The Screen Actors Guild has started partnering with The Film Department to sign ”guaranteed completion contracts” on nine independent films. No word on if these “indies” are really independent or just on one of the indie arms of the big studios.

We’re going to assume that they are for real, dirt-cheap art-house flicks, because that’s what would make these deals matter at all.

Basically, you have to be a certain distance from Hollywood-Studio-Land to qualify for a completion contract. This contract is SAG’s guarantee to the filmmakers that even if the negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers end up with another costly strike, your SAG actors won’t be pulled off set.

Good news, sort of, but overall inconsequential to the billion dollar industry that is being threatened.

SAG and the AMPTP started “negotiating” Tuesday and we finally got The Office back last Thursday, so whatever SAG is going to do (be it stupid or groundbreaking) we hope they do it soon.

We just want our TV.