Man, how many breath’s left does indie distributor ThinkFilm/Captiol Films have left in the tank?
Think just shut down their Toronto office, their production of David O. Russell’s “Nailed,” (via Capitol Films, Think is a division of) has been shut down four times midway through production and now filmmaker Alex Gibney, the director of the 2008 Oscar-winning documentary feature “Taxi To The Dark Side” and the upcoming, “Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson,” is suing the company (filed for arbitration) claiming that ‘Taxi’s box office possibilities were undermined by their growing financial problems (ThinkFilm are also currently being sued for fraud.)
ThinkFilm are practically being hammered in the press on daily basis. And this isn’t helping.
“I’m upset because the whole commercial strategy of the film was predicated on the idea of winning awards,” Gibney told the New York Times. “The fact that they were fiscally unable to capitalize on the Oscar infuriated me for two reasons: They had been in financial difficulty for some time and hadn’t disclosed it to us; and we won the Oscar, and they still hadn’t disclosed it to us.”
The independent film industry’s woes are growing. Mark Gill, the President of Film Department says the indies problems could be one of three things: “a glut of movies in the market, the turning off of the money spigot (due to the drying up of hedge-fund money), and a change in the way people spend their leisure time.”
It might be the ailing economy or it might be quality of film’s, but either way the indie company’s are taking it on the chin the hardest.