‘Tron: Ares’ Filmmaker Joachim R?nning Says Pic “Shut Down” With 150+ People Laid Off Due To Strikes; Urges Studios & Guilds To “Speed Up The Negotiating Process”
Filmmaker Joachim R?nning took to Instagram to let followers know that Monday was supposed to be the first day of production for his upcoming Disney movie, Tron: Ares, however, “we are shut down with over a hundred and fifty people laid off,” he says due to WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes.
“It’s indefinite, which makes it exponentially harder for everyone,” he adds.
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R?nning then urged, “The AMPTP, SAG-AFTRA and WGA need to speed up the negotiating process and not leave the table until it’s done.”
“This is Hollywood. We close deals for breakfast. Why do we suddenly have all the time in the world when every day is so precious? These tactics are extremely frustrating. It’s time for diplomacy so we can get back to work – under conditions that are fair to everybody #amptp #sagaftra #wga,” he added.
Deadline sources inform us that production on Tron: Ares is merely paused until both guilds return to work; the plug hasn’t been pulled on the Disney threequel.
The WGA and AMPTP recessed talks on Friday with plans to resume them soon this week. The WGA let guild members know that the Negotiating Committee received a counterproposal from the AMPTP, and was in the midst of evaluating it.
Tron: Ares casted up before the SAG-AFTRA strike with Jared Leto, Evan Peters, Greta Lee, Sarah Desjardins, Cameron Monaghan and Jodie Turner-Smith. The third Tron movie, penned by Jesse Wigutow and Jack Thorne follows Leto’s computer program Ares on a journey from the digital world to that of humans. In his post today, R?nning said that the next Tron coincidentally is about an important deal point in labor talks, a pic “subsequently about AI and what it means, and takes, to be human”. The director further emphasized, “AI needs to be regulated. There is no doubt about the threat the technology poses to all creatives.”
R?nning, whose movie Kon-Tiki was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film in 2013, also directed the Disney pics, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales ($796M WW box office) and Maleficent: Mistress of Evil ($491.7M WW).
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