On Screens • Disclaimer: This preview is based on unverified facts
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Loading... - Emil Agard
- 12 Jul 2022
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Olivia de Havilland was the plain one in Gone with the Wind, so it felt like a mis-cast when Catherine Zeta Jones was selected to play her 62-year-old self in Feud, a depiction of the fierce rivalry between her sister, Joan Crawford, and Bette Davis. That’s right up there with Charlize Theron playing Aileen Wuornos.
And yet De Havilland launched a lawsuit. Apparently she objected to the screenwriters putting the word ‘bitch’ into her mouth (despite her using it in a 1946 blooper) and threw in using her likeness (which would have required a much plainer actress) for good measure. Fortunately a court ruled that no person can “own history” and the Supreme Court then declined to hear the case.
De Havilland was 101 at the time – presumably the screenwriters thought she’d kick the bucket before Feud was aired.
Proper pistol whipping
Clearly, De Havilland isn’t the only one, and despite the disclaimers these ‘dramatisations of certain facts and events’ post at the beginning of every episode, there’s a nagging fear a court one day is going to get it badly wrong and effectively outlaw real person depictions forever.
Former Lakers player and coach Jerry West has vowed to take the makers of Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty to the Supreme Court if he needs to; Georgian chess player Nona Gaprindashvili is suing the makers of The Queen’s Gambit over a single line of dialogue; the nasty lawyer in When They See Us sued Netflix for implying she was racist … or was it just because Felicity Huffman portrayed her. Anyhow, the list is a long one.
And now you can add John Lydon (aka Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols), who is kicking up a storm about Pistol (TBC on Disney+; worldwide release), a miniseries about the punk band, which is entirely directed by Danny Boyle. Last year, Lydon lost a high court case against his two former band members, who took legal action after he refused to allow the series to use the band’s music. It left him broke, which explains why he recently played a gig! Meanwhile, the series is “a middle class fantasy that bears little resemblance to the truth”, in his opinion. Sadly the trailer would appear to suggest he’s right.
The horrific and prolific
Alex Garland should have a grievance with Boyle as well, as the director had the first flop of his career with his adaptation of The Beach – a must-read of the 1990s that seems so prescient given our current smartphone addiction. But Garland was actually involved, as he drew the map the main character gives to some fellow tourists. He’s even listed as the cartographer in the credits.
Garland has since developed into a talented director himself. Who knows, maybe he’ll one day make the classic film his book deserves – there’s been talk in the past, and even the possibility of a miniseries prequel. But in the meantime, we’ll have to make do with Men, a horror about a woman (Jessie Buckley) dealing with grief in a countryside where every single man looks like Rory Kinnear.
A better bet for frights might be child abduction thriller The Black Phone. Ethan Hawke, once cinema’s nicest guy, enjoys yet another villainous role – critics concur that the mix of realism and supernaturalism is just right, and that the final third of the film really delivers.
But avoid The Elevator Game. Why a Danish distributor has picked the film up is anyone’s guess. Weirdly, it is one of almost 40 films starring Julia’s brother Eric released last year. On IMDB, he has a world record 673 credits. That’s more than the Rank Films drummer. Read More...
