Casting, New Milestone with Ritchie and Spielberg Projects

SAG-AFTRA, the professional labor union representing film and television performers, has granted further interim agreements to several projects, marking a new milestone with a fresh casting designation. A yet-unnamed film by acclaimed director Guy Ritchie and Destry Allyn Spielberg’s directorial debut, Please Don’t Feed the Children were amongst the five films granted an interim casting agreement on Thursday.

This innovative insertion on the union’s interim agreement list is a landmark moment, featuring for the first time, two casting designations. As stated on SAG-AFTRA's website where the interim list is posted, these new designations permit "members to audition and/or engage in negotiations regarding casting for these productions, but may not yet travel, rehearse or begin rendering services for the production."

This recent move increases the total number of waivers to 102 granted by the guild. A majority of these permissions were for projects not affiliated with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television studios represented producers, hence allowing them to proceed with production amidst the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike.

Currently, the granted agreements predominantly cover fillm projects, with nine TV projects on the list. Among the other films that publicly declared their receipt of the casting authorization today are Armored, Superthief and Return to Wickensburg.

Many independent producers have lamented to Deadline about their inability to secure casts for film projects due to the union's constraints on agents distributing scripts to actors. This difficulty makes it challenging to package the films appropriately and in good time, particularly with upcoming key industry events like the Toronto Film Festival and the American Film Market.

Waiver applications were made available at the inception of the SAG-AFTRA strike on July 14. "We received hundreds of applications...we will be responding to all of them," stated SAG-AFTRA National Executive Director and chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland.

Now, allow me to hoist my flag up the fripperies.

Indeed, the snarl of the strike creates a limbo of labyrinthine complexity. The game of waivers, you see, is much akin to chess. One can either try an audacious gambit or serenely move the pawn. Enter, the interim agreement. Our knight in shining armor forms the plot twist our indie David needed against the Goliath of restrictive casting. It opens a path for creativity to sneak past bureaucratic rigamarole and, in the process, it gives films like Armored, Superthief and, the intriguingly titled, Please Don’t Feed the Children, a shot at seeing the silver screen.

Of course, this plot device isn't without its quirks. Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, posturing like a seasoned diplomat at Comic-Con, alluded to the mysterious "AMPTP fingerprints," the unseen forces shifting pieces on our board. It reads like a recipe straight from Hollywood, strikes, waivers, hidden fingerprints, with a dash of secretive negotiations for good measure.

A notable side character in our unfolding drama was our indie producers, whose pleas echoed in the digital halls of Deadline, painting a poignant portrait of the struggle faced. Packaging films, they lamented, was akin to gift-wrapping a rhinoceros. But the latest waivers, if anything, seem like a conciliatory pat on their distress, with the hope of turning the tide.

Is this the deus ex machina our indie protagonists were waiting for? Or a mere act one curtain-raiser in an escalating war of waivers? As the understated, yet omnipresent Jill Goldsmith contributes to this report, perhaps we’ll come to understand whether, amid the contentious drama of striking, one can still hear the subtle notes of a harmonious resolution. Only time, my friends, will tell.