Strike Coming?; Behind Tammy Faye; Venom and Bond

Editors, cinematographers and more could soon go on strike; a closeup look into The Eyes of Tammy Faye; James Bond and Venom try to tag-team a box-office heist. All in today’s Movie News Rundown.

Dune, Sweet: The Denis Villeneuve film is off to a promising start, earning nearly $36 million from 24 overseas markets, Variety notes.

Behind The Eyes of Tammy Faye: Caleb Hammond talks to Michael Showalter, director of the televangelism biopic, who explains that he likes the challenge of taking “seemingly unlikable characters” and trying to “find the humanity in them,” beyond their superficial past portrayals. The film stars Jessica Chastain as singer, evangelist and makeup enthusiast Tammy Faye Bakker, and the interview covers a lot of detail about how Showalter made it.

Strike: One of the entertainment industry’s most essential unions will hold a strike authorization vote after contracts broke down with producers. IATSE represents over 150,000 editors, grips, operators, cinematographers, sound technicians, costumers, make-up artists, hair stylists, writers assistants, script coordinators and other industry professionals in North America. In a statement yesterday, IATSE leaders said the AMPTP, which represents unions, said it would not respond to IASTE’s latest proposal. “This failure to continue negotiating can only be interpreted one way. They simply will not address the core issues we have repeatedly advocated for from the beginning,” the IATSE leaders said in the statement.

What’s at Issue: The two sides are under a media blackout, which means few specifics have come out. But rest periods, higher wages and funding for IATSE’s health and pension plan are key issues.

The Response: The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, the industry’s collective bargaining representative, says in a statement that it offered “a deal-closing comprehensive proposal that meaningfully addresses the IATSE’s key bargaining issues,” and would cover a “nearly $400 million pension and health plan deficit” while making “substantial improvements in rest periods, increases in wages and benefits, increases in minimum rates for specific job categories and increases in minimum rates for New Media Productions.”

Bond and Venom: Variety quotes Paul Dergarabedian, a box office authority and senior media analyst with Comscore, saying that the one-two punch of Venom: Let There Be Carnage on Oct. 1 and No Time to Die on Oct. 8 could kick off a “busy” fall box office. Venom: Let There Be Carnage and No Time to Die are perfectly positioned to entice the 18-to-30 year-olds who have driven the comeback of the movie theater in the latter part of the summer,” he says. Variety also says the end-of-summer release Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings looks likely to be the first pandemic-era film to cross $200 million domestically.

Comment of the Day: “Michelle Williams?” — MovieMaker publisher Deirdre McCarrick, upon seeing that the four-time Oscar nominee is in Venom: Let There Be Carnage.

Why Yes: In fact we did open today’s Rundown with a reference to Dude, Where’s My Car.