The fates of a string of new movies are up in the air after a Hollywood studio filed for bankruptcy protection.
Relativity Media filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Thursday and will now sell its TV and film arms.
However, it said it would go ahead with the releases of Kristen Wiig’s Masterminds and Halle Berry’s Kidnap.
But it is less clear what the future holds for around a dozen other films, including Natalie Portman’s hotly anticipated western Jane Got A Gun.
Jane Got A Gun, which also stars Joel Edgerton and Ewan McGregor, had been due for release this September, and had been tipped as a possible awards contender.
Deadline reported that Relativity relinquished its share of the film’s distribution rights before bankruptcy proceedings began, and that its backers now hope to release it early next year.
Relativity Media was founded in 2004 and was dubbed a “mini-major” studio with releases including Oscar-winners The Social Network and The Fighter.
The company also made MTV show Catfish, and said it would press ahead with a number of international versions of the show as well as a sequel called Truce.
TV drama Limitless, based on the Relativity movie of the same name starring Bradley Cooper, will be screened on CBS this year, it added.
Variety reported that the company would also “move forward” with a remake of 1994 film The Crow.
But Variety said around a dozen more projects were now up in the air, including The Bronze, which opened this year’s Sundance Film Festival; and horrors Before I Wake and The Disappointments Room.
Hollywood’s loss
Others reportedly in the pipeline include Autobahn, which sees Nicholas Hoult play a getaway driver; Amanda Seyfried comedy Love the Coopers; Jonathan Rhys Meyers spy thriller Damascus Cover; and Holocaust love story The Lost Wife.
The Lost Wife writer Marc Klein told Variety: “This isn’t something I’d be able to write at a major studio. It’s a story that Hollywood could tell and isn’t anymore.
“The one company who did is now bankrupt. That’s a bummer. They’ve been nothing but great to me.”
Relativity chief executive Ryan Kavanaugh said: “We will continue to move forward with a robust production slate of scripted and non-scripted shows during the reorganisation process.”
Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection allows a company to continue to operate while all claims from debtors or the company are put on hold.
Source: https://www.bbc.com
