Do we remember the fairly-maligned Capitol Films douchebag David Bergstein? Dude has major, major balls. He owes millions of dollars to myriad investors, companies, people, etc. is under an armada of lawsuits, but his new company Pangea Media Group is somehow trying to buy Miramax (this guy really is a con artist, no joke). You have to read this entire THR piece to realize the massive extent of money he owes and how he still somehow swindles people into giving him money. It’s just unbelievable.
There are apparently over 89 debentures, or court judgments, against Capitol and his related entities, he’s been sued countless times for fraud. He’s trying to sell off in-limbo Capitol Films, “$5 a Day,” starring Christopher Walken and Sharon Stone (which is good, we saw it at TIFF 2008), and Taylor Hackford’s “Love Ranch,” starring Joe Pesci and Hackford’s wife, Helen Mirren, but some question whether Capitol even own the full rights to those films now.
The article also briefly mentions David O. Russell’s “Nailed” starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Jessica Biel; a notoriously chaotic production (it was shut down four times during shooting) was never finished and has not yet been released. There was once a minor, potential hint or hope the film could be salvaged (maybe). But the article states as we’ve been saying all along, the project was never finished (at least two days of scheduled filming were left that included some key scenes) and the director and all the actors have moved on. Some have suggest a severely compromised version could limp onto DVD eventually, but we kind of even doubt that will happen.
So what about all the comments from jessicabiel.org stating that Nailed was entered into cannes this year. Also, there was an article about it…. David Bergstein is a DB…. They spent too much money for it to just sit… Right? I guess this might happen more that Im thinking. The project is so mysterious and for people like myself who had a chance to be apart of the film… we get left high and dry without any information……. welcome to the film industry… Just posting my thoughts on the who lame situation
LW
Cannes? Fuck no. I will bet you $100 right now with the web, all my writers and the web as my witness.
Plus the Biel site says it's taking it to the Cannes film market. That's for buyers only. Very different.
Also, i take those "facts" with a grain of salt, but i suppose it being screened their potential buyer is not unreasonable or insane.
haha I'd be crazy to take that bet with everything this film has promised. I misunderstood the cannes comment, hoping that it was going to be in the actual cannes festival. In your opinion, do you think we will see this movie hit the theaters in 2010?
LW
"do you think we will see this movie hit the theaters in 2010?"
No.
I don't understand……The economy sucks…the government bailed out banks….maybe they should have bailed out the film industry so some nitwits can see a jessica Biel movie….. and now fror reality…no one goes into business to lose money…Mr. Bergstein had a fund tank on him…blame the economy not the guy left holding the bag without a bailout….give the guy a break..
Does holding "the bag" justify the various frauds Bergstein is involved in?
If, as you say anon, the reason for Bergstein's troubles is that some fund "tank(ed) on him," wouldn't the ethical thing to do be to try to honor the different promises you have ALREADY MADE to HUNDREDS of people instead of trying to sell movies you don't even own in Berlin (which will probably result in more lawsuits)?
Just saying…
This whole 'David Bergstein is a victim' bullshit is old and pathetic. At the rate this is going, I think this may go beyond civil litigation and may result in federal investigations and/or criminal charges.
yup, well said. You watch, eventually this guy's fucked.
I can say this with complete authority…David Bergstein is a con artist. I know this because we "sold" the rights to our film to him in 2006. Approaching 4 years later and we have never been paid. We sued and won a judgment but they never paid the judgment. And now he has created a new company that is going to buy the film library from his old company for a tenth of the value. This is a shell game. I don't understand how it's legal. But I suppose it's Capitalism at its purest.
Bergstein has done this all before in the restaurant industry. He raised $20 million to open several restaurants. Didn't open a single one, took off with the money and settled in bankruptcy court with his investors for pennies on the dollar.
Both the film and music industries are notoriously shady and accounting practices are almost non-existent. But this goes beyond. He is without a doubt a serial scam artist and should be in prison.