Actress Eva Green wins London court case over fee for failed film

[April 28, 2023]   (Please note obscene language in penultimate three paragraphs.)

LONDON (Reuters) - Hollywood actress Eva Green on Friday won a legal fight with financiers whom she had sued in London's High Court for her fee for a failed film in which she was to star.

The French actress, whose film credits include the James Bond movie "Casino Royale", had sued White Lantern Films and SMC Specialty Finance for the $1 million fee she said she was owed for the planned independent movie "A Patriot", in which she was to play the lead role as a soldier.

Judge Michael Green said in a written ruling that Eva Green was entitled to payment of the $1 million fee.

The production company had launched a counter claim against Green for breach of contract, blaming her for the science fiction film's failure before it went into production in late 2019, saying she had never intended it to go ahead.

Green, 42, appeared in court in January to say she had become concerned the film's production team had been cutting corners, citing how her stunt training had been reduced from four weeks to five days.

White Lantern's lawyers said Green, also an executive producer on the project, had made unreasonable demands about crew, locations and equipment.

They cited WhatsApp messages from Green in which she described one producer as a "fucking moron" who should be fired and another as "evil".

She also described funders of the movie as "arseholes" and some proposed crew members as "shitty peasants".

But the judge said that, while Green "may have said some extremely unpleasant things" about the film's producer and crew, "this was born from a genuine feeling of concern that any film ... would be of very low quality".

"I fought tooth and nail to defend the beautiful film that I loved and had signed on for," Green said in a statement. "A film that spoke of a cause I hold dear – climate change - and warned of the resource wars and mass migration that would occur if we don’t address the problem.

"I stood my ground and, this time, justice prevailed."

(Reporting by Michael Holden and Sam Tobin; Editing by Alistair Smout and Christina Fincher)

(Photo: Actor Eva Green leaves the High Court in London, Britain January 31, 2023. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls)

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