Hi, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab...
For some time now, we’ve been hearing about a film that’s being produced by George Clooney, Steven Soderbergh, and Paula Weinstein for Warner Bros., a big-budget comedy starring Jennifer Aniston, Shirley MacLaine, Kevin Costner, Charlie Hunnam, and Mark Ruffalo. Written by Ted Griffin (MATCHSTICK MEN, OCEAN’S 11), it was also supposed to mark Griffin’s directorial debut. It has an odd premise, to say the least, as Jennifer Aniston’s character learns that THE GRADUATE was not fiction, but was based in part on people from her life, leading her to examine those people and her own life more closely.
And now, according to informed sources who just called the Labs, it looks like the film has shut down not long after the start of principal photography, and Ted Griffin’s been fired. Originally, I thought it had been shooting less than a week, but that's not the case. Since I posted this originally, I've heard from a myriad of my regular sources, people at agencies or who are connected to people working on the film, and everyone's reinforcing the story. Technically, I'd still call this a rumor, but it sounds like these people know whereof they speak.
How wrong can a film go in the first few weeks of shooting? Hell, even Terry Gilliam manages a month or so before God takes his films away from him. First-time directors always fall under closer scrutiny, and Griffin’s certainly working for some heavy hitters on this one, but there’s got to be some major creative differences going on to see a studio pull the plug like this, especially with some mighty hefty pay-or-play deals in place for the major cast members.
As the week gets underway, we’ll dig into this one and see what else we can turn up. For now, though, it doesn’t look like this one’s going to be hitting screens when Warner Bros. originally thought it would.
"Moriarty" out.
