Just days after receiving a critical broadside for choosing to work with Brett Ratner, Millennium Media drops his new film.
A couple of days ago we reported on the story regarding Millennium Media’s decision to team with Brett Ratner, the director who has been exiled from Hollywood for several years now following serious allegations of abuse.
In particular, the CEO of the Time’s Up advocacy group, Tina Tchen, was particularly scathing of Millennium’s decision to work with Ratner. She said that “TIME’S UP was born out of the national reckoning on workplace sexual harassment. Our movement is a product of countless courageous acts by many survivors, including those who spoke out about what they endured at the hands of Brett Ratner”. Not only did Ratner never acknowledge or apologise for the harm he caused, but he also filed lawsuits in an attempt to silence the voices of survivors who came forward — a tactic right out of the predator’s playbook. You don’t get to go away for a couple years and then resurface and act like nothing happened. We have not — and will not — forget. And Millennium Media shouldn’t either. There should be no comeback. #wewontforgetbrett.”
The project in question is a long-gestating biopic of the band Milli Vanilli, notorious in the 1990s for being outed as a group who didn’t actually record their own music. Millennium had planned to produce the film, with Ratner directing, but following the high-profile backlash, they have today released a statement, announcing that it is withdrawing its involvement
The statement reads:
Millennium will not be selling the film at EFM or be involved in the production. The project fielded multiple competitive bids and a group of private equity investors have emerged that are fully financing the movie to begin production shortly. There will be no additional comment.
As you can see from the statement above, despite shelving plans to produce the film and sell it at the upcoming European Film Market, this hasn’t yet stopped the project from moving towards production as a number of private investors have stepped in to finance the project. Whether pressure continues to build around the planned film, making Ratner’s position as director untenable, remains to be seen. Ratner’s representatives have never commented about the allegations made about him.
This story continues to evolve. More as we hear it.
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