The disastrous rom-com David O Russell abandoned and disowned
Sometimes it’s better to accept defeat. David O Russell did just that after trying and failing to turn Accidental Love, then known as Nailed, into something resembling a hit romantic comedy. Much maligned – and for good reason – the 2015 picture was plagued by financial troubles before finally being abandoned and disowned by its distinctly miffed creator.
Accidental Love tells the story of Alice, a waitress from Indiana who, rather, unfortunately, has been shot in the head with a nail gun. This being America, Alice, who doesn’t have health insurance, is unable to have the nail removed and is forced to live with the thing lodged in her head, leading to severe mood swings and erratic hypersexual behaviour. With the support of a local congressman played by Jake Gyllenhall (a surprising choice, I know), Alice travels to Washington D.C. to campaign for individuals suffering from similar brain injuries.
The project was first developed by Douglas Wick and Lucy Fisher of Red Wagon Productions, who hired Kristin Gore, daughter of Al Gore, to adapt her 2004 novel Sammy Hill for the screen. Russell was hired to direct the project in 2008, having agreed to the gig under the assumption that the $26 million promised by Capitol Films would come good. Principle photography began in the spring of that year in South California. James Caan quit shortly after, following a disagreement concerning his character’s death. After an argument with Russell over whether someone can cough and choke to death at the same time, Caan, hired to play a speaker for the US Senate, walked off-set, never to return.
But worse was to come. The production was shut down as many as 14 times, with the cast and crew complaining that they were not being paid, leading to walk-offs by leading stars Jessica Biel and Jake Gyllenhaal. According to David Bergstein, the man behind Capitol Films, the financial difficulties were a direct result of the 2008 financial crisis, though many feared they were being taken for a ride.
Anxious that Capitol might release an unpolished version of the film, Wick and Fisher decided to schedule the crucial nail gun sequence in which Biel’s character is shot in the head to the very last day. When one of the unions pulled support for the film with just two days until the end of the shoot, they came to the terrifying realisation that the film would have to be left incomplete.
In 2010, Bergstein hired an editor to assemble a rough cut of the film and asked Russell to return for reshoots. By this time, the director had started attracting the attention of the Academy for The Fighter and American Hustle, and Bergstein was keen to get the film finished and out in cinemas. Unable to strike a satisfactory deal, Russell abandoned the project for good. Reshoots continued in his absence, and the film was eventually released under the title Accidental Love, with the director’s name changed to Stephen Greene, a pseudonym used by the Directors Guild of America for directors who wish to disown their projects.
