(image via cnn)
Goddamn it, we love us an indie film feud! Marc Cuban is seen as something of a maverick in the indie film community, a self-made billionaire using his own brand of serial capitalism to take on the bloated studio system. Thats why his quixotic decision to pull "I Am A Sex Addict" from Landmark Cinema's is more than a little bewildering. Then again, maybe we could have predicted that Cuban and indie filmmakers would not play well together. Filmmaker Joe Swanberg commented, "I've been trying to stay out of it, but fuck Mark Cuban."
The Sex Addict's director, Caveh Zahedi, has been reduced to appealing to Steven Soderbergh for aid. According to Caveh Zahedi's Indiewire hosted blog:
"Dear Steven Soderbergh
We've never met, but we both appeared in the same movie: Waking Life.
"Also, I called you on the phone once and asked if you could spare some of your short ends for a film I was making at the time. You said no, but you were nice about it.
"I am writing to you now to ask for another favor.
"My most recent film, 'I Am A Sex Addict,' was scheduled to open this Friday at a Landmark Theater in Berkeley (and subsequently in Chicago and Atlanta). Meanwhile, Mark Cuban has suddenly (yesterday) banned the film from all markets in which Comcast has a presence (because the film is being distributed by IFC and IFC has a day and date Video-on-Demand deal with Comcast, which has refused to carry Mark Cuban's HDnet and HDnet movies). Word has it that you and Mark Cuban are good friends, and that you might be able to wield some influence in the matter. I have asked Mr. Cuban to reconsider his decision, as the whole thing has nothing to do with my film, which I spent the last fourteen years trying to make (that's what the requested short ends were for), and which IFC Films has (thankfully) picked up for distribution. Mark Cuban has been faultlessly courteous and straightforward in his replies, but he has also refused to budge."
From Indiewire: " 'Landmark is the most accepting of day and date,' Mark Cuban told indieWIRE today, 'But we aren't going to subsidize what amounts to our competition.'"
Hmm. Big business rules in the indie game? Oh, it's on, it's on like Gray Poupon! Read the full blog post here.
Indiewire's update.
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