The producers of a star-studded adaptation of the Martin Amis novel London Fields have attacked the Toronto film festival’s decision to cancel its world premiere following a legal dispute with the movie’s director.
Muse Film and Television issued a statement labelling the move an “ill-considered decision made against our rights” after Toronto bosses pulled tonight’s red-carpet screening and said the film was no longer part of the festival.
“We are greatly disappointed that Tiff decided to pull the film from the festival,” reads the statement. “We have always loved launching our films here, but feel that in this particular case there has been an ill-considered decision made against our rights. It’s the first time we have ever heard of a festival removing a movie from the festival due to its imagery being deemed too provocative.”
The producers spoke out against first-time director Mathew Cullen, who launched a lawsuit on the day the first reviews were published of London Fields earlier this week, claiming his name was being used to market the edited version when he had not played any part in its creation. Cullen complained that footage of “9/11 jumpers edited against pornography” and a juxtaposition of “the holiest city in Islam against mind-control” had been inserted into the film, which stars Billy Bob Thornton, Amber Heard and (in a cameo role) her husband, Johnny Depp. He is suing producers Jordan Gertner and Christopher Hanley – whose wife, Roberta, wrote the script – for fraud, misappropriation of name and likeness, material failure of consideration and unfair competition, and hopes to take the $1m (£640,000) case to trial.
Muse’s statement continued: “The timing and the content of the director’s lawsuit shows that it is a publicity stunt. The filing of Mathew Cullen’s complaint violates the arbitration provisions of his own guild, the DGA. Sadly, Mathew can’t deal with the fact that he does not control the final cut of the movie.
“He was given two deadlines to deliver a ‘director’s cut’ and missed both of them. His guild has rules for withdrawing his name from the picture and he missed those deadlines. The production company will vigorously oppose the lawsuit.”
London Fields centres on a beautiful clairvoyant, Nicola Six (Heard) who knows the time and place of her murder, on the eve of her 30th birthday, but isn’t sure whether it will be committed by posh pretty-boy Guy Clinch (Theo James) or darts-obsessed working-class wideboy Keith Talent (Jim Sturgess). The story is told from the perspective of a terminally ill unreliable narrator, Samson Young (Thornton), an American writer who has moved to London in a last-ditch attempt to cure his chronic writer’s block.
Christopher Hanley previously brought Harmony Korine’s Spring Breakers and Mary Harron’s much-praised Christian Bale-led adaptation of American Psycho to the big screen as a producer. Cullen is best known as a music video director and protege of Mexican film-maker Guillermo del Toro.
London Fields has received mixed reviews from critics at Toronto, but has won praise from Amis, who told the Telegraph: “I was relieved and pleased. I thought it had a lot of atmosphere, terrific performances. It keeps the darts, and it keeps the doomy atmosphere of mutual assured destruction.”
