Rebel Wilson’s ‘The Deb’ Set As TIFF Closing-Night Pic Despite Filmmaker Uproar; ‘Nutcrackers’ With Ben Stiller Opening Fest
Rebel Wilson’s The Deb will close the Toronto Film Festival on September 15 after all. This is after the actress claimed on social media that the pic’s EPs blocked her feature directorial debut from making its world premiere as the closing-night title at TIFF.
Meanwhile, David Gordon Green’s Nutcrackers with Ben Stiller is set to open the fest on September 5. Both films will be making their world premiere.
Wilson on July 10 took to social to bash her backers for getting in the way of her feature musical’s debut at TIFF, saying for them to “turn around and say that no, the movie can’t premiere, is just beyond devastating.”
She claimed in her post that the business partners Amanda Ghost and Gregory Cameron had “bad behavior.”
“And so I said — reported, I guess you would say — their bad behavior when I found out not minor things, big things, you know, inappropriate behavior towards the lead actress of the film, embezzling funds from the film’s budget, which we really needed because we’re a small movie, you know? So kind of really important things,” she continued in her July 10 post.
“Since I reported that behavior, I have been met with absolute viciousness and retaliatory behavior,” the actress and filmmaker summed up.
A spokesperson for the producers retorted after Wilson’s soapbox that her “allegations are false, defamatory, and disappointing,” adding, “For her to promote a false narrative to advance her own agenda undermines the film and all the people who worked on this project.”
All of this makes many wonder if Wilson and EPs will all show up and hug it out. We’ll see about that: Ghost, Cameron and EP Vince Holden filed a defamation suit against her in Los Angeles Superior Court on July 12.
The 12-page complaint reads in part: ““Defendant Rebel Wilson has a history of fabricating false and malicious lies to hide her own lack of professionalism and advance her own self-interest. This lawsuit is about holding Rebel accountable for her attempts to bully Plaintiffs into conceding to her unreasonable demands by spreading vicious lies without regard for the irreparable damage her reckless words would cause on the hard-earned personal and professional reputations of Plaintiffs.”
Written by Wilson, Hannah Reilly and Meg Washington based on a stage show, The Deb is a comedy musical about two young Australian women from different cultures who are searching for self-acceptance. One’s from the bush, the other’s a cynical city girl, and both want a date to the Debutante Ball. Taylah Simpkins (Natalie Abbott) is the farm girl who hasn’t been schooled in big-city ways, while her cousin Maeve (Charlotte MacInnes) has an attitude problem.
Green’s dramedy Nutcrackers follows straitlaced and work-obsessed Mike (Ben Stiller) as he suddenly is thrust into being a caregiver for his rambunctious, orphaned nephews. Linda Cardellini, Edi Patterson, Tim Heidecker and Toby Huss also star.