A petition by the Producers Union asking the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers to drop “producers” from their official name was delivered to AMPTP president Carol Lombardini on Tuesday.
As of noon, 2,353 producers, including Blumhouse founder Jason Blum, former Women in Film president Cathy Schulman and “Fast and the Furious” producer Neil Moritz have signed the Change.org petition.
“The AMPTP primarily represents major studios, networks and streaming platforms, and the inclusion of ‘Producers’ in their name inaccurately implies that all producers are part of this organization. The ‘P’ in AMPTP stands for ‘producers’ but is left over from a long-gone era when all film producers were employed by the studios,” reads the petition, which was first posted to Change.org in July.
The petition says that referring to AMPTP as “producers” during the WGA and SAG strikes “continues to cause misconceptions within the industry and in the public, as true producers are independent entrepreneurs (including line producers or other members of the producing team) and are integral crew members dedicated to the successful creation and distribution of projects.”
It goes on to say, “The writers and actors are not negotiating with, nor striking against, independent producers. The WGA and SAG battles are with the studios, streamers and networks – the Alliance – not with producers.”
“This distinction between financiers and producers is crucial to protect producing as a viable career path, and it’s a strong first step amongst many needed to keep producer fees and participations from being eroded and diluted,” Schulman wrote in August as her reason for signing the petition.
Other producers who signed include Andrea Sperling (“Transparent”), Dede Gardner (“12 Years a Slave”), Grant Heslov (“Argo”), Jennifer Fox (“Nightcrawler”), Nina Jacobson (“The Hunger Games”), Todd Garner (“Mortal Kombat”), and Peter Saraf (“Little Miss Sunshine”).
Deadline first reported this story.
