August
26
Indie Sector Squeezes Bergstein, Yari
While the big studio pictures are steady as they go this year, it's been a lousy market for the indies, from the studio specialty divisions to the indies with no safety blanket, like David Bergstein's various companies, including ThinkFilm. The LAT covers the sordid history of Bergstein's financial troubles over the past year.
Fact is, as we head toward the Toronto Fest, ThinkFilm has started to pay some of its bills, including two PR firms, Nancy Willen PR and 42 West, and has picked up a few pictures, including the Viggo Mortensen picture Good, which is going to Toronto, as well as Five Dollars a Day, starring Christopher Walken and Sharon Stone. Both were financed in part by U.K.'s Aramid Capital Partners, which because of the currently dicey state of American indie distribution, gave an infusion to Bergstein because they wanted ThinkFilm to release their films.
The disturbing thing is Bergstein's cavalier approach to paying bills. Many vendors are still owed money, or have been forced to sue to get what is owed to them. But he is not alone. Other companies are known in the industry as late payers, renegotiating deals after the fact or trying to get out of financial commitments.
The Bob Yari Film Group, which was seduced by its early success with 2005 Oscar winner Crash and 2006's The Illusionist into launching its own distribution company, is navigating its own financial shoals. Yari Prods. and Alliance Film's Momentum Pictures are wrangling over monies paid for the U.K. distribution of Resurrecting the Champ. On Friday, Momentum filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles Federal Court claiming BYP owes it $1.3 million. The suit claims that BYP sold Momentum distribution rights to Resurrecting the Champ, starring Samuel L. Jackson, and Man on a Ledge, with John Travolta attached to star. Momentum says the deal allowed it to return Champ distribution rights to BYP if it failed to produce the Travolta pic, with BYP then responsible for repaying the minimum guarantee and other expenses. Man on a Ledge was never made and, according to the suit, BYP “has offered no legitimate excuse for its failure to honor its promises.” As for Champ, which has not been released in the U.K., the film earned $70K overseas.
Yari produced several films back in 2007 that have yet to be released, and has not opened any films during 2008. He's sending Rod Lurie's Nothing But the Truth, starring Kate Beckinsale as a reporter who outs a CIA agent, to Toronto, but has no plans to release it until 2009. (If the movie goes over well at the fest, a late-year platform is possible.)
The Lurie-produced What Doesn't Kill You, starring Ethan Hawke, is on the shelf, along with The Accidental Husband, The Maiden Heist and Assassination of a High School President, all set for 2009 release. Yari still plans to go forward with production this fall on Don Roos’s The Governess, starring Jennifer Lopez, and Killing Pablo, based on Mark Bowden’s book.
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I've seen The Accidental Husband and it would be better for everyone involved if that film stayed on the shelf indefinitely.
Posted by: Drew | August 27, 2008 at 05:21 AM
Interesting how Yari's two big (only?) hits, CRASH & THE ILLUSIONIST were brought in/produced by Cathy Schulman, who also ended up in litigation with Yari.
Yari after Schulman is like Morgan Creek after Joe Roth. Barely alive.
And no, I'm not Schulman's (or Roth's) publicist.
Posted by: Dixon Steele | August 28, 2008 at 10:49 AM
Does anyone know what happened to "Fellini in Black and White" which was a Yari film that was supposed to begin shooting this summer with Banderas as Federico Fellini?
Posted by: StevenGaydos | August 28, 2008 at 09:59 PM