Director Paul Schrader Says His New Nicolas Cage Movie “Was Taken Away From Me”
"We lost the battle," he says of 'Dying of the Light,' which Grindstone Entertainment will release on VOD on Dec. 5
A poster released this week for the newNicolas Cage thrillerDying of the Light identifies it as “APaul Schrader Film” and further proclaims that it’s “from the writer ofTaxi Driver and co-writer ofRaging Bull,” but the writer-director took to Facebook on Thursday to warn his followers that the film “was taken away from me.”
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“We lost the battle,” his post begins before alleging that the film was re-edited, scored and mixed without his input. Suggesting that he has the support of Cage, co-starAnton Yelchin and fellow directorNicolas Winding Refn, who executive producedLight, Schrader and the three other men are pictured wearing T-shirts bearing what’s known as the non-disparagement clause, which give the owner of a film the right to sue an artist who says anything derogatory about the film in which he worked, implying that they are not free to voice their objections to how the movie has been handled.
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Light, which Schrader wrote and directed, stars Cage as a CIA operative, battling a deteriorating mental condition, as he pursues an old nemesis. Yelchin plays his CIA protege. The low-budget thriller, which was filmed in Romania and Australia, was produced by Over Under Media and financed by the Bahamas-based TinRes Entertainment. In August, it was announced that Grindstone Entertainment, a subsidiary of Lionsgate, had acquired the film for release through Lionsgate Home Entertainment. The movie opens day-and-date in limited release — the number of theaters was not immediately available — and on VOD on Dec. 5.
Asked to respond to Schrader’s charges, a Lionsgate spokesman declined comment. Schrader’s own post concluded, “I have no comment on the film or others connected with the picture.”
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