Sony Pictures Entertainment CEO Tony Vinciquerra on SAG-AFTRA strike: 'We want to get back to the table and settle this'

Tony Vinciquerra, chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures, struck a reserved tone when discussing the SAG-AFTRA strike during an industry panel in Italy on Friday. But it was clear that he hopes it will be over soon.

"We are very appalled by these strikes," Vinciquerra said, referring to the combined WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes that mark the second time in Hollywood history that actors have joined writers on the picket lines.

"We want to make a deal," the Sony chief continued, adding, "Even though there have been a lot of headlines saying otherwise."

"We have to make a deal and we want to make a deal," Vinciquerra reiterated. “We appreciate our actors because they are obviously very important partners for us. We want to get back to the table and settle this quickly. »

"What really troubles me," the Sony chief said, "is all the unemployed people who don't have a dog in this union hunt. They just can't function, and that's just a really bad side effect of it all."

Vinciquerra – who was having a conversation onstage at the Audiovisual Producers Summit in Trieste, Italy, with producer Tarak Ben Ammar, whose Italian company Eagle Pictures releases Sony films in Italy – also pointed out that “Now that SAG has gone on strike, we will have the opportunity to start finding ways to resume negotiations with WGA. I hope this will happen at some point soon.

Vinciquerra, who oversees Sony's global operations, was asked if a prolonged double strike in the United States could represent an opportunity for content creators and producers outside the United States who may eventually move in to fill a void in the market.

"The natural thing that's happening - and you can feel it - is that production is increasing in Europe and elsewhere around the world," Vinciquerra said. “It may be in anticipation of SAG-AFTRA [strike]. But we haven’t seen anything tangible yet,” he noted.

"I'm an optimist at heart. I sincerely hope that we manage to settle these strikes. We don't want the strike to continue," Vinciquerra concluded.