Back in March we reported that Nick Cassavetes, the weepie director of The Notebook and My Sister's Keeper, would be shifting gears to direct Peaceable Kingdom, a drama about elephant conservationist Daphne Sheldrick. Now not only is that project not happening, but it's ending in a lawsuit.
According to THR, Cassavetes is suing New Line Cinema, claiming he delivered a full rewrite of the script only to be booted from the project entirely. The lawsuit reads, "New Line made promises to (Cassavetes) that he would direct the film in order to obtain his services as a writer without having to enter into a separate writer's agreement and pay him his usual fee for a complete page one rewrite."
Suing a major movie studio can't be easy-- they've got lawyers like I've got fruit flies-- but maybe New Line is an easier target, given that it's a studio that barely exists anymore. This is the kind of inside-baseball Hollywood story that isn't really worth us commenting on, since we have no idea what really happened. But if you're a fan of Cassavetes' films, you might be seeing a lot more of his work as he copes with the legal fees.
