David O. Russell Film Shut Down 4th Time

19 Comments »

1. This turmoil is even funnier when you consider Gyllenhaal and Biel can’t carry a film and this will probably tank at the box office

   Comment by 40yearoldstitzer — June 21, 2008 @ 6:54 pm

2. Boy, that’s sure something! It’s a good thing Capitol couldn’t scrape it together to finance Robert Redford’s “Against All Enemies” for 70 million. I wonder how many times THAT would have been shut down…..

   This film is better off on the shelf anyways, the script is wretched.

   Comment by Robert Not So Wise — June 21, 2008 @ 9:04 pm

3. Maybe David could call his buddy George Clooney and borrow some of that Bollywood money. In exchange he could put a spectacular song and dance piece in the middle of his movie. Couldn’t hurt.

   Comment by peggy — June 21, 2008 @ 10:06 pm

4. I used to agree with the notion that hey I have standards, and “these guys don’t pay, or didn’t pay,or didn’t pay three (3) times before” but in Hollywood come on? People from both sides will do just about anything, it is a m a z i n g. Of course, it would be interesting to know how much of the original crew has weathered the Nailed storm(s). Knowing nothing but it is a movie plauged with financial woes, the fact that it is not DOA yet makes me want to see it.

   Comment by Buck Zollo — June 21, 2008 @ 10:06 pm

5. Russel should be now calling the Independent Film Channel or Sundance to bankroll this film. The more this continues the more interesting story this becomes. Why haven’t Miramax or the Wienstien Company come in and save it? The way this story is unfolding,Russel could be made into a film on why his film is having so many problems with fiancing.

   Comment by chuck — June 21, 2008 @ 11:32 pm

6. If people don’t look at every project Capital , think and all the people who help make independent films a an independent joke (nobody gets it) . Who knows how this game is played and still lies to anyone about ” Money for projects that isn’t real “? Any person who helps a Shell game of moving money to appear as if it’s really a specific project is part of fraud . It’s got to include anyone who knows that this is David’s MO and why he is getting taken to court . I know 1st hand which agents and friends of the Myth of capital films have lied to get a project up and make everything look good for the moment . I will tell anyone who wants to know so they can start thinking about what an agent is bound to do ? What a lawyer is bound and held to do in their clients best interest ? I am so tired of weak pussy ass “artists ” who choose to keep quiet about a huge problem ( lack of capital ), just to hold on to the dream of getting the next film made ? If you did this in business it would land you in jail , Oh wait this is business but lying lands you a better job . I know I pulled out of a Capital project and I know how pathetic the excuses people made for ” funding glitch’s” . I don’t think you can blame Capital for taking the credit for other people’s lack of honesty and need for ” capital ” even if it’s a lie it’s going to give us more opportunity to get ” capital ” to make a movie . This is going to happen until people treat this like it’s a business and it has laws and guidelines to allow for real people to make movies .

   Comment by the player — June 22, 2008 @ 7:07 am

7. I thought the 3rd shutdown was the final nail in the coffin. This flick’s turning into the “Little Movie That Couldn’t.”

   And I doubt a Bollywood investor would step in for this movie like one did for Dreamworks, they like to see a return on their investment, and a sex-farce/satire about socialized medicine with a barely post-pubescent Gyllenhaal playing congressman, isn’t the recipe for boffo box-office.

   And this ongoing melodrama is just making it worse for other independent productions to find investors.

   Comment by Furious D — June 22, 2008 @ 8:08 am

8. The subject matter of the movie will likely leave it out of blockbuster status so investors are likely hesitant. Can’t blame them. Everything is $$$ and cents nowadays.

   I wrote a raunchy political satire/parody spec script with lots of sex and bombs and a doomsday scenario and I’m not even sure that would make a return on an investment with a budget over five million.

   Comment by Marcus L. — June 22, 2008 @ 10:41 am

9. Karma’s a bitch, David.

   Enough said….

   Comment by Layne — June 22, 2008 @ 12:20 pm

10. The Player wrote: “I know 1st hand which agents and friends of the Myth of capital films have lied to get a project up and make everything look good for the moment. I will tell anyone who wants to know so they can start thinking about what an agent is bound to do?”

