"There is always an adjective that precedes us: 'Beleaguered,' 'financially distressed,' " Bergstein said recently from his plush new offices in the Fox Plaza in Century City, with a hint of an accent from his native New York. "And none of these people know anything." ...

[A]fter releasing 20-odd pictures in 2006 and 2007, only nine ThinkFilm movies have opened this year. Bergstein apparently has sold off some films, canceled others and has refused to commit to release dates for the only other two films originally scheduled for 2008: January's Sundance Film Festival pickups Phoebe in Wonderland and The Escapist.

At the same time, at least four separate lawsuits have been filed against ThinkFilm this year by partners claiming they were short shifted.

"Some of what is out there is true," Bergstein said. "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?' "

Even for us, whom nothing really shocks anymore (except maybe the highly NSFW Cakefarts, itself a Bergstein-career allegory), such insolence is a bit bracing. (And anyway, isn't that just called "bankruptcy"?) Obviously his partners aren't welcoming his philosophy, resetting their dropped jaws long enough to characterize Bergstein as a "disgrace" whose practices aren't only "disgusting, but downright immoral." Not even enduringly quotable ThinkFilm president Mark Urman, who has downplayed the controversy from the start, had a response for THR. Frankly, we're starting to wonder if today's bomb threat went to the wrong office in Century City — can this guy possibly ever make another deal in this town?

[Photo Credit: THR]

• Has ThinkFilm lost its mind? [THR]

· The week started with ex-Miramax/present Film Department topper Mark Gill declaring at length to LA Film Festival attendees that, "Yes, The Sky Really is Falling":

The marginally good news is it won't hit the ground everywhere. The strongest of the strong will survive and in fact prosper. But it will feel like we just survived a medieval plague. The carnage and the stench will be overwhelming.

Of course, it's fashionable to bitch in the independent film world. It's what we do. We brood. We wear black. We drink too much coffee, followed by too much alcohol. And we bemoan a future devoid of real culture, homogenized to death by unfeeling conglomerates, and increasingly determined by ADD-addled 14-year-olds with nothing but internet porn and Grand Theft Auto on the brain.

Gill tried to end on a positive note ("If you really want to make movies—even after all the unvarnished bad news I've dumped on you today—then by all means do it"), but by then the place looked like Jonestown. By most accounts around the festival this week, it still does.

· Production on Nailed shut down for the fourth time as David Bergstein's Capitol Films once again failed to meet payroll on the set.

· Capitol's sister company, ThinkFilm, is on the defensive against director Alex Gibney, who initiated a lawsuit to reclaim his Oscar-winning documentary Taxi to the Dark Side. They hate each other — in public.

· Variety's resident indie coroner Anne Thompson counts off more dumb money in various stages of decompostion, including Philippe Martinez, Sidney Kimmel and Crash financier Bob Yari.

· Edgy horror and foreign-fare distributor Tartan Films shut its doors permanently on Thursday.

· Toby Emmerich has downgraded from a Mercedes to a Lexus hybrid. Indeed, repent — the end is near.

[Photo Credit: IndieWIRE]

boomp3.com



Actress Jessica Biel was given a very boisterous welcome home in Santa Monica on Tuesday afternoon. The former 7th Heaven star recently returned to California after production was shut down again on the David O. Russell film Nailed. Biel was trailed down the street by a man who was trailing her while mumbling something about having any fries to go with that shake. Biel said, "Once is never okay, but did he have to follow me down the street?" Biel then hid out at a near by jewelry store until the cat caller finally left.

[Photo Credit: X17]

• DAVID O. RUSSELL FILM SHUT DOWN 4TH TIME [Deadline Hollywood Daily]

More than $4 million is allegedly owed to Boston-based Allied Advertising, which filed suit last week in Los Angeles. Today, meanwhile, Variety reports that Mammoth Advertising filed a second suit against Think in New York for another $428,000 in fees dating back to September:

Think had previously posted a check for $80,000 that bounced.

Some of the fees owed are related to a media plan purchased for Think's Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, the Sidney Lumet-helmed film that was released in October and has grossed upward of $19 million. Mammoth contends it has not been paid a cent of the $257,000 it claims it's owed despite repeated payment requests.

But it's not all bad: Think doesn't even have to distribute its recently acquired Roman Polanski documentary to win an Oscar for it. At least someone over there was thinking ahead.

• David Bergstein/ThinkFilm Sued for Fraud [DHD]

• ThinkFilm's bills pile up [Variety]

boomp3.com


After a delightful shopping trip with gal pal Reese Witherspoon, Jake Gyllenhaal ran the course of emotions while walking from the passenger side of his SUV to the driver's side. At the start of the phone call, production on the problem plagued Nailed was back on and Gyllenhaal was due back on set by Tuesday. Then a moment later, he received another call, this time from director David O. Russell explaining that the film was shut down again, then Russell and Gyllenhaal were conferenced together onto a call with one of the producers who said that film was back on, then the trio was put on another conference call with the financiers who said that the movie was shut down again, explaining that all of the money for the film had been lost in a bet on the Celtics/Cavs series. You see, the financiers thought that LeBron James was going to turn it around. It was at this point when the previously silent Gyllenhaal opened the door and explained that he's going to be on vacation for a little while longer.

