Hollywood Star Wins Massive Lawsuit
Eva Green won her lawsuit against a production company over a movie that never materialized in London court last week. The Penny Dreadful star claimed she was still owed her $1 million "pay or play" fee, even though the production of A Patriot fell apart. White Landern and film finance company Sherborne Media Finance disagreed and countersued her.
A Patriot was written by Dan Pringle, who was also set to direct before financing fell apart in 2019, reports Variety. Sherborne Media Finance provided a "bridge" loan, which was meant to get the movie back on track and pay Green's fee. Further funding became difficult though, and Sherborne realized they would have to back the film themselves. Green alleged that they cut the $10 million budget, which would have resulted in a "B s—y movie" that would have hurt Green's career, the actress said.
Green was not happy about the hiring of producer Jake Seal to oversee the film. During the discovery process, private WhatsApp messages Green wrote about Seal's hiring were made public. She called the producer "evil" and the "devil," and described his Black Hanger Studios employees as "s—y peasants." Green told the court she was humiliated by the public release of these messages.
Soon, A Patriot completely fell apart, and all that was left was White Lantern and Sherborne debating how to handle Green's "pay or play" fee. If she left the movie, she would lose the fee, but if White Lantern gave up on making it, they would have to pay the Casino Royale star. Green argued that the producers were just delaying this decision by pushing back the start date repeatedly, as no other cast or crew were hired. Green's lawyer, Edmund Cullen KC, described the hole production as being "built on sand."
In their countersuit, White Lantern and Sherborne argued that Green wanted to sabotage the production herself. They accused her of trying to buy out the script so she could make A Patriot on her own. Justice Michael Green, who presided over the case, dismissed the countersuit and ruled in Green's favor. He even suggested that some of Green's actions proved she wanted to make a good movie.
"She may have said some extremely unpleasant things about Mr. Seal and his crew at Black Hangar, but this was borne from a genuine feeling of concern that any film made under Mr. Seal's control would be of very low quality and would not do justice to a script that she and the former directors were passionate about," Justice Green wrote. "I do think allowances need to be made for the heightened emotions that were clearly present when some of the messages were written and for the fact that these were assumed to be personal correspondence between friends that would never have been imagined to be seen by anyone else and certainly not analyzed to the extent they were."
"I fought tooth and nail to defend the beautiful film that I loved and had signed on for," Green said in a statement to Reuters. "A film that spoke of a cause I hold dear – climate change – and warned of the resource wars and mass migration that would occur if we don't address the problem. I stood my ground and, this time, justice prevailed." Meanwhile, the financiers said they were "naturally disappointed" by the ruling and are considering their next steps.