Hollywood star Eva Green has won her bitter $1 million High Court feud with producers over the collapse of a sci-fi thriller she feared would kill off her career.
The actress, 42, signed up for A Patriot to star alongside Helen Hunt and Charles Dance, with hopes of a $10 million budget and scenes shot on location in stunning Irish locations.
However production was shut down just before filming was set to begin in 2019 after an acrimonious falling-out between Green and executive producers Jake Seal and Terry Bird.
In private WhatsApp messages aired in a High Court trial, Green railed at decisions to slash budgets and refusals to hire experienced crew members, and she dubbed it a “B sh*tty movie” which would now be shot largely in a Hampshire studio.
After the collapse of the film, Green sued for payment of her $1 million (£830,000) fee but faced a counter claim from Mr Seal, Mr Bird, and financiers White Lantern, accusing her of deliberately sabotaging the film.
In a ruling on Friday morning, Mr Justice Michael Green ruled in the actress’ favour and said she should receive her fee. He dismissed the counter allegations that she was responsible for the film’s failure.
“This was not part of some unlawful conspiracy or deceit”, he said, adding that she “desperately wanted to make the film” and had even contemplated giving up her fee to seize control of the script “make the film in the way she and the Former Directors wanted”.
“She may have said some extremely unpleasant things about Mr Seal and his crew at Black Hangar, but this was borne from a genuine feeling of concern that any film made under Mr Seal’s control would be of very low quality and would not do justice to a script that she and the Former Directors were passionate about”, he ruled.
The judge said Green “was in some senses a frustrating and unsatisfactory witness” and has been “surprisingly under-prepared” for her evidence, saying some of her explanations lacked credibility.
But he added: “I do think allowances need to be made for the heightened emotions that were clearly present when some of the messages were written and for the fact that these were assumed to be personal correspondence between friends that would never have been imagined to be seen by anyone else and certainly not analysed to the extent they were.”
The judge said the producers had relied too heavily on “convoluted and overtechnical theories” based on Green’s messages, adding: “The reality is...that neither side was prepared to make the film that the other wanted to make.”
Embarrassing WhatsApp messages sent between Green and her associates were revealed during the civil trial, calling Mr Seal “evil”, a “mad dictator”, and “pure vomit” and referring to producers as “morons”.
When it was proposed that crew members would be drawn from the local Hampshire area, Green referred to them as “shitty peasants”, she called the film a “f***ing nightmare”, and at one stage referred to herself as “Cruella”. “I have a very direct way of saying things”, she told the court.
“I was not expecting to have my WhatsApp messages exposed in court. It’s already very humiliating.”
Facing claims that she had sabotaged the project by pretending to be keen on making the movie but secretly telling crew members not to turn up for work, Green said: “These are emotional words, I felt trapped at the time, it didn’t make any sense that the film was going to happen. I just felt cornered.
“It doesn’t mean I wasn’t going to honour my contract. If called to set, I would have done this movie, even though it would have been a disaster.”
In evidence, Green blamed her “Frenchness” for the way she had expressed herself in messages, including dubbing the director “weak and stupid” and referring to the project as a “B shitty movie”.
However she defended that remark, saying she feared the creation of a bad movie could “kill my career”.
“When an actor is appearing in a B movie, you get labelled a B actor, you never get offered quality work ever again”, she said. “It could kill my career.”
In a statement on Instagram after the ruling, Green said: “I have won my claim against the financiers of the proposed film - and all the allegations which they made against me have been wholly rejected by the judge.
“My professional reputation has been upheld.
“The judge has found that I was never in breach of my contractual obligations. The judgement is clear.
“I am grateful to the court, to the judge, to my legal team and to my valiant agent who is my strength and my shield.”
In a statement after the ruling, the actress added: “I fought tooth and nail to defend the beautiful film that I loved and had signed on for.
“A film that spoke of a cause I hold dear - climate change and warned of the resource wars and mass migration that would occur if we don't address the problem. I stood my ground, and this time, justice prevailed.”
Green said she was drawn to the part of Kate Jones after reading the script, calling it a “passion project” that featured themes about environmentalism.
She firmly denied claims of “diva” behaviour and said the producers were responsible for the collapse of the project. She also claimed that the cutting of stunt preparations had risked a disaster similar to the fatal shooting on Alec Baldwin’s Rust.
“I didn’t do anything to make the film fail. I feel they made it fail on their own, by their own incompetence. Nothing was ready. Nothing was in place. It was a charade.”
Damien Creagh, a production designer, said he had been promised an art department budget of £805,000 and filming largely on location in Ireland, but found production was shifted to Black Hangar studio, a former aircraft hangar in Hampshire, with no permanent sound-proofing.
“I was thinking ‘what kind of cowboys are these?’”, he said.
Plans were in place to recycle scenery and props from Black Hangar’s recent production of Salvage Marines, a six-part TV show starring Starship Troopers actor Casper Van Dien.
The claim against Green for damages was dismissed by the judge, who said she should now receive her fee.
