sep 15, 2015 - NEW YORK TIMES LONDON FIELDS TROUBLED BY CREATIVE RIFT

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On September 15, 2015, The New York Times published an article on Cullen's and the actors' refusal to support the Producer's Cut at TIFF. The article also referenced the actors' May 2015 letters to Nicola Six and Hanley, although Nicola Six never disclosed this information to the Times. It is unknown to Nicola Six who contacted the newspaper with the story. Cullen's and the actors' contracts each prohibited them from disclosing to third parties any confidential information about the Movie

FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES:
TORONTO — It has not been hard to spot Johnny Depp at the giant film festival here. Monday night, he walked the red carpet with his wife, Amber Heard, to celebrate a showing of his movie “Black Mass.” Two days earlier, it was Mr. Depp on Ms. Heard’s arm, at a screening of “The Danish Girl,” of which she is a star.

But will they show up on Friday, when it comes time to introduce “London Fields,” in which both have roles? Even their producer doesn’t know.

Based on a noir novel by Martin Amis, “London Fields,” set for its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, has become the center of an unusually fierce, behind-the-scenes dispute over both the control and content of the movie.

Whether any of the film’s biggest stars — Mr. Depp, Ms. Heard, Billy Bob Thornton and Jim Sturgess — will appear to support it on Friday is an open question, as festival organizers nervously wait to find out.

None have publicly declared a boycott. But all four have written letters to their producers, objecting to a provocative cut of the movie — its narrative is now laced with violent imagery in what might be dreams, or flashes both back and forward — that was overseen not by its credited director, Mathew Cullen, but by one of those producers, Chris Hanley.

Some of the actors have considered being elsewhere when the movie has its premiere on Friday, according to people with knowledge of their thinking.

Mr. Cullen certainly will not be on hand, according to these people briefed on his plans, who spoke on condition of anonymity. For months Mr. Cullen and his supporters have been contending that Mr. Hanley turned “London Fields” into a sometimes unrecognizable, avant-garde experiment that violates the spirit of the project.

Late Tuesday, Mr. Cullen sued Mr. Hanley in Los Angeles County Superior Court. According to the complaint, Mr. Hanley and his associates “secretly prepared their own version of the film,” which includes elements never discussed, including “incendiary imagery evoking 9/11 jumpers edited against pornography.” Among other remedies, the suit requests that a judge intervene to determine the degree to which Mr. Cullen’s name can be used in connection with the film, if at all.

Filmmaker conflicts with producers and studios are hardly new. For years, the Directors Guild of America assigned an humorously anonymous “Alan Smithee” credit to troubled films like “Let’s Get Harry,” actually directed by Stuart Rosenberg, or “Solar Crisis,” from Richard Sarafian.
The current contest pits a new director against a seasoned producer with a penchant for controversy. To date, Mr. Cullen, for whom “London Fields” is a first feature, has been recognized principally for his commercials, video work and a business association with Guillermo del Toro in their Mirada Studios.

Mr. Hanley, who helped produce the sassy hit “Spring Breakers,” is by contrast a prolific indie filmmaker who often pushes the edges. His “American Psycho,” released in 2000, cast Christian Bale as an investment banker with a psychotic and homicidal alter-ego.

Their conflict over “London Fields” has set up a potentially new embarrassment for Toronto programmers.

In an emailed statement on Monday, the festival’s artistic director, Cameron Bailey, gingerly acknowledged the dispute. “We’re aware that the team that made the film is coming to agreement, and we’re looking forward to launching it,” Mr. Bailey said.

At an early press and industry screening Tuesday morning, “London Fields” — whether more Mr. Hanley’s, or Mr. Cullen’s — proved to be a sexy love quadrangle centered on the themes of clairvoyance and the decay of a London in an undefined crisis. (Mr. Hanley’s wife, Roberta Hanley, wrote the script.)

Decidedly nonlinear in its narrative approach, the characters, including a failed novelist played by Mr. Thornton, weave their lives in and out of literary works both past and in progress. In its present form, the narrative is intercut with images of a predatory drone, nuclear blasts, a person tumbling from a World Trade Center tower, and what appears to be a gathering in Mecca.

Some of those moments were said to have outraged Mr. Cullen, according to people briefed on his response, and he explored taking his name off the film. But he found that he had missed his opportunity to do so under complicated rules enforced by the Directors Guild of America.

Jovan Ajder, a sound mixer who worked on “London Fields,” speaking by telephone from London, said Mr. Hanley’s version of the movie was “radically different” from the more straightforward tale created by Mr. Cullen.

“It was certainly more puzzling and confusing,” Mr. Ajder said. Even more puzzling, he said, was a production process in which Mr. Cullen edited one version of the film, while Mr. Hanley edited another, with actors on call to provide dialogue in postproduction for both.

By May of this year, the actors were largely united in an unusual appeal for the restoration of Mr. Cullen’s cut (though Ms. Heard urged a merger of the versions, Mr. Hanley said). Mr. Depp, who had accepted a small role as a gesture toward his wife, was by then voicing wariness about any attempt to use him in an effort to market the movie, people briefed on the situation said.

The infighting disrupted a postproduction process that was supposed to be completed in time for last year’s Toronto festival, then for the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year.

Mr. Ajder was left to puzzle over a creative collision more severe than he had seen on any of the dozens of films on his résumé. “It was entirely rare, unique,” he said.

But Mr. Hanley, in a Monday email, described things differently, portraying them as a familiar part of the production process.

“I have been through creative battles with every film we have made with every director,” he said.

SOURCE:
Nicola Six v Cullen Cross Complaint Nov 2015

Nicola Six v Heard Nov 2016

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