WGA Puts Producer Steve Small On Strike/Unfair List Over Financial Concerns On Films Including John Travolta’s ‘Cash Out’

EXCLUSIVE: The Writers Guild of America has placed producer Steve Small and his company Fifty Feet Movie, LLC on the union’s Strike/Unfair List over financial concerns on multiple films.

A memo sent to members on Wednesday points to Article 42 of the 2023 Minimum Basic Agreement, which allowed the guild to demand a surety bond from Fifty Feet “after determining that it is not financially responsible and is unlikely to meet its MBA obligations connection with multiple theatrical motion picture projects.”

Those films include the John Travolta starrer Cash Out, as well as two Sylvester Stallone pics, Alarum and The Epiphany.

To date, the WGA says that Fifty Feet has not posted the bond, prompting the placement on the Strike/Unfair List, which prohibits members from working for or optioning or selling material to those companies.

A spokesperson for Fifty Feet tells Deadline: “Fifty Feet Movie, LLC has never defaulted on any of its payments to writers — those who worked on its three movies, Alarum, Cash Out and The Epiphany, have all been paid. The WGA’s claims make plain that its dispute is not with Fifty Feet but with a company that does business with Fifty Feet. The WGA unsuccessfully tried to extract a ‘bond’ from Fifty Feet because of WGA’s third-party dispute — which is unrelated to any project developed by Fifty Feet — and is now engaged in an illegal secondary boycott attempting to enmesh Fifty Feet in that unrelated dispute.” 

The WGA also called attention to Small’s other company, Convergence Entertainment Group, LLC, the corporate guarantor for Fifty Feet. That company would also be considered struck, since members are prohibited from working with Small in any capacity related to the MBA.

Randall Emmett is a managing member of Convergence, a fact that the guild calls “relevant to [its] finding of financial irresponsibility” on Small and Fifty Feet. Emmett has been on the WGA Strike/Unfair List since 2020 after two of his companies — Emmett Furla Oasis Films, LLC and Pumped, LLC — failed to pay more than $700,000 to four writers for work they did on the TV series Pump.

Emmett also directed Cash Out under the pseudonym Ives.

Small launched Convergence with Gwen Osborne last year to operate as an independent studio, developing, financing and producing features for theatrical, broadcast and streaming markets. Prior to launching the company, he served as President of Production & Development at Emmett Furla Films.

Any member currently providing writing services on any of the above projects, or those who have been approached by any company or person on the Strike/Unfair List, is encouraged to reach out to the WGA’s legal department.