Multi-Million-Dollar Hole Threatens to Engulf Another Tormented Indie
As if the indie film climate wasn't poisonous enough with Picturehouse and Warner Independent biting the dust last month, another recent Oscar-winner is on life-support after a pair of lawsuits crashed down on it in the last week. Troubled distributor ThinkFilm, whose owner David Bergstein and corporate sibling Capitol Films have faced an infamous series of production stoppages over the last month, is now ensnared in a pair of lawsuits from ad media buyers claiming they're owed $4.5 million in outstanding fees. A troubling breakdown of the debts follows after the jump.
More than $4 million is allegedly owed to Boston-based Allied Advertising, which filed suit last week in Los Angeles. Today, meanwhile, Variety reports that Mammoth Advertising filed a second suit against Think in New York for another $428,000 in fees dating back to September:
Think had previously posted a check for $80,000 that bounced.
Some of the fees owed are related to a media plan purchased for Think's Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, the Sidney Lumet-helmed film that was released in October and has grossed upward of $19 million. Mammoth contends it has not been paid a cent of the $257,000 it claims it's owed despite repeated payment requests.
But it's not all bad: Think doesn't even have to distribute its recently acquired Roman Polanski documentary to win an Oscar for it. At least someone over there was thinking ahead.