Musicians Union sues Paramount for outsourcing jobs

Musicians Union sues Paramount for outsourcing jobs

MUMBAI: The American Federation of Musicians of the United States and Canada (AFM) has filed a suit against Paramount Pictures, Inc for recording the score toSame Kind of Different As Me in Slovakia.

 

“Only weeks after we filed suit against Paramount for offshoring jobs in other films, they did it again. This total disrespect for musicians is shameful. It is nothing more than corporate greed,” said AFM International president Ray Hair.

 

The complaint, filed earlier this week in Los Angeles, claims Paramount breached its collective bargaining agreement with musicians that required Paramount films produced in the United States or Canada to be scored in the United States or Canada.

 

Same Kind of Different As Me, directed by Michael Carney and starring Renée Zellweger, Greg Kinnear and Jon Voight, is in post-production and scheduled for release next April. The film, based on the bestselling novel of the same name, was filmed in and around Jackson, Mississippi but was scored in Bratislava, Slovakia last month.

 

Hair explained that profitable film producers are increasingly offshoring scores simply to drive up profits at the expense of musicians. He pointed to Same Kind of Different As Me as a prime example of this alarming trend, which cheats musicians.

 

The AFM is seeking breach of contract damages, including wages and benefits that should have been paid to musicians in the US or Canada.