{"id":3950,"date":"2021-07-28T10:14:12","date_gmt":"2021-07-28T14:14:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=3950"},"modified":"2023-12-12T06:11:23","modified_gmt":"2023-12-12T11:11:23","slug":"minamata-director-andrew-levitas-says-mgm-is-burying-the-movie-because-of-johnny-depp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=3950","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Minamata\u2019 Director Andrew Levitas Says MGM is Burying the Movie Because of Johnny Depp"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been a year and a half since Minamata<\/em><\/strong> premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival and the film has yet to be released, and its director believes it\u2019s not only because of the pandemic. According to Deadline<\/a>, filmmaker Andrew Levitas sent a letter to MGM in which he alleges that the studio sought to actively bury the film because of star Johnny Depp\u2019s problematic reputation and real-life legal troubles. Levitas believes that the film\u2019s subject, which looks at the horrific damage caused by negligent practices by The Chisso Corporation in the Japanese city, is far too important for the film not to be distributed.<\/p>\n

Levitas\u2019 letter begins: \u201cRoughly a year ago MGM purchased the North American rights to the film Minamata after viewing it at the Berlinale.<\/p>\n

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MGM was intent on bringing to light the suffering of the thousands of victims of one of the most heinous industrial pollution incidents the world has ever seen.<\/p>\n

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In re-exposing their pain in the sharing of their story, this long marginalized community hoped for only one thing \u2013 to lift history from the shadows so that other innocents would never be afflicted as they have\u2026 and it seemed in that moment, with MGM\u2019s partnership, a decades-long wish was finally coming true.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, imagine the devastation when they learned this past week, that despite an already successful global roll out, MGM had decided to \u2018bury the film\u2019 (acquisitions head Mr. Sam Wollman\u2019s words) because MGM was concerned about the possibility that the personal issues of an actor in the film could reflect negatively upon them and that from MGM\u2019s perspective the victims and their families were secondary to this.<\/p>\n

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\u201d Levitas goes on to compare MGM\u2019s assertion that it will fulfill only its \u201clegal obligation\u201d to the unethical practices of The Chisso Corporation and includes a selection of photos taken by the real Eugene Smith, who is played in the film by Depp, that document the effects on Minamata\u2019s population.<\/p>\n

The film was originally planned for a February 2021 theatrical and VOD release, which came just a few months after Depp lost a libel case against the tabloid the Sun<\/em> regarding its reporting on his allegedly abusive behavior of Amber Heard. Depp previously exited Fantastic Beasts 3<\/em> and was replaced by actor Mads Mikkelsen. In Minamata<\/em><\/strong>, Depp leads a cast that includes Bill Nighy, Minami, Hiroyuki Sanada, Jun Kunimura, Ryo Kase, Tadanobu Asano and Akiko Iwase.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been a year and a half since Minamata premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival and the film has yet to be released, and its director believes it\u2019s not only because of the pandemic. According to Deadline, filmmaker Andrew Levitas sent a letter to MGM in which he alleges that the studio sought to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":3951,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[2992,2994,2021,719,2993,2989,971,2995,2988,2990,2996,2991],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n\u2018Minamata\u2019 Director Andrew Levitas Says MGM is Burying the Movie Because of Johnny Depp | Cinema Daily US<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Minamata director Andrew Levitas says MGM is burying his movie because of toxic associations with its star, Johnny Depp.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=3950\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" 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