Post by The Ultimate Nullifier on Nov 11, 2015 10:56:04 GMT -6
www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/relativity-bankruptcy-hunter-killer-producers-839248
They say it will show the studio is incapable of reorganization.
In recent weeks, the Chapter 11 bankruptcy of Relativity Media has hardly become kumbaya, but there's been some stability as the studio's biggest financial backers have put down their poison pens and largely gotten on board a sale of the television division and the return of control of other assets to a group headed by chief executive Ryan Kavanaugh.
However, with the debtor still due to submit a plan of reorganization, Neal Moritz and other executive producers of the forthcoming action film Hunter Killer are raising some new drama.
In a letter to the judge on Tuesday, the producers say they "urgently need to depose Kavanaugh to take discovery which will prove that Relativity is categorically incapable of reorganizing under Chapter 11 and emerging as a viable production house."
The issue first was brought to the court's attention last week when Moritz' group filed an objection to Relativity's motion to extend the time in which to file a Chapter 11 reorganization plan. Moritz' group said they would be "trapped in the purgatory between assumption and rejection until May 2016 at the earliest" of their contract for the film if the court were to approve an extension. The delay, they added, would cause lead actor Gerard Butler to leave the production, which in turn would "diminish the value of the project to the point where production financing to produce the picture... will evaporate."
On Tuesday, attorneys for Relativity responded by characterizing this objection as "a misguided attempt to precipitate the rejection of the Hunter Killer Parties' executory contracts with the Debtors."
The team behind Hunter Killer isn't letting up and demands a Kavanaugh deposition because they say it will show "beyond a shadow of a doubt" that an extension will close the door on their "once-in-a-lifetime opportunity" to make this film.
What's more, the objectors allege that Kavanaugh's deposition testimony would "confirm that, in the wake of several key departures, Relativity no longer has the leadership or personnel necessary to execute a project on the scale contemplated by the Hunter Killer film project" and would "reveal the the duplicitous and fraudulent gambit he has employed (and continues to employ) to trick investors and counter-parties to executory contracts... alike to buy into his sham operation."
The hot rhetoric is accompanied by the suggestion that Relativity "would be better served by a liquidation."
Before departing Relativity as its president, Tucker Tooley was set to be an executive producer on the film. On Tuesday, Relativity announced that Andrew Levin was being brought on as Relativity's new president and chief legal officer.
According to an exhibit to the letter to the judge, Relativity is objecting to Kavanaugh's deposition because the Mortiz' group served a notice without conferring with them, didn't give them reasonable notice, and failed to identify the contested matter in their notice.
They say it will show the studio is incapable of reorganization.
In recent weeks, the Chapter 11 bankruptcy of Relativity Media has hardly become kumbaya, but there's been some stability as the studio's biggest financial backers have put down their poison pens and largely gotten on board a sale of the television division and the return of control of other assets to a group headed by chief executive Ryan Kavanaugh.
However, with the debtor still due to submit a plan of reorganization, Neal Moritz and other executive producers of the forthcoming action film Hunter Killer are raising some new drama.
In a letter to the judge on Tuesday, the producers say they "urgently need to depose Kavanaugh to take discovery which will prove that Relativity is categorically incapable of reorganizing under Chapter 11 and emerging as a viable production house."
The issue first was brought to the court's attention last week when Moritz' group filed an objection to Relativity's motion to extend the time in which to file a Chapter 11 reorganization plan. Moritz' group said they would be "trapped in the purgatory between assumption and rejection until May 2016 at the earliest" of their contract for the film if the court were to approve an extension. The delay, they added, would cause lead actor Gerard Butler to leave the production, which in turn would "diminish the value of the project to the point where production financing to produce the picture... will evaporate."
On Tuesday, attorneys for Relativity responded by characterizing this objection as "a misguided attempt to precipitate the rejection of the Hunter Killer Parties' executory contracts with the Debtors."
The team behind Hunter Killer isn't letting up and demands a Kavanaugh deposition because they say it will show "beyond a shadow of a doubt" that an extension will close the door on their "once-in-a-lifetime opportunity" to make this film.
What's more, the objectors allege that Kavanaugh's deposition testimony would "confirm that, in the wake of several key departures, Relativity no longer has the leadership or personnel necessary to execute a project on the scale contemplated by the Hunter Killer film project" and would "reveal the the duplicitous and fraudulent gambit he has employed (and continues to employ) to trick investors and counter-parties to executory contracts... alike to buy into his sham operation."
The hot rhetoric is accompanied by the suggestion that Relativity "would be better served by a liquidation."
Before departing Relativity as its president, Tucker Tooley was set to be an executive producer on the film. On Tuesday, Relativity announced that Andrew Levin was being brought on as Relativity's new president and chief legal officer.
According to an exhibit to the letter to the judge, Relativity is objecting to Kavanaugh's deposition because the Mortiz' group served a notice without conferring with them, didn't give them reasonable notice, and failed to identify the contested matter in their notice.