So yeah, we heard some rumors, but decided they were too much of a drag to really be true. I mean, this movie had its world premiere LAST YEAR for Chrissake! Around this time!
So, at Deadline.com ran an exclusive report a week or so ago that said The Green Inferno‘s theatrical release was “postponed indefinitely”. Here is the story they ran.
We reproduced it here but do NOT claim any ownership or copyright, all the credit and the copyright belongs to Mike Fleming Jr]:
EXCLUSIVE: Green Inferno, the Eli Roth-directed film about student activists who travel from Gotham to save the Amazon rainforest only to be pursued by a cannibal tribe, has been taken off Open Road’s release calendar. The film was scheduled for wide release on September 5. I’m told this happened because financier Worldview Entertainment is balking at ex-CEO Christopher Woodrow’s commitment to provide the P&A.
Since this is Roth’s first directorial outing in six years and his budget conscious fright fare almost always scares up profits, this is almost as shocking as the subject matter and also a tasty bit of dish. I’ve confirmed from Open Road that the release date is scratched, though the distributor won’t comment further, including whether there will be a later release date or if this goes straight to video. Worldview has been going through a restructure since the abrupt and largely unexplained exit of CEO Woodrow, which Deadline revealed last June.
The company, now run by Molly Conners, put a freeze on all of Woodrow’s extravagant commitments and is scrutinizing every deal that was made. Green Inferno has been caught in that snare and is not alone; there is reportedly a lawsuit by Hoyt David Morgan, who claimed he staked $3.7 million in Worldview in exchange for exec producer credit on the Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu-directed Birdman, only to be stiffed on the money and the credit.
Worldview is still squarely in operation, I’m told, with Conners determined to responsibly put the pieces back together. She will be in Venice to premiere Worldview pics Birdman and Manglehorn. It looks from here like the scrapping of Green Inferno from Open Road’s fall schedule has little to do with the quality of the film Roth directed, co-wrote and produced. Green Inferno was acquired by Open Road after it premiered in the Midnight Madness program at 2013 Toronto City to raucous response. It got a 77% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, a stat that makes it seem like if you hunger for one incredibly violent nightmarish Amazon cannibal film this year, Green Inferno might be just for you. It got a similar reaction last week at the Fantasia festival.
Roth is currently editing his latest film, the Keanu Reeves-starrer Knock Knock …[Roth] wouldn’t comment here, but he clearly likes his cannibal extravaganza, recently producing and releasing a mobile game for the movie.
I’m told that Worldview doesn’t intend to leave Roth high and dry, and behind the scenes talks are going on to try and figure this out. If that doesn’t rescue the wide release of this film, I imagine that someone will provide the P&A spend (it’s the first money to get refunded), or else another distributor will show an appetite and step to the plate for Roth’s cannibal fare.
[end of exclusive from Deadline.com]
OK, deep breath… count to ten…
First of all we’d just like to say: Fuck Worldview and whoever is responsible for this. There was a new DVD release Tuesday and we rented it Wednesday; they had the entire Green Inferno trailer and continued to state COMING SEPTEMBER 5th. We relaxed (and okay, were in denial at the time). By the way, all this went down last week and we managed to miss it, sorry we couldn’t spread the word to you sooner.
THEN, Movieweb.com ran a story a couple of days later. Eli Roth himself confirmed the story via Twitter. He kept his tweet short, apologetic, but vague (we’re pretty sure all this shit with the distributor mere weeks away from the release hasn’t exactly been a picnic for him, either; he’s made it very clear the movie was a labor of love).
Here is what Brian Gallagher at Movieweb.com had to say after that bummer of a tweet:
The film, which centers on a group of college activists who find themselves hunted by a tribe of cannibals in the Amazon jungle, was initially slated for release on September 5. Former Worldview Entertainment CEO Christopher Woodrow had previously committed to providing publicity and advertising for the horror film, but, following his abrupt exit in June, the studio is now questioning that commitment. It isn’t clear if the film will get a later release date, or if it will only receive a straight-to-video release at this point.
New Worldview CEO Molly Conners has put a freeze on all of Christopher Woodrow‘s reportedly “extravagant commitments” and is going through each deal once again. The production company is also facing a lawsuit from Hoyt David Morgan, who claimed he invested $3.7 million in Worldview in exchange for an executive producer credit on Alejandro González Iñárritu‘s Birdman, although he never received credit or reimbursement.
It is believed that Worldview’s decision to pull The Green Inferno from its slate has nothing to do with the quality of the movie itself. As Eli Roth mentioned in his tweet, the filmmaker and the studio are working to resolve this matter, and we’ll keep you posted with any updates as we receive them.
And we at Horror Boom will also be keeping an eye out for updates. Hey, maybe we can all start a support group…
HORROR BOOM 