In two weeks, production is scheduled to start on a remake of the 1949 film, All the King’s Men. Chris Rose’s article in The Times-Picayune gives a background on the original film and novel which support his contention that the remake has a good chance of meeting, if not surpassing, its predecessors. The budget is high. The cast is A-list. That’s why it’s ironic that the studio behind such a big-budget movie about a politician nicknamed “Robin Hood”  is in danger of becoming the Wal-Mart of the film industry.

Most studio movies hire union craftspeople. These unions are supposed to protect their members by drawing up work contracts with the studios. Unions negotiate the rates of pay, contributions to pension and welfare, and working rules for travel to and from the locations where films are shot. The language of these contracts is typical of any legal contract: its terms are complicated, almost illegible. Loopholes are inevitable, and where they exist, it’s up to the people in power to refrain from exploiting them. One such loophole exists in the union contract negotiated for the upcoming remake of All The King’s Men.

The discovery of this loophole has led to a decision made by Sony Pictures not to trigger a union agreement which pays for the healthcare and pension plans of union employees. In simple terms, this agreement dictates that a studio which produces a film outside of Los Angeles, in a different state, may avoid paying a residual payment to the West Coast union’s pension and welfare fund. To avoid this payment, the studio cannot hire more than one person from Los Angeles.

All the King’s Men is being shot on location in Louisiana. Despite the fact that several union workers from Los Angeles were requested to work on the film, Sony denied them the right to work because it would have required Sony to pay a small percentage of residual profits gleaned in the markets outside the United States to the union’s pension and healthcare plan.  

As freelance workers, union employees depend on their unions for healthcare coverage and retirement.  The money keeping the union’s pension and healthcare plan afloat comes directly from the contributions like those Sony is avoiding; without these residual profits, the pension and healthcare plan will disappear.

It seems odd that this loophole is being exploited on a project like All The King’s Men, considering that more than 99 percent of union films result in contributions made to union pension and healthcare plans. The loophole isn’t new; maybe union employees have been fortunate that 99 percent of the time, studio heads look the other way and pay these contributions.

After all, the film is about Huey Long, a man whose belief in spreading wealth among the common people earned him the reputation of a modern-day Robin Hood:

“[Huey Long] wanted the government to confiscate the wealth of the nation’s rich and privileged. He called his program Share Our Wealth. It called upon the federal government to guarantee every family in the nation an annual income of $5,000, so they could have the necessities of life, including a home, a job, a radio and an automobile … Everyone over age 60 would receive an old-age pension.”

It would seem the time is right for a remake about a man with these ideals. It’s unfortunate that the producers haven’t learned the moral of the story they’re telling.