Strike threat stalls indie producers

Film producer Paul Schiff is a victim of the actors strike.

The fact that the actors strike hasn’t happened yet, and many in Hollywood doubt it will, is beside the point. Schiff and producers like him are at the mercy of insurance companies, which are refusing to cover independent movies that can’t be filmed before mid-June.

Schiff, who has made such offbeat films as “Rushmore,” says he was forced to shelve three projects because he couldn’t finish them by June 15, two weeks before the actors’ contract with studios expires.

That’s the deadline insurance companies have imposed upon dozens of movies that require a so-called completion bond. The bond guarantees that backers of independent films, which often involve a patchwork of financing with no assurance of distribution, will be paid in the event the movie is not completed on time or on budget.

“There were a number of projects that we had to surrender on and admit that there was just no way to meet the bond deadline,” Schiff said.

So it goes for many independent film producers, who are juggling projects amid the uncertainty of contract negotiations between studios and actors. Producers, many of whom lost valuable time during the three-month writers strike that ended last month, are under pressure to begin shooting their movies, which can take eight weeks or more to complete.

The crunch has caused many of them to postpone projects while scrambling to finish others before any potential walkout.

“Whether or not a strike happens, for our purposes it’s happening,” said James Stern, producer of the Bob Dylan biography movie, “I’m Not There.” “It’s a big deal.”

Although the well-financed major studios don’t need completion bonds for movies, they are indirectly affected because their specialty labels rely heavily on independently produced movies that are the mainstay of film festivals and Hollywood’s annual awards season.

Nonetheless, even the major studios have been hedging their bets. They have been contingency planning for an actors strike since the fall, rearranging their 2009 film release schedule so that most films would complete production by mid-June.

“For the smaller movies under $20 or $30 million they [the studios] are in fact waiting to see if there’s going to be a strike,” said producer Michael Bay, who is preparing to shoot a sequel to his 2007 summer blockbuster, “Transformers.”

Fueling the anxiety is doubt over when contract negotiations will begin. Despite pressure from some prominent members to begin immediate contract talks, Screen Actors Guild leaders, who have vowed to take a tough line with studios, say formal negotiations won’t begin until at least April.

“We’re calling this the mother of all stop dates,” said Kurt Woolner, executive vice president of Film Finances Inc. The Los Angeles firm has bonded 52 films that must wrap by mid-June. “We hope an actors strike doesn’t happen, but we can’t ignore it,” he said.

Production companies pay insurers a fee -- typically 2% to 3% of the film’s budget -- to secure a completion bond. If a film goes over budget or isn’t finished on time, the bond companies pay financiers the extra costs caused by the delay.

International Film Guarantors, another major bond provider, has adopted a similar June 15 deadline. Parent company Fireman’s Fund Insurance Co. also offered coverage for films that are unable to finish production on time -- before a potential strike -- due to an actor falling ill or other special circumstances.

The tight deadline has created stiff competition for crews and actors in Los Angeles and other production hubs such as Louisiana.

“Everybody’s in the same box looking for talent in a very small window,” Stern said.

Randall Emmett, whose credits include the thrillers “16 Blocks” and the upcoming “Righteous Kill” with Robert De Niro and Al Pacino, said the insurance deadline forced him to postpone four movies. He’s preparing three other action thrillers in Louisiana, Los Angeles and Vancouver to wrap by mid-June. The labor question “is a blinking light in every discussion we’re having right now,” he said.

Independent film producer Mark Gill said four of six films his firm was producing were on hold. “We have films that frankly we just can’t put a start date on because no bond company will let you fund production until they know there won’t be an actors strike,” he said.

Although studios have mostly adjusted their schedules to prepare for an actors strike, some films could still be affected by an actors walkout.

The Warner Bros. superhero film “Justice League of America” is expected to begin filming in July, while Sony Pictures will begin shooting its “The Da Vinci Code” sequel, “Angels & Demons,” in Rome on June 5. DreamWorks SKG plans to begin filming Bay’s “Transformers 2” in Los Angeles in early June. Director Steven Spielberg pulled the April start date for another DreamWorks film, “The Trial of the Chicago 7,” which had been delayed by the writers strike.

Studios prepared for a possible actors strike last summer by accelerating shoots on some films. That helped fuel a 15% spike in production activity in Los Angeles during the writers strike over the same period a year earlier, according to FilmL.A. Inc., which handles location permits. Film production has been flat since the writers strike ended and may be damped if SAG worries cause studios to hold back, FilmL.A. President Steve MacDonald said.

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richard.verrier@latimes.com

Times staff writer Claudia Eller contributed to this report.