Apple TV+’s Tehran Becomes 2nd Series to Get SAG-AFTRA Waiver

Matt Webb Mitovich
·2 min read
4

The Israeli spy thriller Tehran is the second TV series to be granted a waiver to continue filming amid the recently launched SAG-AFTRA strike.

As reported by our sister site Deadline, Tehran has about a week left to film on Season 3, in Israel. And whereas the Jesus drama The Chosen (now airing Stateside on The CW) scored its own waiver this week by being a truly independent, crowdfunded production not tied to any of the big, AMPTP companies, Tehran has ties to Apple, which streams the drama on Apple TV+.

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It is unclear how exactly Tehran earned its waiver, but it may stem from the fact that it was originally produced for the Israeli network KAN by Donna Productions and Shula Spiegel Productions in association with Alon Aranya’s Paper Plane Productions, whereas Apple TV+ merely owns international rights to the series outside of Israel. UPDATE: At San Diego Comic-Con, SAG-AFTRA National Executive Director and Chief Negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland told Deadline, “In the case of Tehran, this is project that was produced by an Israeli-based company, that’s currently being shot in Greece.”

“There’s multiple national laws that apply to exactly how we address striking that production,” he added. “That’s one of the things we consider in the process of determining whether we grant an interim agreement.”

As a SAG FAQ spells out, “With respect to non-AMPTP, independently-produced content that comes within the scope of a strike order, SAG-AFTRA anticipates offering an Interim Agreement that would allow such productions to continue working during a strike provided that the producer agrees to abide by the terms that SAG-AFTRA is seeking from the AMPTP.”

Season 2 of Tehran followed Tamar (played by Niv Sultan), a Mossad hacker-agent as she infiltrated Tehran under a false identity to help destroy Iran’s nuclear reactor. In Season 3, Tamar — after going rogue at the end of Season 2 and reeling from the loss of her closest allies — must find a way to reinvent herself and win back the Mossad’s support if she is to survive. Erstwhile House doc Hugh Laurie joined the Season 3 cast in the series-regular role of Eric Peterson, a South African nuclear inspector.

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