The Director Of “Minamata” Thinks MGM Buried The Film Because Of Johnny Depp

July 27, 2021 / Posted by:

Johnny Depp is currently enjoying the type of career usually afforded to month-old expired yogurt, which is to say, not a whole lot of people want to go near it. It’s gotten to the point where even if Johnny did have an opportunity to book a job, he’d probably have to respond: “Cool, let me check my schedule and see if I’m free. There is a chance I’ll be in court fighting my ex-wife that day.” Johnny has been losing acting gigs, and even the movies he filmed before everything went to shit are not easy to find. Remember that movie about the murders of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls? Exactly. Johnny also recently starred in a film called Minamata, which premiered last year at the Berlin International Film Festival. And then? Crickets. The director of Minamata Andrew Levitas thinks he knows why his film is being given the hush-hush treatment in the United States by MGM, and he’s sure it’s because MGM doesn’t want to have to talk about Johnny Depp.

In Minamata, Johnny Depp plays the real-life photojournalist W. Eugene Smith, who traveled to Japan in the early 1970s to document the effects of mercury poisoning, which was the result of industrial pollution being dumped into the water in Minimata. The mercury ended up infecting the fish, people ate the fish, people got extremely sick and died of mercury poisoning. This could have been the type of movie that landed Johnny Depp his fourth Academy Award nomination, but that’s if Johnny Depp wasn’t also plagued by accusations of domestic abuse. And you know, the Academy used to happily turn a blind eye to stuff like that, but not anymore.

Andrew Levitas (who, fun fact, played Claudia’s boyfriend Cameron on Party of Five) has sent a letter to MGM, complaining about the release of the film, and accusing them of essentially sticking it in the farthest corner of the storage unit, in an attempt to avoid the giant, greasy, rum-soaked elephant in the room. And when you look at the timeline break-down, it pretty much looks like Johnny is the reason for Minamata’s disappearance. via Deadline:

The plan was a day-and-date theatrical/VOD release for the film in February, a date that came and went. The deal was made as Depp was exchanging barbs with former wife Amber Heard, and defending himself from accusations from charges of physical and verbal abuse, as part of a libel case against British tabloid the Sun, which Depp lost.

Levitas writes that he was told by acquisitions head Sam Wollman, who bought Minamata, that it would not be promoted and that “MGM had decided to ‘bury the film’ (acquisitions head Mr. Sam Wollman’s words).” Levitas sent the letter not only to MGM but also to the film’s backers The Eugene Smith Foundation and the Minamata Foundation. The filmmaker urged MGM to reconsider and believes the studio is not giving strong enough consideration to the importance of the subject matter, which exposed corporate wrongdoing and indifference and memorialized the generational and devastating damage inflicted on locals because of the poisoning depicted in the film.

MGM  responded with a statement about how the release date for Minamata is still being decided, and that Minamata continues to be on the slate for release in the future through American International Pictures (a division of MGM). So, MGM kind of pulled some “I dunno, talk to AIP about it” reasoning. And a TBD release date? That’s never a good sign. Just pick a random date on the calendar, and if it gets postponed, well…Hollywood has been doing that since the beginning of COVID, we’re used to it.

You can read Andrew Levitas’ whole letter over at Deadline, but one of the main points he tries to argue is that regardless of how much terrible publicity comes with the film’s leading actor, it’s an important story about the devastating effects of corporate carelessness and a horrific disease, as well as a brave photojournalist who exposed it all, and that’s what people should be focusing on.

Johnny Depp hasn’t said anything about this situation with Minamata. And we know MGM isn’t excited to nail down a theater release date. But maybe they could go through with it, and we could all collectively agree it’s not Johnny Depp. MGM could give some suggestions at the beginning of the film. The following movie stars Johnny Depp, but if you want to pretend it’s Tom Hanks or a younger Willem Dafoe that’s ok too.

Pic: YouTube

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