The Gary Oldman movie that was deleted from history: “No one got canned”
In 1991, Gary Oldman was one of the fastest-rising British stars in Hollywood. Playing the iconic Sex Pistol Sid Vicious in Sid and Nancy got him to the big time, and he seized on that momentum with parts in the crime dramas Criminal Law and State of Grace.
Next up for Oldman was a distinct change of pace. He signed up to play the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas in a biopic which also starred his then-partner, Uma Thurman, as Thomas’s wife. The movie was being produced by Harlech Films and distributed by Miramax, but only nine days into production, disaster struck. The project wound up never being released, was subject to legal claims from its production company, and Oldman’s reputation took a pasting in the tabloids.
What happened on that set, though, to cause a film to be deleted from history? Well, as with most controversies, the answer you get depends on who you ask. According to the papers at the time, Oldman collapsed on that ninth day and was diagnosed by doctors as suffering from “nervous exhaustion”. An official press release was sent out declaring the movie would be shut down “until such time as Oldman has regained his health and is available to re-start work”.
However, even back then, another narrative began doing the rounds. It was rumoured that Oldman and director David Drury were embroiled in the dreaded Hollywood ‘creative differences’. In this scenario, their fierce disagreements made Oldman ill and led to Drury being given his marching orders.
Harlech Films attempted to throw cold water on this rumour when its CEO, Paul Sarony, told the Los Angeles Times, “There were no creative differences, to the best of my knowledge. No one got canned. The director, David Drury, did resign afterwards, but then, we couldn’t keep him on hold forever.” In Sarony’s view, the truth was simple: “Gary got sick. Doctors confirmed it. Anything else is pure speculation.”
In the aftermath of the unfortunate situation, Harlech attempted to get another version of the movie off the ground, again with Oldman as the star, but it never happened. Oldman showed few signs of health problems, either, considering he immediately made JFK and Bram Stoker’s Dracula after Dylan fell apart.
The story of the ill-fated production subsequently faded from memory for more than two decades, before it came roaring back into the headlines in 2024 thanks to a memoir written by Desperately Seeking Susan director Susan Seidelman. She alleged that Dylan, which was written by her partner Jonathan Brett, fell apart not because of creative differences, but because Oldman walked off the film and refused to return.
“He started crying and couldn’t stop,” Seidelman claimed about Oldman’s make-up trailer outburst. “Gary’s breakdown came as a total surprise to everyone. Whatever was going on could not be fixed. Gary’s doctor said he was suffering nervous exhaustion, and after two weeks spent unsuccessfully trying to get Gary to return, the film officially shut down. The cast and crew were told to go home.” In this telling of events, Oldman’s refusal to return to the project left 60 hardworking cast and crew members “out in the cold, with no job”.
This version of events obviously reflects more poorly on Oldman, so his longtime manager, Douglas Urbanski, swiftly came out in his defence. He argued that, if Seidelman’s story was true, Oldman’s behaviour would have left him open to legal action for abandoning the film. Instead, he was released from his contract due to his ill health and had no part in cancelling the project. “The decision to halt the thing was made elsewhere on the food chain,” Urbanski insisted. “Clearly, such a big decision did not rest on any Oldman aspect alone.”
A miffed Urbanski added, “Gary has never walked off any film. He is universally admired for his extreme dedication to professionalism.” As for Oldman himself, he has never publicly commented on the matter, meaning the whole truth is, technically, still a bit up in the air. Whatever the case, though, it remains a rare case of a film being scrapped after millions had already been spent trying to bring it to life.
