Producers of Rebel Wilson’s directorial debut file defamation suit against star
A number of producers who have worked on the directorial debut movie from Rebel Wilson, The Deb, have filed a defamation lawsuit in California. The suit arrived after the Pitch Perfect actor claimed that the producers had been embezzling funds from the production and purposefully ruining it.
Wilson sent the producers a letter back in June that also claimed that they were guilty of financial misconduct and sexual harassment. Speaking in a video posted to Instagram on Wednesday, July 31st, Wilson called out producer Amanda Ghost, Gregor Cameron and executive producer Vince Holden for the way she and her film had been treated.
“If my movie gets buried, at least you know why,” Wilson captured a video that speaks of the producers’ “absolute viciousness and retaliatory behaviour.” However, in the lawsuit, they denied any wrongdoing and posited that Wilson had tried to keep all the film’s screenwriting and recording credits for herself.
The lawsuit also states that Wilson had behaved unprofessionally on the set of The Deb, including leaving it for many hours at a time and threatening those who had funded the movie to “expose” them to her scores of millions of followers on Instagram.
In terms of the credits issue, Wilson had wanted a co-writing credit of the screenplay in addition to the rights of the original music of the film. However, Wilson’s “protégé” Hannah Riley was granted the full writing credit by the Australian Writers Guild after an appeal was made. Wilson was then said to not be satisfied with her “additional writing by” credit.
The Deb tells of two girls in a small Australian town, and it was recently offered the Toronto International Film Festival opening slot. However, according to Wilson, the producers mentioned above blocked the film from taking the coveted spot at the festival, although the producers rejected this claim outright.
A lawyer responsible for filing the lawsuit stated, “Rebel is a bully who will disregard the interests of others to promote her own.” The producers themselves claim that Wilson “has run this playbook one time too many [and has] jeopardized the success of the film.”
At the core of the suit are Wilson’s “defamatory” remarks that the producers “criminally embezzled funds from the film.” Things seem to be at loggerheads concerning the two parties, with Wilson calling out the “flagrant misconduct” of Ghost, Cameron and Holden, but the producers argue that they have done no wrong.
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