International shoots paused due to SAG-AFTRA strike

Disney/Marvel’s Deadpool 3 is one of a number of Hollywood productions shooting outside the United States that has been halted due to the SAG-AFTRA strike.

The Marvel Studios production has been filming in the UK’s Pinewood Studios, and most recently in Norfolk.

It stars Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman and Matthew Macfadyen, and is directed by Shawn Levy. Disney recently moved up the release date from November 8 2024 to May 3 2024.

Screen has confirmed that Paramount’s Gladiator 2 starring Paul Mescal, Pedro Pascal, Denzel Washington and Connie Nielsen and directed by Ridley Scott, which was shooting in Malta after completing the Morocco portion of production, has also been put on pause until the strike ends.

Production is more than halfway complete and Gladiator 2 is scheduled to open in November 2024.

Paramount/Skydance’s June 2024 release Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning, Part Two will not resume production until the strike is over. The studio built in a promotional window for Tom Cruise, director and co-writer Christopher McQuarrie and the cast to promote the first instalment, which is opening around the world this weekend and has earned $63.6m. 

Sony/Marvel’s Venom 3 is on pause after production started in Spain last month. Tom Hardy, Juno Temple and Chiwetel Ejiofor star. At time of writing no release date had been set.

SAG-AFTRA members voted to strike on July 13 following the breakdown in negotiations between the US actors’ union and the Alliance Of Motion Picture And Television Producers (AMPTP) broke down. 

But not all US actors are striking as it depends on their contract, and the nature of the production, with strike action generally aimed at studio and streamer shoots.

For example, in Ireland, sources say filming of The Watchers, starring Dakota Fanning, is still going ahead over the week in Wicklow, before its move to Galway.

The Watchers is the debut feature from Ishana Night Shyamalan, daughter of M Night Shyamalan (who is a producer on the project). Fanning stars with UK actor Georgina Campbell and Ireland-born Olwen Fouéré, for US production outfits Blinding Edge Pictures, Inimitable Pictures and Warner Bros Discovery-owned New Line Cinema. Element Pictures is the Irish production company on the project.

This story originally appeared in our sister publication Screen International.