    Name names player! One guess, initials are GT. This weasel has thrown every POS project that Endeavor “Independent” couldn’t pawn off on anyone else in this business at David Bergstein and all of his companies. He’s even used his relationship with Bergstein to fund or arrange distribution for quite a few of his British girlfriend’s projects, all of which most people would agree only deserve distribution on the WE channel, if that! Who could do business with this guy knowing these two are in cahoots? I am surprised the bosses at Endeavor haven’t put their foot down on that arrangement. I mean there is conflict of interest and then there is CONFLICT OF INTEREST! Point is that Bergstein hasn’t been too wise on deciding which pictures to fund or who to be involved with. He’s been dining on the leftovers of these clowns in the “independent packaging and finance” divisions of the agencies and now he’s got stomach ulcers that are bleeding money. Squinting your eyes, holding your nose and pretending as hard as you can doesn’t turn chicken shit into chicken salad!

    Comment by Barbara — June 22, 2008 @ 2:23 pm

11. Nice Barbara, very well put. I will say yes to everything you wrote and let’s just assume GT is not the brains behind the bad idea? Who else fits the shoe that treads all over a project ? If it’s my agent and his lawyer , then either my the head of my Agency is stupid or part of the big picture ? If I am a producer that worked with these people before knowing the “bridge money ” solution and who builds the bridge? I would know that I am helping keep the scam alive if I keep saying Capital is great ! I am screwing everyone and hoping I get to cross the bridge first to get my movies made even if know I need real money later just to pretend I am thriving , before the devil knows I’m dying . I think the point is taken and the insights of Barbara are as obvious as the problem , Who is allowing the Business to take away more available money , talent , lively hoods cause Sub prime lending to eat up the only food left? I know I don’t touch anything that ” promises to call me tomorrow when they find out what’s going on”? Tomorrow is promised to know one , unless it’s Capco-Think-CAPITAL-INTERNATIONAL INTERMEDIA it’s many other associations . Thanks Barb

    Comment by The player — June 22, 2008 @ 4:58 pm

12. Let’s not lose sight of the fact that Bergstein has been having “trouble” financing films since he got started in this business. This isn’t the first film he’s had shut down… and it won’t be the last.

    You can point out all the other suckers out there who keep helping Bergstein make movies. But no matter what company you call it, no matter what picture it is, no matter who set up the deal… all the money problems come right back to Mr. David Bergstein.

    Comment by Jim — June 22, 2008 @ 11:18 pm

13. Sad to say, but let me correct you Nikki…we’ve been shut down 6 times. This is the 6th.

    Comment by Anonymous — June 23, 2008 @ 9:16 am

14. Well if the Nailed Script is terribly written,it’s in a radical need for a rewrite. If not rewritten Russel is going to look real bad. But he looks real bad with fact that he and Captital can’t raise money for it.

    Comment by chuck — June 23, 2008 @ 9:33 am

15. The Nailed script wasn’t “terribly written.” It was actually very funny. A little weird, in the way DOR films are weird, but very funny.

    Comment by Oh please — June 23, 2008 @ 2:56 pm

16. I think it is a bit moronic of Barbara to ask names to be named when she herself is not saying who she is. There is no need to single out people….every agency in hollywood is in business with some film either with David or his subsidiaries.

    Comment by NYNY — June 23, 2008 @ 3:39 pm

17. Hmph. a) Hollywood leans way lefty in it’s content and posturing(i.e. Hates corporations, loves the ‘little guy’.) b)if this is a political film, it is surely Leftist. c)The ‘little guys” (crew members) are the one’s Russell and company screw. Yeah, yeah, I know. Russell isn’t “writing the checks”, but shouldn’t he be the guy standing up for the basic rights of the little guy? Bet all the above the line cashed theirs.

    Comment by Crewguy — June 24, 2008 @ 5:54 am

18. I love Nikki Finke’s column, but the posters here are all the most vicious bunch of un-self-actualized haters. Whether the subject is Martin Scorsese or David O. Russell or John Calley, every post works itself up into a rabid froth and ends with some variation on “I hope their project crashes and burns and they die sobbing in the gutter!” Do you think there might be some thwarted, bitter losers in this city?

    Comment by heywood jablomie — June 26, 2008 @ 8:41 am

19. heywood jablomie, You seem to miss the point of “Everyone who posts here”? I state facts and ask others to be honest about what is real and what is fake ? Do you work with companies that lie to everyone and never get taken to task fir the decay they cause ? If you think I am not offering a solution then you should prove a point that isn’t fixable and solve it ? If you can’t shut the fuck up and make it a blockbuster night. I am all about getting past the limits of the bullshit that is “part of concept Hollywood ” ? If you don’t know better than to assume ? You don’t know better , so be quite unless you can handle making a statement or question a fact ?
    65 years of playing and it’s the same game.
    Injinplease

    Comment by Real hollywood — June 28, 2008 @ 6:21 am

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