For a film to be cancelled so near to production is heartbreaking, and for it to end up like this – in court, with all manner of private correspondence leaked to the world – is ugly and demeaning for everybody involved. The first is to be sad that it is even happening at all. The producers, however, claim that she simply demanded to handpick certain members of the crew – an assistant and driver, a makeup artist, a dialect coach and script supervisor – and that, when her request was denied, she wrote to her agent stating that she would be “obliged to take shitty peasant crew members from Hampshire”. Allegedly, she had also initially been granted “rights of approval” regarding the hiring of production staff, to ensure “the film would be as good as it could be”. The texts seem to stem from Green’s frustrations with the film’s budget, which was apparently half the figure she had been told. Together, she said, they were “arseholes”.
Less strong, but equally hilarious, words were reserved for another executive producer, Terry Bird, whom she called “a fucking moron”. Photograph: United Artists/Columbia Pictures/AllstarĪccording to court papers, WhatsApp exchanges revealed in advance of the trial, which starts on Tuesday, show Green calling Jake Seal, one of the film’s executive producers, “evil”, a “madman”, a “devious sociopath” and, my favourite, “pure vomit”. Green played Vesper Lynd in James Bond: Casino Royale.
