If you’re a film fan that has followed the career of Neil Marshall, you are, no doubt, familiar with the up and down nature of his filmography. With a strong start thanks to horror films “Dog Soldiers” and “The Descent,” Marshall would later stumble a bit with films like “Doomsday” and last year’s horrendous “Hellboy” reboot. But things were looking up with the premiere of his upcoming “The Reckoning” happening soon, which looked to be a return to form for the filmmaker. However, Marshall’s career seems to be thrown into chaos yet again, but not for any creative reasons.
According to allegations that have recently made headlines, Marshall finds himself involved in an extortion scandal involving his partner, actress Charlotte Kirk, and a now-former NBCUniversal executive, Ron Meyer. But Marshall has finally come forward to deny the allegations and attempt to discuss how the leadership at major studios needs to change.
READ MORE: Neil Marshall Q&A Pulled From Fantasia Fest After Extortion Allegations Surface
Obviously, the allegations against Marshall and Kirk, lobbed by Meyer, are detailed and lengthy, but in the simplest way possible, you can say that the filmmaker and his partner are accused to using knowledge of the executive’s extramarital affair with Kirk as a way to get projects greenlit at NBCUniversal. The full details can be found elsewhere, but the basic claim is that Marshall and Kirk extorted Meyer for project funding due to their intimate knowledge of what happened.
In his defense, Marshall calls the accusations “a load of old bollocks” and “lies based upon falsehoods.” He claims the whole situation is a “witch-hunt, plain and simple, perpetrated by overprivileged men in positions of power, aided by friends of equal standing and lack of ethics, fuelled by clickbait headlines such as we’ve seen these past few days, and carried out against the woman I love, my fiancé Charlotte Kirk.”
This news has already had an effect on Marshall’s career, as it was just announced that a planned Q&A at Fantasia Fest for his upcoming film, “The Reckoning,” has been pulled from the schedule. We’ll have to see what happens further as new information about this situation comes to light.
Here’s the entire statement from Marshall (via Deadline):
I am a filmmaker, lucky enough to have had moderate success and keep working for almost 20 years now. And any of my friends, anyone who’s worked closely with me, anyone who knows me personally, and not just as some name in a headline, will know that what’s being said about me is a load of old bollocks.
In case that doesn’t make it clear, the allegations concerning myself, Ron Meyer and NBC/Universal are nothing but lies based upon falsehoods. There isn’t a grain of truth to this story, so I urge you, don’t just look at a headline and take it as gospel. Certain websites believe they can publish whatever scurrilous garbage that is fed to them with impunity. Such provocative nonsense doesn’t deserve my time, or yours. The trouble is, those lies are out there now, and my career and reputation have already been irreparably damaged by them.
For too long now a tightly knit group of morally corrupt dinosaurs has ruled the roost here in Hollywood, their extinction date long overdue. Thanks to the #metoo movement, and every resignation and revelation it has brought about, things are changing for the better. What we need now is more women in charge of studios, and the absolute abolishment of the terrible casting couch culture (which has morphed into sexual predation) that has long been an accepted part of the business.
What we have here is a witch-hunt, plain and simple, perpetrated by overprivileged men in positions of power, aided by friends of equal standing and lack of ethics, fuelled by clickbait headlines such as we’ve seen these past few days, and carried out against the woman I love, my fiancé Charlotte Kirk. I am simply collateral damage, thrown to the wolves by using some trumped up malicious allegations as a smokescreen to distract the focus from the real villains here. Charlotte has had the guts to stand up to her detractors and not allow herself to be bullied into submission, and neither will I.