[Photo Credit: Flynet]

ThinkFilm is known to owe substantial amounts to media outlets, among others. Sources say the company was going to announce an acquisition from Senator Entertainment this week but then canceled its press meetings. ...

Though the company saw an $18 million worldwide gross from Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, further problems emerged Thursday when ThinkFilm execs suddenly discovered there was no money for Friday newspaper ads for Then She Found Me. The following day, SAG pulled the plug on Nailed, telling members not to work due to the lack of required funds in accounts designated to pay the film's actors.

Yeah, that's a bit of a problem. As we noted Monday, all signs point to David Bergstein, the schmogul whose Capitol Films bought Think in 2006: Nikki Finke has another round of films affected by Capitol's cash drought, and Variety also notes squabbles with filmmaker Alex Gibney, who reportedly "threatened to take ThinkFilm into bankruptcy after the company failed to pay him his fees — including his Oscar bonus" after his Taxi to the Dark Side won this year's Best Documentary award. We've heard similar stories from the aftermaths of indies from Half Nelson to Off the Black to Murderball.

Additionally, around this time last month, we heard ThinkFilm was temporarily banned from holding press screenings at Chicago's Lake Street Screening Room when it fell five months behind on rental fees. (It has more debts in New York, where Think president Mark Urman recently complained to The Hollywood Reporter in an unrelated story,"It costs $700 to $800 to schedule a screening for one critic, and sometimes they don't make it.")

The Capitol deal was supposed to free ThinkFilm to acquire and push films more aggressively in the congested indie marketplace; we've seen hints and flashes, but the inconsistency can't be helping as they hit the market at Cannes. But at least Russell is back to work! A carefully timed, videotaped meltdown between him and Jake Gyllenhaal could be all Bergstein and Co. need to set the ship right.

[Photo Credit: Getty Images]

• Production resumes on 'Nailed' [Variety]

Rumors also are circulating that the state of South Carolina could withdraw its incentive monies because of the financing problems. Filmmakers hope to resolve the cash crunch and re-start shooting next week since principal photography is only at the halfway point. "I am confident we will finish," an insider on the pic just told me. "The financing on this like most indies is based on bank loans and bridge loans. This is a matter of waiting on the bridge loan. Hopefully, it will all be resolved."

But new information coming my way says David Bergstein's Capitol Films behind the pic is troubled. In 2006, he acquired a leading UK-based international sales company which over the years had built a good reputation in the movie biz and made a wide range of commercial and critical successes, including Robert Altman's Gosford Park. But now I'm hearing from NYC film financing circles that "a shitload of people are owed a lot of money," in the words of one expert in the field. "I heard this week that his major financing source, a hedge fund, has shut down and left him in the lurch."

This isn't the first of Bergstein's hedge-fund gambits to capsize at an inopportune time; last year's attempted buyout of Image Entertainment acrimoniously fell through a few months back when its primary funder fell under scrutiny from its investors. That and Nailed's problems may or may not be related, but Bergstein's money woes are also said to be trickling down to his American distribution subsidiary ThinkFilm, which, since the schmogul acquired the company in late 2006, have consistently flirted with having more titles in the pipeline than it can afford to release. (We hear they're in arrears with at least one NYC screening room, but they've also won two documentary Oscars in five years, so judge that progress for yourself.)

Anyway, Finke notes that the cast — including Jake Gyllenhaal, Jessica Biel and Catherine Keener — are standing by, ready to work when shooting resumes, hopefully this week. We've seen flimsier houses of cards survive, but this might be one that's withstood all it can. Let us know if you have an eye on the weak spot.

• SAG Orders Actors On David O. Russell Film To Leave [DHD]

But it's word of Gyllenhaal's continued lightweightedness on the South Carolina set that has us a little more concerned:

[I]t's hard to imagine someone this manly throwing a hissy-fit, but according to our source on the set of the movie Nailed, that's exactly what actor Jake Gyllenhaal did yesterday, causing the crew to shut down filming early and spend an additional day shooting at the South Carolina State House.

"He was complaining that the room was too small, complaining about the temperature, complaining about his chair," our source says. "It was like watching a two-year old have a meltdown every five minutes."

We would have thought that after Gyllenhaal's rigorous warm-up with David Fincher on Zodiac — over which his resilient co-star Mark Ruffalo famously commented "Fincher's going to eat you for breakfast" — would have been preparation enough for the Russell Marathon to come. But while we'll account for some level of gossipy exaggeration here, we really do hope an erstwhile Southern amateur can tape Russell leveling a "You're worse than fucking Lily!" accusation at his pouty leading man and the extraordinary headlock-and-slapfight skirmish sure to follow. We'd even pay money for footage of Russell chewing out his co-writer Kristin Gore (Al and Tipper's daughter) behind the scenes. This guy is loud; someone out there has to have heard something.

[Photo Credit: Getty Images]

• David O. Russell Strikes Again! [Popwrap]
• Gyllenhaal Throws Hissy Fit [FITS]