Rod Lurie had every reason to believe that his film, "Nothing But the Truth" was going to be a hit.
The film -- a thriller about a political journalist (Kate Beckinsale) jailed for revealing the name of a covert CIA agent -- had performed well at a slew of prominent film festivals. Beckinsale's performance was getting Oscar buzz. And Roger Ebert called the writer-director's work "truly inspired."
Then, in December, just after the film was nearing its release date, its producer and distributor, the Yari Film Group, was forced to place its releasing division into Chapter 11 after four creditors took action against the company.
"The Yari team are good and smart people who got caught in the perfect storm of the economy," said Lurie, who directed, wrote and produced "Nothing But the Truth" and was a producer on another of Yari’s films "What Doesn't Kill You," starring Ethan Hawke and Mark Ruffalo. "But it was like a drive-by shooting. Everything's going great -- and then we're on the ground, bullet-ridden."
Both films were given a week-long award qualification release but have yet to find new theatrical distribution. A handful of other films -- including a romantic comedy with Uma Thurman and Colin Firth called "The Accidental Husband" and Brett Simon's "Assassination of a High School President" starring Bruce Willis and Mischa Barton -- also have been left orphaned, to the point that fans are reaching out to other studios on their behalf. (See accompanying story on Yari’s orphaned films.)
The current economic climate has only made indie films’ road to theaters more bumpy. Now, many in the industry are trying to figure out if Yari's predicament is a bellwether of more trouble for small film companies.
And Yari certainly isn't the only one facing problems. Peace Arch Entertainment Group, which picked up Jean-Claude Van Damme’s comedy attempt at a comeback, "JCVD," announced in December it would be forced to slash 23 jobs. First Look Releasing also recently let a handful of staffers go, and is facing a couple of expensive lawsuits by sales agents and producers.
"It’s a tough climate, and it's so hard to get companies to finance films in the first place," said Bruna Papandrea, who recently launched her own production company after working for Groundswell Productions and executive producing "Milk." "I don't necessarily think Yari's case is symptomatic of what's happening across the industry -- but these companies face a lot of big obstacles. There's a lot of pressure to make movies for cheaper than ever, and without the distributors putting up a fair amount of P&A, it's very hard to compete in the marketplace."
Headed up by Hollywood financier and CEO Bob Yari, a former real-estate tycoon, the company was launched in 2002 and began releasing films four years later, starting with the February 2006 drama "Winter Passing," which starred Zooey Deschanel and Ed Harris. They also produced "The Hoax," with Richard Gere, and "The Matador," with Pierce Brosnan, among others -- but their biggest successes were with Paul Haggis' 2005 Oscar-winner "Crash" and "The Illusionist" with Edward Norton, which took in $87 million worldwide.
