Late last week, it was revealed that Eva Green was being sued by White Lantern (Britannica) Ltd who claimed that Green, who was attached to star in and producer, derailed a planned sci-fi movie, ‘A Patriot’. White Lantern is suing Green for £4 million (∼$5.22 million US). Green is countersuing for £800,000 (∼$1.04 million US), because she states that her contract was “pay or play,” meaning she was guaranteed to be paid whether the film got made or not. She is further stating that the cancellation of ‘A Patriot’ was entirely the decision of White Lantern.
Her attorneys released the following statement:
This Statement is being made on behalf of Eva Green, for the sake of clarity, in light of recent reports in the media of the legal action she has brought against White Lantern Film (Britannica) Ltd relating to a proposed feature film provisionally entitled “A Patriot”. Ms Green initiated the legal proceedings against White Lantern Film (Britannica) Limited because they are in breach of contract. All the details of Ms Green’s legal action are set out within her initial claim lodged at the London High Court on 4 June. In response White Lantern has made a number of erroneous allegations which Ms Green totally denies and will be responding to in court papers in due course. Ms Green was at all times ready to perform her contract, and she remained willing and able to proceed in reliance thereon. It was the bridge financiers and White Lantern who unilaterally shut down the production in early October 2019.
Ms Green is an actor with an unblemished professional reputation. In a career spanning over 20 years, Ms Green has never once been in breach of her contractual obligations. Ms Green is confident that she will be entirely vindicated in these proceedings and that the court will establish the true facts – although she is saddened that she has found it necessary to go to these lengths to deal with the behaviour of the defendants.
White Lantern asserts that Green attempted to inflate the film’s budget by £250,000 ($326,000) to hire additional crew. White Lantern’s lawyer, Max Mallin declared:
“Ms. Green engaged in a course of conduct that demonstrated that she had no intention and/or desire to complete the production of the film. [Her] demands were unreasonable. … [They] created significant distraction, delay, and additional costs to White Lantern’s management and their progress of soft and hard pre-production.”
‘A Patriot’ would have been directed by Dan Pringle (‘K-Shop’). Helen Hunt and Charles Dance were cast to costar. It is known that Green would have portrayed “Kate Jones, a captain in the Border Corps of a futuristic authoritarian state.” (via Deadline)
Green is best known for starring as Morgan on the TV series ‘Camelot’ and Vanessa Ives on ‘Penny Dreadful’. Most recently, she starred on the BBC miniseries ‘The Luminaries’. Among her other credits are ‘Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children’, ‘Dumbo’, ‘Sin City: A Dame to Kill For’, ‘300: Rise of an Empire’, and ‘Dark Shadows’.
Source: Variety
