Harry, Meghan Prepare for New Projects with Netflix

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle arrive at United Nations headquarters in New York, July 18, 2022. (AP)
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle arrive at United Nations headquarters in New York, July 18, 2022. (AP)
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Harry, Meghan Prepare for New Projects with Netflix

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle arrive at United Nations headquarters in New York, July 18, 2022. (AP)
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle arrive at United Nations headquarters in New York, July 18, 2022. (AP)

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are working on multiple documentaries as well as a scripted television series and a film adaptation, a Netflix executive has revealed.

According to The Telegraph, the couple, who signed a lucrative five-year deal with Netflix in 2020, will be under pressure to secure a rating hit to justify their reputed $100 million payday.

It comes after they appeared at the premiere of “Bob Marley: One Love” in Jamaica alongside Brian Robbins, the Paramount Pictures chief executive, fueling speculation that they may be courting a new deal.

Bela Bajaria, Netflix’s chief content officer, revealed that the Sussexes had several major projects in the pipeline and were working with Brandon Riegg, vice president of unscripted content.

Asked at a preview event in Hollywood what was next for Prince Harry and Meghan, she replied: “Oh, what are they working on? They have a couple of unscripted things they’re working on with Brandon.”

“And they actually have, like, a bunch of development, they have a movie in development, a (scripted) series that they’re working on. So, all very early development, with a movie, a TV show and a couple of unscripted shows. But yeah, the movie’s great,” she added.

Netflix is said to have stumped up £3 million to secure the film rights to Carley Fortune’s “Meet Me at the Lake”, a romantic novel that will be produced by the Sussexes’ Archewell Productions.

As part of the next phase of their deal, the Duke is said to be hoping to return to Africa to make a documentary, although the project is in the early stages.

Sources close to the couple have previously told The Telegraph that they also have several “fun” television series in the pipeline.

“There will be more of a heavy focus on fictional, scripted content. It will be romcoms, feel-good and light-hearted programs,” one source said.

For the most part, the couple will adopt executive producer roles, allowing them to pursue other projects and philanthropic work.

The Sussexes’ Netflix output stalled last year owing to the Hollywood writers’ strike.

So far, they have produced only a handful of shows. Their “Harry & Meghan” docuseries was released in December 2022.

“Heart of Invictus”, the Duke’s behind-the-scenes documentary about the competitors preparing for the 2022 Games, followed last August and they also lent their voices to “Live to Lead”, a series featuring pre-recorded interviews with global leaders and activists.

Meghan’s animated show “Pearl”, about powerful women of history, was dropped.

Meanwhile, Archewell lost another senior member of staff last month when Bennett Levine, a production manager, quit after just two years.

Last year, both Ben Browning, internal content head, and Fara Taylor, who led the marketing team, also left and neither was replaced. Last month, Archewell Foundation’s tax returns revealed an $11 million fall in donations last year to $2 million, tipping it into a loss.



Video Game Performers Will Go on Strike Over Artificial Intelligence Concerns 

SAG-AFTRA signage is seen on the side of the headquarters in Los Angeles on Friday, Nov. 10, 2023. (AP)
SAG-AFTRA signage is seen on the side of the headquarters in Los Angeles on Friday, Nov. 10, 2023. (AP)
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Video Game Performers Will Go on Strike Over Artificial Intelligence Concerns 

SAG-AFTRA signage is seen on the side of the headquarters in Los Angeles on Friday, Nov. 10, 2023. (AP)
SAG-AFTRA signage is seen on the side of the headquarters in Los Angeles on Friday, Nov. 10, 2023. (AP)

Hollywood's video game performers announced they would go on strike Thursday, throwing part of the entertainment industry into another work stoppage after talks for a new contract with major game studios broke down over artificial intelligence protections.

The strike — the second for video game voice actors and motion capture performers under the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists — will begin at 12:01 a.m. Friday. The move comes after nearly two years of negotiations with gaming giants, including divisions of Activision, Warner Bros. and Walt Disney Co., over a new interactive media agreement.

SAG-AFTRA negotiators say gains have been made over wages and job safety in the video game contract, but that the two sides remained split over the regulation of generative AI. A spokesperson for the video game producers, Audrey Cooling, said the studios offered AI protections, but SAG-AFTRA’s negotiating committee said that the studios’ definition of who constitutes a "performer" is key to understanding the issue of who would be protected.

"The industry has told us point blank that they do not necessarily consider everyone who is rendering movement performance to be a performer that is covered by the collective bargaining agreement," SAG-AFTRA Chief Contracts Officer Ray Rodriguez said at a news conference Thursday afternoon. He said some physical performances are being treated as "data."

Without guardrails, game companies could train AI to replicate an actor’s voice, or create a digital replica of their likeness without consent or fair compensation, the union said.

"We strike as a matter of last resort. We have given this process absolutely as much time as we responsibly can," Rodriguez told reporters. "We have exhausted the other possibilities, and that is why we’re doing it now."

Cooling said the companies' offer "extends meaningful AI protections."

"We are disappointed the union has chosen to walk away when we are so close to a deal, and we remain prepared to resume negotiations," she said.

Andi Norris, an actor and member of the union's negotiating committee, said that those who do stunt work or creature performances would still be at risk under the game companies' offer.

"The performers who bring their body of work to these games create a whole variety of characters, and all of that work must be covered. Their proposal would carve out anything that doesn’t look and sound identical to me as I sit here, when, in truth, on any given week I am a zombie, I am a soldier, I am a zombie soldier," Norris said. "We cannot and will not accept that a stunt or movement performer giving a full performance on stage next to a voice actor isn’t a performer."

The global video game industry generates well over $100 billion dollars in profit annually, according to game market forecaster Newzoo. The people who design and bring those games to life are the driving force behind that success, SAG-AFTRA said.

Members voted overwhelmingly last year to give leadership the authority to strike. Concerns about how movie studios will use AI helped fuel last year’s film and television strikes by the union, which lasted four months.

The last interactive contract, which expired in November 2022, did not provide protections around AI but secured a bonus compensation structure for voice actors and performance capture artists after an 11-month strike that began in October 2016. That work stoppage marked the first major labor action from SAG-AFTRA following the merger of Hollywood’s two largest actors unions in 2012.

The video game agreement covers more than 2,500 "off-camera (voiceover) performers, on-camera (motion capture, stunt) performers, stunt coordinators, singers, dancers, puppeteers, and background performers," according to the union.

Amid the tense interactive negotiations, SAG-AFTRA created a separate contract in February that covered independent and lower-budget video game projects. The tiered-budget independent interactive media agreement contains some of the protections on AI that video game industry titans have rejected. Games signed to an interim interactive media agreement, tiered-budget independent interactive agreement or interim interactive localization agreement are not part of the strike, the union said.