Will SAG Crisis Kill The Market At Sundance?

Granted, it’s a worst-case scenario on the fringe of the endless labour imbroglio, but we love a good disaster plot: Could all those outstanding SAG waivers burn movies with studio interest at Sundance?

The NYT today posits the outside likelihood of that doomsday situation, in which studios and their art-house affiliates are forbidden from distributing Sundance selections that were cast and produced after securing guild waivers. The waivers were supposed to allow indie producers to enlist SAG talent in the absence of a new contract with the studios; now, with no contract yet signed and none in sight, they potentially prohibit the likes of Fox Searchlight, Focus Features, Miramax, Sony Classics and other mini-majors from distributing — and perhaps even purchasing — their multi-million-dollar prizes.

Again, it’s a worst-case scenario. Not likely. In other words: Don’t get your hopes up, Harvey.

• A Sundance Chill [Carpetbagger]