Caffeinated Clint
Ooooh… this isn’t good.
Director Lynne Ramsay (“We Need to Talk About Kevin”) has hastily dropped out of the western “Jane Got a Gun” by reportedly simply not showing up work on the film’s official first day of principal photography.
Deadline spoke to one of the film’s producers, no doubt left to clean up quite a mess on the Santa Fe set of the movie, who said an announcement on a replacement is coming, and obviously very soon. Meantime, they’re ostensibly restraining themselves from firing off expletives in the direction of Ramsay.
This is the second major hiccup for the Natalie Portman-starrer, about a good-girl cowgirl who escapes from her evil hubby and reunites with an old flame, with Michael Fassbender forced to drop out of the lead role a couple of weeks ago due to his commitments with “X-Men : Days of Future Past” (and as a consequence, Joel Edgerton, who was to play the villain in the film has been promoted to the film’s male lead).
While Ramsay won’t lose out financially here (she had a “pay or play” deal, which means she gets paid whether or not the film gets done or not), simply just ‘not turning up for work’ won’t likely do much for her reputation.
“I have millions of dollars invested, we’re ready to shoot, we have a great script, crew and cast,” Producer Scott Steindorff told Deadline. “I’m shocked and so disappointed someone would do this to 150 crew members who devoted so much time, energy, commitment and loyalty to a project, and then have the director not show up. It is insane somebody would do this to other people. I feel more for the crew and their families, but we are keeping the show going on, directors are flying in, and a replacement is imminent.”
“Jane Got a Gun” also stars Rodrigo Santoro and Jude Law, who is now playing the villain.
