Studio inexplicably says no to "Brett Ratner Milli Vanilli movie"

Studio inexplicably says no to "Brett Ratner Milli Vanilli movie"
Photo: Frazer Harrison

There’s been a lot of talk, in fields where men are now being confronted at least semi-regularly with the shitty consequences of their shitty actions, on the topic of seconds chances. Don’t we all deserve a second chance, advocates for the (allegedly) abusive and powerful ask, often on behalf of dudes running hard on their 9th or 10th? And yet, we have to admit: Sometimes people really do get second chances, as with news today—reported by THR—that Millennium Media has taken its second chance to not make a Milli Vanilli movie with the repeatedly-accused-of-sexual-harassment-and-misconduct Brett Ratner. Congratulations!

Specifically, Millennium—formerly Millennium Films—is no longer involved in plans to secure financing for an as-yet untitled film that would be Ratner’s first major project since multiple actresses (including Natasha Henstridge and Olivia Munn) accused him of sexual harassment and misconduct during his long career as a Hollywood director, a period that appeared, blessedly, to have come to a close in the aftermath of the allegations, which continued to mount as months went on. But Ratner apparently has a deep and abiding passion for Milli and Vanilli, they of the infamous lip-synching scandal in the late 1980s, and so this movie has been going forward despite what we, and most people, might want. But, per THR, Millennium has now backed out of plans to be involved with selling the movie at next week’s European Film Market; instead, Millennium and Ratner’s RatPac Entertainment issued a statement today insisting that “a group of private equity investors have emerged that are fully financing the movie,” that Millennium is no longer involved in production, and—and this is the part that tells you that the writing of a press release has been going really, tremendously well—“There will be no additional comment.”

Given the “no additional comment” of it all, it’s obviously fairly unclear what happened here—even if, as THR notes, it’s kind of weird that Millennium would let itself get into this sort of situation in the first place, given how it got burnt on Bryan Singer’s Red Sonja movie after the director began fielding his own accusations of sexual misconduct. God bless this shady group of private equity investors, though; nothing says “heroism” like a big bundle of anonymous money “emerging” from the shadows to ensure that Brett Ratner receives his hard-earned 850th chance.

 
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