The actor, co-star Anton Yelchin, director Paul Schreder and executive producer Nicolas Winding Refn wear 'non-disparagement' T shirts.
- Oct 18, 2014
AceShowbiz - Nicolas Cage has a new movie he doesn't want people to see. Just a day after the first trailer of "Dying of the Light" was released, the actor joined director Paul Schreder in a campaign against the final version of film which had received a lot of edits from the producers.
Story behind the making of the movie went way back when Nicolas Winding Refn was the director and Harrison Ford was attached in Cage's role. Due to creative differences, Ford exited the project while Refn stepped down from his post to become the executive producer. Schreder took over the directing role just as Cage signed up as the lead.
However, some of the film's producers thought Schreder's version was not up to standard and edited most of it. They released the first trailer on Wednesday, October 15 and set the official release date to December 5.
Taking a stance against the release, Schrader posted a Facebook photo of himself, Cage, co-star Anton Yelchin and Refn wearing a protest T-Shirt. "We lost the battle. Dying of the Light, a film I wrote and directed, was taken away from me, re-dited, scored, and mixed without my input," Schrader said.
"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."
Producers of the action film have not made any comment regarding the stance. Producer Gary Hirsch previously defended their decision, telling Variety, "We made suggestions, which Paul to a large extent didn't approve of, and so he refused to make the changes that we all wanted, despite the fact that the changes we were looking for were very much in line with the script that he wrote and shot."
He continued, "Paul's cut of the movie deviated substantially from his own script. It was a completely different movie from the movie that was greenlit, the movie that was discussed and the movie that was shot." He said 80 percent of Schreder's work will still be in the final cut.
