Ok, “stole” might be a harsh word. Vincent Gallo’s upcoming film, “Promises Written in Water” originally wasn’t a project he was supposed to direct. And that wasn’t even the original title.
In fact, the actor/filmmaker/musician was just hired initially to just star in Pete Red Sky’s “The Funeral Director,” as was Alison Lohman who eventually dropped out. But Gallo eventually took a producing credit and helped bring in the rest of the (mostly unknown) cast.
From there, production began and the director evinced his inexperience and lack of confidence on set and the irascible and impatient Gallo would chew him out on set, halt production and then have closed-door meetings with the other producers to hash things out in private.
To make a long story short, Red Sky was then given the boot and Gallo took over as director and he obviously retitled the film. But is Gallo trying to pass it off as his own work? Movieline has the story in all its gory details, however, they are word for word pretty much the exact details we were sent a few days earlier, but decided not to publish (it’s not that we didn’t believe them, they were from a source who worked on the picture during the production, it just felt a little… not for us… so we decided to pass or at least hold until it was somehow applicable).
Is someone trying to smear Gallo? Or did the source just not find a bite and move on to the next player who was interested in the story (which hey, cool, no harm no foul)? It’s hard to tell, but we suppose, yes it is a pretty interesting (if scurrilous) story. If you’re a Gallo fan or a love/hater, the stories worth reading. The man seems like a scoundrel through and through, but what can we say? We still kinda adore the man. He gives good quote. The picture was rumored to appear at Cannes and that didn’t happen. Maybe the Director’s Fortnight? Yeah, we could buy that.
