‘The Chosen’ Season 4 Among 39 Indie Productions Approved for SAG-AFTRA Strike Waivers
The fourth season of Angel Studios’ independent Christian series “The Chosen” was among the list of 39 productions approved by SAG-AFTRA to continue filming during its ongoing actors strike.
Projects that are not being produced by a Hollywood studio that is a member of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers may apply to sign an interim agreement that would allow production to continue and for SAG-AFTRA members to perform without being in violation of the strike order. More productions are expected to be approved in the coming weeks.
While past seasons have been licensed out to streaming services like Amazon Prime and Netflix, “The Chosen” gets its budget entirely from crowdfunding, as millions have contributed to the production starring Jonathan Roumie as Jesus of Nazareth. While the show is available to stream for free on Angel Studios’ own streaming platform, millions of fans have turned out to see special engagement theatrical screenings of the show, including a Christmas special that earned $13.7 million at the box office in 2021.
The agreement between SAG-AFTRA and Angel Studios also comes as the studio’s latest drama “Sound of Freedom” has become the highest grossing independent film release at the box office since theaters reopened, grossing $90 million in two weeks.
On its Twitter page for the show, Angel Studios announced that it will resume the final two weeks of shooting for Season 4 of “The Chosen” on Monday.
Top indie distributor A24 has also received approval for production to resume on two of its projects: “Mother Mary,” a film from “The Green Knight” director David Lowery starring Anne Hathaway and Michaela Coel in a pop melodrama about a relationship between a musician and a fashion designer. SAG-AFTRA also granted waivers to “Death of a Unicorn,” a film starring Paul Rudd as the employee of a pharmaceutical magnate who discovers the supernatural properties of a unicorn whom Rudd’s character hits with a car.
Other indie productions that have been approved on an interim agreement by SAG-AFTRA include “Queen of the Ring,” a biopic about famed early 20th-century pro wrestler Mildred Burke, and a revival of the anthology series “Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction,” which aired from 1997-2002 and gained renewed interest online after clips of its host Jonathan Frakes resurfaced. The full list of indie productions approved by SAG-AFTRA can be read here.
