Eva Green has won her lawsuit over the failed movie “A Patriot.”
The case, which centered around Green’s $1 million fee for the film, was heard at London’s High Court earlier this year.
Green claimed that under her “pay or play” contract she was was still owed her fee, which was being held in escrow by her agent, even though the movie had fallen apart.
The production company White Lantern – together with film finance company Sherborne Media Finance, which took over White Lantern once the movie fell apart – disagreed. As well as defending the lawsuit, they counter-sued Green for “conspiracy, deceit and unlawful interference,” claiming she had deliberately sought to undermine the production and cause the film to collapse so she could buy out the script and make it herself.
Mr Justice Michael Green, who presided over the case, found in Green’s favor and dismissed the counter-suit, saying in his judgment: “This was not part of some unlawful conspiracy or deceit,” pointing out the actor “desperately wanted to make the film.”
The movie, which was written and set to be directed by Dan Pringle, began to fall apart in 2019 after financing collapsed. Sherborne Media Finance stepped in to provide a “bridge” loan – most of which was used for Green’s fee – with the intention of getting the production back on track in order to secure proper funding. However as the film market shifted and funding became elusive, Sherborne found themselves on the hook to actually make the movie in order to try and rescue the loan money they had provided.
To do that, Green alleged, they reduced the film’s $10 million budget and tried to scrimp on production – including moving the film from shooting on location to in a studio and even suggested recycling props and sets from another television production – resulting in a “B shitty movie” that could potentially have ended Green’s career.
Of particular concern, she said, was the appointment of producer Jake Seal to manage the project. In private WhatsApp messages produced during the discovery process, Green called Seal “evil” and the “devil” and referred to employees at his production facility Black Hanger Studios as “shitty peasants.” The public disclosure of the messages, Green told the court, had been “humiliating.”
With production finance dwindling the production stalled entirely, effectively turning into a standoff between Green and White Lantern/Sherborne. If Green walked away she would be in breach of her contract and lose the $1 million pay-or-play fee; if White Lantern acknowledged the film was dead, Green was entitled to the money.
Green pointed out that even after the shoot was pushed back multiple times, no other actors had been cast nor key heads of department. “We say this whole production was a shambles from beginning to end because it was built on sand,” her lawyer, Edmund Cullen KC, told the court during the trial.
In his judgment, Mr Justice Green said: “She may have said some extremely unpleasant things about Mr Seal and his crew at Black Hangar, but this was borne from a genuine feeling of concern that any film made under Mr Seal’s control would be of very low quality and would not do justice to a script that she and the former directors were passionate about.”
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