Brad Pitt Exits Film Over Script Woes

COMMENTS (32)

• Universal will go ahead and make this film, they are committed to do so as this is one of their lynchpins for 2008, and the language in their statement let all know they were filming as scheduled. They don’t care what the final product is, just that a film get made. Hugh Jackman will probably get the role, he stepped in for Russell Crowe on the big AUS film with Nicole Kidman that RC backed out on. I really doubt that anyone will be out of a job.

  Comment by filmwillbe made — Thursday November 22, 2007 @ 1:16pm PST  Reply to this post

• Remember Ryan Gosling just left a film or was replaced, depending on which story one wants to believe, just 2 days or so before shooting began. Mark Walberg stepped in immediately. Universal can find a replacement if they want to. Count on it. If they don’t it’s because (1)the script is really bad and no one they want will do it or (2) Universal decides to sue Brad to keep actors in line with an eye on a potential SAG strike this summer.

  Comment by RyanGreplaced — Thursday November 22, 2007 @ 1:26pm PST  Reply to this post

• They can’t sue Pitt. He has final script approval in his contract. Universal is just trying to scare him into returning by the 29th which he will not do. Brad should of known better after his last experience with re-writes and more re-writes from The Fountain to get involved with Universal. By the way, since when is it Brad Pitt’s job to keep Hollywood employed? Gosling, Zeta-Jones, Clooney and Johnny Depp have ALL just dropped out of projects. Let’s get real, this happens every day in Hollywood.

  Comment by Anon — Friday November 23, 2007 @ 9:27am PST  Reply to this post

• They’ll probably just find an actor who can actually act.

  There must be one in Hollywood.

  Comment by Francine Fishpaw — Friday November 23, 2007 @ 5:39pm PST  Reply to this post

• This is just a symptom of a bigger issue in Hollywood and film making in general. The biggest stars in HW are men all over the age of 40. They’ve been around the block and back and have these clauses in their contracts for exactly this type of situation. The studios are forced with the Tom Hanks, Brad Pitt’s, Johnny Depp’s, Tom Cruise’s, Bruce Willis’s, Sean Penn’s, Denzel Washington’s, etc to give script approvals away. So don’t be pissed when the actor actually exercises their right.

  The only way for the studios to get around it is to hire younger talent. Problem is, where is it? The public just does not go to Jake G’s and his peers movies. Hell, the public is barely going to movies now.

  The studios and WRITERS are complicit in the dumming down of scripts.

  And as far as Anonymous — @ 5:28 pm
  is concerned, I wouldn’t call River Runs Through it, Sleepers, Fight Club, Snatch, 12 Monkeys, Kalifornia, Thelma & Louise, Oceans 11 , Mr & Mrs. Smith, Babel and TAOJJ crap movies.

  You can even throw Troy into that mix…movie wasn’t great but it’s earned 500 million worldwide.

  The studio is telling the NYTimes he pulled out hours after the strike happened and Pitt’s came is saying he rejected the script on Nov 3rd two days before the strike. That’s too specific of a timeframe from Pitt and easily verified to not believe him as opposed to umbrella of “hours”.

  Comment by Dino — Saturday November 24, 2007 @ 7:02am PST  Reply to this post

• The problem is the studios fawning over these stars and giving them not only these ridiculously high paychecks (Tom Cruise makes an average of $100 million per movie thanks to front and backend deals) but also script approval, co-star approval etc. That’s giving way too much power to someone who ISN’T guaranteed to bring in an audience. Nobody is guaranteed to bring in the audience. So why give someone all that power? So it’s not about them being older stars. It’s about the studios giving too much power to the actors and then whining to everyone else lower down the ladder that they aren’t making money from these movies. Hollywood needs to go back to how it was in the golden age when everyone made less money but were pretty much guaranteed plenty of work. Making everyone freelance has resulted in what we have today (money-grabbing stars, sleazy agents, people going years without a job).

  Comment by Stacey — Saturday November 24, 2007 @ 9:27am PST  Reply to this post

• Thank God!!!! Another Pittiful movie I don’t have to avoid.

  Keep up the good work Brad, you just saved me another $8.00.

  Comment by EYE — Monday April 28, 2008 @ 9:22am PDT  Reply to this post