Yesterday, Mike posted a Facebook post by Schrader last month expressing his opinion (or lack thereof) about Lionsgate’s latest cut of the film.
Well, today comes news from Thompson on Hollywood (via The Playlist) that Cage, co-star Anton Yelchin, and executive producer Nicolas Winding Refn are standing in solidarity with Schrader, insisting nobody see the film when it is released December 5. According to a Facebook statement posted by Schrader earlier today, the film was taken away from him by the studio and re-edited, scored, and mixed without the director’s input. In a picture included with Schrader’s post (see bottom), Cage, Yelchin, Refn, and Schrader all sport t-shirts emblazoned with the standard non-disparagement clause found in artists’ contracts, which prevents them from making derogatory remarks about the film or its owner.
However, Schrader’s “no comment” is about as strong a statement it could be without being considered derogatory, making perfectly clear the film in its current form is not his vision and that he, Cage, Yelchin, and Refn do not support the cut being promoted by Lionsgate. Schrader’s full Facebook statement can be found below:
We lost the battle. Dying of the Light, a film I wrote and directed, was taken away from me, re-edited, scored and mixed without my input. Yesterday Grindstone (a division of Lionsgate) released the poster and the trailer. They are available online. Here we are, Nick Cage, Anton Yelchin, Nic Refn and myself, wearing our “non-disparagement” T shirts. The non-disparagement clause in an artist’s contract gives the owners of the film the right to sue the artist should the owner deem anything the artist has said about the film to be “derogatory.” I have no comment on the film or others connected with the picture.
In last month’s Variety article, one of the film’s producers claims Schrader’s cut “deviated substantially from his own script,” rendering it almost unrecognizable from what was originally greenlit. Schrader submitted a second cut of the film, taking into account a handful of the producers’ suggestions but leaving the rest out.
What happened next is left for us to determine ourselves, as the producers claim Schrader quit the project, while the director maintains he was effectively locked out of the editing room. Schraders says he picked up his things and went back to New York, leaving behind the workprint that was re-edited into the film we’ll see December 5.
Or not see, if Schrader and his crew have their way.
