âLondon Fieldsâ Premiere in Toronto Troubled by Creative Rift
TORONTO â It has not been hard to spot Johnny Depp at the giant film festival here. Monday night, he walked the red carpet with his wife, Amber Heard, to celebrate a showing of his movie âBlack Mass.â Two days earlier, it was Mr. Depp on Ms. Heardâs arm, at a screening of âThe Danish Girl,â of which she is a star.
But will they show up on Friday, when it comes time to introduce âLondon Fields,â in which both have roles? Even their producer doesnât know.
Based on a noir novel by Martin Amis, âLondon Fields,â set for its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, has become the center of an unusually fierce, behind-the-scenes dispute over both the control and content of the movie.
Whether any of the filmâs biggest stars â Mr. Depp, Ms. Heard, Billy Bob Thornton and Jim Sturgess â will appear to support it on Friday is an open question, as festival organizers nervously wait to find out.
None have publicly declared a boycott. But all four have written letters to their producers, objecting to a provocative cut of the movie â its narrative is now laced with violent imagery in what might be dreams, or flashes both back and forward â that was overseen not by its credited director, Mathew Cullen, but by one of those producers, Chris Hanley.
Some of the actors have considered being elsewhere when the movie has its premiere on Friday, according to people with knowledge of their thinking.
Mr. Cullen certainly will not be on hand, according to these people briefed on his plans, who spoke on condition of anonymity. For months Mr. Cullen and his supporters have been contending that Mr. Hanley turned âLondon Fieldsâ into a sometimes unrecognizable, avant-garde experiment that violates the spirit of the project.
Filmmaker conflicts with producers and studios are hardly new. For years, the Directors Guild of America assigned an humorously anonymous âAlan Smitheeâ credit to troubled films like âLetâs Get Harry,â actually directed by Stuart Rosenberg, or âSolar Crisis,â from Richard Sarafian.
The current contest pits a new director against a seasoned producer with a penchant for controversy.
To date, Mr. Cullen, for whom âLondon Fieldsâ is a first feature, has been recognized principally for his commercials, video work and a business association with Guillermo del Toro in their Mirada Studios.
Mr. Hanley, who helped produce the sassy hit âSpring Breakers,â is by contrast a prolific indie filmmaker who often pushes the edges. His âAmerican Psycho,â released in 2000, cast Christian Bale as an investment banker with a psychotic and homicidal alter-ego.
Their conflict over âLondon Fieldsââ has set up a potentially new embarrassment for Toronto programmers.
In an emailed statement on Monday, the festivalâs artistic director, Cameron Bailey, gingerly acknowledged the dispute. âWeâre aware that the team that made the film is coming to agreement, and weâre looking forward to launching it,â Mr. Bailey said.
Mr. Hanley, who also communicated by email, was more upbeat.
âWeâre very proud of the work the director did,â he wrote, noting that filmmakers as accomplished as David Cronenberg and Michael Winterbottom had unsuccessfully struggled with screen versions of Mr. Amisâs complicated, pre-apocalyptic crime thriller.
Mr. Hanley said he did not know whether the actors would appear, but noted that Mr. Thornton and Ms. Heard had contractual commitments to support the film.
Mr. Cullen, he said, had failed to deliver his version of the film on deadline, and continues to work on a version the âproducers have not seen.â A person briefed on Mr. Cullenâs stance said the director had never been paid, and for a time paused to seek other work. Mr. Hanley said Mr. Cullen had âbeen fully compensated according to the terms of his agreement.â
Through a representative, Mr. Cullen declined to comment. Representatives of Mr. Depp, Ms. Heard and Mr. Sturgess did not respond to queries, and a representative for Mr. Thornton did not comment.
Beyond the awkwardness of presenting a festival film that has been disavowed by its director, the dispute clouds a potentially prominent, star-laden project â Creative Artists Agency and IM Global are handling rights to âLondon Fieldsâ â in a Toronto sales market that is still searching for bright spots.
Gavin Hoodâs âEye in the Sky,â starring Helen Mirren, was sold to the indie distributor Bleecker Street Films, and Fox Searchlight Pictures was among those eyeing Rob Reinerâs dramedy âBeing Charlieâ at a Monday night premiere.
At an early press and industry screening Tuesday morning, âLondon Fieldsâ â whether more Mr. Hanleyâs, or Mr. Cullenâs â proved to be a sexy love quadrangle centered on the themes of clairvoyance and the decay of a London in an undefined crisis. (Mr. Hanleyâs wife, Roberta Hanley, wrote the script.)
Decidedly nonlinear in its narrative approach, the characters, including a failed novelist played by Mr. Thornton, weave their lives in and out of literary works both past and in progress. In its present form, the narrative is intercut with images of a predatory drone, nuclear blasts, a person tumbling from a World Trade Center tower, and what appears to be a gathering in Mecca.
Some of those moments were said to have outraged Mr. Cullen, according to people briefed on his response, and he explored taking his name off the film. But he found that he had missed his opportunity to do so under complicated rules enforced by the Directors Guild of America.
Jovan Ajder, a sound mixer who worked on âLondon Fields,â speaking by telephone from London, said Mr. Hanleyâs version of the movie was âradically differentâ from the more straightforward tale created by Mr. Cullen.
âIt was certainly more puzzling and confusing,â Mr. Ajder said. Even more puzzling, he said, was a production process in which Mr. Cullen edited one version of the film, while Mr. Hanley edited another, with actors on call to provide dialogue in postproduction for both. At one point, Mr. Thorntonâs distinctive voice was to be supplied by a double.
By May of this year, the actors were largely united in an unusual appeal for the restoration of Mr. Cullenâs cut (though Ms. Heard urged a merger of the versions, Mr. Hanley said). Mr. Depp, who had accepted a small role as a gesture toward his wife â he shows up in derby and goggles, looking like a character from âA Clockwork Orangeâ â was by then voicing wariness about any attempt to use him in an effort to market the movie, people briefed on the situation said.
The infighting disrupted a postproduction process that was originally supposed to be completed in time for last yearâs Toronto festival, then for the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year.
Mr. Ajder was left to puzzle over a creative collision more severe than he had seen on any of the dozens of films on his rĂ©sumĂ©. âIt was entirely rare, unique,â he said.
But Mr. Hanley, in a Monday email, described things differently, portraying them as a familiar part of the production process.
âI have been through creative battles with every film we have made with every director,â he said.
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