14 DAY TRIAL // Angelina Jolie is getting considerable Oscar buzz for her latest directorial effort, “Unbroken,” whilst preparing to start working on another movie, “Cleopatra,” this time as a lead. Professionally, Jolie has never been better, capping off a successful 2014 that confirmed that she was, and remains, one of Hollywood’s biggest players.
That is, until you ask famous producer Scott Rudin how he feels about her as an actress and a producer. Rudin was producer on the “Jobs” biopic that Sony Pictures lost the rights for to Universal after several months of trying to make it happen, and he was also credited as producer on “Cleopatra.”
The hackers group Guardians Of Peace, which attacked Sony last month, has released a string of emails going back and forth between Rudin and Sony Pictures Co-Chairman Amy Pascal, and they reveal that Jolie has been causing a lot of trouble with the “Jobs” biopic. And there’s also a lot of Angie bashing going on: so get ready for very high school / Mean Girls-type of behavior.
David Fincher wanted for both “Cleopatra” and “Jobs”
Rudin and Pascal have been business partners for decades, but that didn’t stop him from throwing her under the bus – and then driving it back and forth, as leaked emails obtained by Defamer can confirm.
The apple of discontent in this case was Angelina’s insistency to have David Fincher as director on “Cleopatra,” which meant he wouldn’t be able to direct “Jobs” like Rudin and Sony wanted him to. Rudin’s argument was that Fincher was the only director who could do justice to such an amazing script as they had for “Jobs,” whereas “Cleopatra” was beneath him because it was destined to be a flop.
It didn’t even have a solid script, he raged!
In fact, he wonders in one particular email, not even he knows how he got involved in such a mess of a film. Still, he tells Pascal in no friendly terms (and Kanye-style ALL-CAPS), she “BETTER SHUT ANGIE DOWN BEFORE SHE MAKES IT VERY HARD FOR DAVID TO DO JOBS.”
“There is no movie of Cleopatra to be made (and how that is a bad thing given the insanity and rampaging spoiled ego of this woman and the cost of the movie is beyond me) and if you won’t tell her that you do not like the script — which, let me remind you, SHE DOESN’T EITHER — this will just spin even further into Crazyland but let me tell you I have zero appetite for the indulgence of spoiled brats and I will tell her this myself,” Rudin continues.
Jolie is a “minimally talented spoiled brat” who will ruin everything
Despite this warning that he would tell Angelina himself that “Cleopatra” was destined to fail and that she’d better let them have Fincher for the “Jobs” pic, Rudin didn’t – and neither did Pascal.
Several emails later, the producer, who has a history of a short temper and of being the nastiest character in showbiz, threatened Pascal once more, this time telling her that letting Jolie have Fincher for “Cleopatra” was a career-defining move that would ruin both her and his reputation in Hollywood.
Moreover, the movie was a $180 million (€145.3 million) trainwreck that would see them as scapegoats – and ultimately the laughing stock of their industry peers.
“I'm not destroying my career over a minimally talented spoiled brat who thought nothing of shoving this off her plate for eighteen months so she could go direct a movie. I have no desire to be making a movie with her, or anybody, that she runs and that we don't. She's a camp event and a celebrity and that's all and the last thing anybody needs is to make a giant bomb with her that any fool could see coming,” Rudin ranted.
Bust-up cost Sony the “Jobs” film
This was happening earlier this year, when Sony Pictures still had the rights for the script for the “Jobs” biopic. But perhaps the most surprising part of this exchange is number 1, the fact that Jolie has this kind of pull that allows her to choose the director for the movie she stars in, and number 2, that someone from the industry stood up to her (sort of) by calling her out on the way in which she uses her celebrity status to get what she wants.
Whether you agree with Rudin’s comments on Angelina or not, there’s no denying that this leak has provided us with a glimpse into her professional life like no other before. Jolie is A-list and she only managed to get all the way up there by playing her cards (and keeping details of this kind) very close to her vest.
X actor may have a reputation of being a drunk on set, Y actress is subject to rumors that she has problems learning her lines: these things tend to get out, one way or another. This is the first time that it happens to Jolie – and it’s not pretty.
