Michael Corrente,
who had said amid much fanfare when announcing last
June that he planned to begin filming his Buddy Cianci
saga The Prince of Providence in mid-August, has decided
to wait until mid-September to see whether the Screen
Actors Guild will go on strike.
The director said he has discussed plans to postpone
the start of filming with his financial backers and
decided that “It is in our best interest to
wait another two or three weeks to see what SAG is
going to do.” The Screen Actors Guild, which
represents thousands of actors, has been in stalemated
talks with the movie studios since before their contract
expired June 30. SAG is seeking better payouts for
its members when films and TV shows are released on
DVD and the Internet.
Corrente said that currently he and his staff are
involved in pre-production work for The Prince of
Providence. That includes preparing location sites,
much of which he said will be centered in a five-block
radius around Providence City Hall, and providing
housing for the actors and crew.
SAG, he said, has granted a waiver to The Prince
of Providence because it is an independent production
not financed by a major studio. Consequently, Corrente
said his film will not be stopped should SAG go on
strike.
In fact, if SAG does strike, Corrente sees his company
making a potential budget savings of between $750,000
and $1 million. That’s because if the actors
walk off the set of the Showtime TV series Brotherhood,
which has just begun production on its third season
in Rhode Island, its locally based crew members can
come work on The Prince of Providence. That would
save Corrente the expense of importing a movie crew
from Boston and New York and saving a bundle on housing
them.
“My producers and investors totally ‘get
it,’ ” said Corrente, “and think
it’s worth a wait.”
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