As we noted last week, the upcoming slate of films from The Weinstein Company was notably missing two projects that have been on the radar for sometime: “Shanghai,” the period piece set in 1940s China, from “1408” director Mikael Hafstrom starring John Cusack, and “Hoodwinked Too!” the sequel to the animated hit “Hoodwinked, the True Story of Little Red Riding Hood,” which came out in 2005. The Weinsteins have lately been playing hide-and-seek with release dates, to the detriment of some projects that end up sitting around for much longer than they need to, and the producers of “Hoodwinked” at Kanbar Entertainment have taken umbrage with their project being tossed around– filing suit against TWC for breach of contact in pushing back the planned January 15th release date, as reported by Variety.
The petition filed with San Francisco County Superior Court seeks to force the TWC into resolving this dispute, and also claims TWC stopped contributing to the production in February 2009, despite an agreement to co-finance the sequel with Kanbar, at the behest of Weinstein– Kanbar financed the entirety of the first “Hoodwinked,” and were prepared to do the same with the sequel. The petition also claimed that Weinstein didn’t consult with them on a release strategy, or respond to proposed changes, even though Kanbar retains “final authority on production decisions.” The Weinstein Co. has “no comment” on the suit.
It’s not like we’re dying to see “Hoodwinked Too!” but it’s an important lawsuit on the principle of filmmakers standing up for their projects. Studios (especially Weinstein) can juggle projects and release dates and marketing strategies to the point where eventually something’s going to fall splat on the ground, regardless of quality of film. It’s a helpless and frustrating situation for filmmakers to see their projects treated in such a manner, and Weinstein has been guilty of bungling releases– anyone remember “The Road” Distribution Debacle of 2009? “A Single Man” also didn’t get the treatment it deserved, and went largely unnoticed during the awards season.
Seems like Kanbar’s not putting up with this shelf-sitting anymore, and it’s important for the little guys to stand up to the big(ger) guys, in pursuit of the proper treatment of their film, regardless of whether or not it sets a precedent for future films, or even keeps Harvey and Bob from playing hide-the-release-date in the future. It’s at least another slap on the wrist for their bad behavior, and we’ll see how this plays out.