The last time David O. Russell’s movie Nailed was shut down — you might remember that the end of the film was heralded if another shutdown took place — I spent a bunch of time making phone calls to no avail trying to discover the fate of the film. At the end of June the movie had only a couple days left in the schedule when IATSE shut it down because crew members were not paid…again. The project has provided nothing but a stream of bad news for ThinkFilm and Capitol Film, which were purchased last year by David Bergstein.
Now THR has a fascinating article on Bergstein, in which he briefly mentions the status of Nailed. Bergstein said the guild problems have been resolved and that the
movie only needs two days of pickup shots; others said scenes
crucial to the film are missing. In any case, additional days were
funded and the film will arrive on schedule in early 2009.
It might be a relief to David O. Russell to not be the biggest jerk associated with his move; Alex Ben Block at THR certainly seems eager to paint David Bergstein as a complete asshole. “Some of what is out there is true,” he quotes Bergstein saying. “The vast
majority is not true. And for the stuff that is true, my answer is,
‘So what? So what if X, Y or Z might be owed money?’ “ If nothing else, Bergstein isn’t playing by the rules and appears to have over-extended himself, putting several projects out to pasture in the process. But killing projects is what Hollywood is all about; people still sign deals with Harvey Weinstein. What if ThinkFilm, which Bergstein plans to evolve into a true digital distribution hub, is actually the true model for the new indie label — a house run by financiers rather than old industry producers who want to make the movies they couldn’t make at studios?