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."