'Rings' runs foul of actors union

LOS ANGELES - America's biggest actors' union, at odds with Hollywood talent agents, is girding for yet another showdown, this time over films such as The Lord of the Rings being recorded outside the United States.

The Screen Actors Guild, which represents 98,000 performers across America, has set a May 1 deadline to begin strictly enforcing its contract work rules for productions in Canada, Mexico, Europe and other overseas locations such as New Zealand.

Under the new policy, known as Global Rule One, guild members could face fines, suspension and expulsion if they accept work on non-union productions overseas that are aimed at the US market.

The union has said beefed-up enforcement would apply mainly to high-profile productions boasting big-name stars.

The crackdown is aimed at curtailing "runaway production", studios' growing practice of moving operations to cheaper locations outside the US, taking jobs away from domestic talent.

Recent examples, says the guild, include all three parts of New Line Cinema's The Lord of the Rings trilogy, which were shot in New Zealand.

The union says runaway production has cost its members nearly US$23 million ($51 million) in potential contributions to the guild pension and health fund over the past five years.

This week the union named more than than 250 high-profile stars who endorse its campaign and took out full-page ads in Hollywood trade papers listing many of them.

They included Jamie Lee Curtis, Richard Dreyfuss, Clint Eastwood, Laurence Fishburne, Kevin Spacey, Kathleen Turner and Harrison Ford.

The studios say that Global Rule One goes beyond the scope of the union's film-TV contract with producers and violates the "spirit and intent" of that pact.

- REUTERS

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