Los Angeles, July 16 – Disney went ahead with the red carpet premiere of its latest production ‘Haunted Mansion’ recently, making it the first major movie world premiere after SAG-AFTRA began their strike.
As reported by ‘The Hollywood Reporter’, stars Tiffany Haddish, LaKeith Stanfield, Danny DeVito, Rosario Dawson, Chase W. Dillon, Dan Levy, Jamie Lee Curtis, Hasan Minhaj, Marilu Henner, Lindsay Lamb, director Justin Simien, producers Dan Lin and Jonathan Eirich, executive producers Nick Reynolds and Tom Peitzman and composer Kris Bowers were initially scheduled to walk the red carpet, held in front of the Disneyland theme park’s ‘Haunted Mansion’ ride in Anaheim.
But following the actors’ strike called on Thursday, the stars were no longer able to attend the event.
Strike guidelines prohibit not only on-camera work but also promotional activity, including premieres, interviews, festivals, FYC events, award shows and podcasts.
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While several studios and streamers have opted to cancel their upcoming events, most notably the ‘Oppenheimer’ red carpet in New York set for Monday, Disney moved forward with the premiere, leaning on its theme park characters in the absence of the actors.
Amusement park performers dressed as Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Maleficent, Snow White‘s Evil Queen and Cruella posed for photos with fans throughout the two-hour red carpet, as influencers and other guests also got private access to ride the Haunted Mansion attraction.
Producers, as well as Simien, arrived about halfway through the event, stopping for group photos before the director briefly talked to the press.
“I feel very ambivalent about it, but at the same time, I’m just so proud of this cast and I’m so, so proud of Katie Dippold who wrote the script, and so much of why I did this was to honor her words and to honor their work,” Simien told THR on the carpet.
He added, “If they can’t be here to speak for it, I felt like I had to be here to speak for it. It’s sad that they’re not here, at the same time, I totally support the reason why they’re not here. And I’m happy to be the one to ring the bell in their stead.”
He also noted that he finds the AI issues coming up in SAG-AFTRA’s negotiations to be “a very important thing to hammer home and to figure out”.
SAG-AFTRA announced work stoppage after negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers failed on Wednesday night.
The Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists is an American labour union representing approximately 160,000 film and television actors.
