Actor-Turned-Indie Producer Jonathan Daniel Brown On Interim Agreements: “Star-Studded Projects Getting Go-Ahead While Small Films Rot On Vine” – Guest Column

Editor’s note: As part of Deadline’s ongoing coverage of the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, we want to give voice to other Hollywood workers who are impacted by the work stoppages. This column was written by Jonathan Daniel Brown, the head of Party Crasher Films in New York City. Best known for starring in the 2012 film Project X, his life’s mission is recapture the subversive and countercultural magic of 1970s and ’90s Hollywood through a slate of bold, rebellious and wildly entertaining independent films.

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After 14 years of working as an actor in L.A, I realized I could no longer find success or happiness in a town that rejects fresh voices while blowing $300 million on movies starring 80-year-old men. I decided to set my sights on the world of New York’s independent film scene, where a new generation of geniuses operate in the shadows. You won’t find these young rebels power lunching at the Polo Lounge or hamming it up at the Calabasas Commons. They’re much more likely to be getting smashed at KGB Bar, watching a classic at the Roxy or Metrograph, or even hiding out in New Jersey. Their work is violent, angry, sexy, subversive, and brilliant. These filmmakers eat, sleep, snort, and screw cinema. Hollywood has no idea what’s coming.

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I have spent the last year and a half hanging out with these brilliant minds, making friends with (and bullying) millionaires and celebrities, and smashing them all together to build an excellent slate of sure to be hits. And as an ardent supporter of labor who saw Bernie Sanders speak seven times, I knew where the winds were blowing. My team at Party Crasher prepared beautifully, locking in a series of deals by the end of April that positioned us to weather the labor wave taking over not just the entertainment industry, but the entire nation.

I am elated that SAG-AFTRA, my union since 2012, has now joined this righteous war against the Silicon Valley parasites who have infected the AMPTP. The streaming system is on the verge of collapse, and thank God for that. The techie invasion has transformed Hollywood into a boring, algorithmic franchise factory run by metrics obsessed losers. They have adopted the broken Uber model of spending countless billions while driving themselves and everyone around them into insolvency, wages and working conditions be damned. To the average tech oligarch, everything is “content.” A movie, a TV show, a TikTok, an Amazon review, an AI generated blogpost, an Instagram reel, a song — it’s all the same. Their goal is clear: to remove humanity from the humanities, and they must be defeated by any means necessary. I am proud to march on the picket line every day for workers’ rights.

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But SAG-AFTRA threw a curveball into the fray, creating an Interim Agreement program (don’t call it a waiver or people get mad) designed to welcome in producers who reject the AMPTP’s greed. On paper this is a dream come true, but in practice it needs to be reformed, and fast. The paperwork is byzantine, the contracts are confusing, and huge, star-studded projects with tentative distribution deals at streamers are getting the go-ahead fast while countless small films rot on the vine. Actors are fighting online and writers are rolling their eyes. There is also a chicken and egg problem. Most independent film investors won’t touch a project without a cast, but you can’t cast an actor without an IA. But you can’t get an IA without an investor.

Even writing these sentences makes me dizzy.

I do not envy the SAG-AFTRA negotiation and contracts teams. We are thick in the fog of war against a brutal enemy and they are understaffed and overworked to the bone. But to snuff out this new generation of artists would be counterintuitive to the goals of the strike. Here’s my pitch as to how we can fix this:

1. Create a path to production via an online portal. A clear set of guidelines, contracts, and an order of operations would go a long way.

2. Expedited IAs for SAG members who produce. Striking actor-producers should be at the front of the line over massive production companies.

3. An official, simple letter from the guild to give to financiers that explains the interim agreement process and why there has never been a better time to invest in independent movies. Your average indie film investor is a rich guy who wants to be cool, not an experienced entertainment attorney.

I am optimistic that indie film and unions can join forces to crush the techies and send them back to Northern California where they belong, ushering in an incredible new era for cinema. Let’s figure it out together! 

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