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David Poland

By David Poland poland@moviecitynews.com

Taxi To The Toilet

There was actually a very good film by the same title as this entry… Taxi Zum Klo… apologies for the grab.
But Alex Gibney continues to push ThinkFilm on his Oscar winner, Taxi To The Darkside, now claiming that Think was fraudulent in its handling of the film, allegedly knowing that a financial crisis was coming that would get in the way of a wider post-Oscar release.
IndieWIRE does a good job of offering the Gibney side, the Think side, and the objective side.
I look at the numbers on Born Into Brothels, Think

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10 Responses to “Taxi To The Toilet”

  1. jeffmcm says:

    “All of us who are owed money”
    So you’re an ‘us’ too?

  2. Joe Leydon says:

    You know, with all due respect to Gibney, you’d think that after he made the terrific Enron doc, he’d be more alert to… well, tell-tale signs of creative accounting.

  3. martin says:

    Jeff, maybe you should offer your skills as Dave’s copy editor.

  4. jeffmcm says:

    Or his sales agent.

  5. David Poland says:

    Yes, J-Mc… MCN is owed money by ThinkFilm.
    And Joe… I don’t think there was any creative accounting in play here or any accusation of same.

  6. Joe Leydon says:

    Wouldn’t you describe misrepresenting (allegedly) your financial status as a form of creative accounting?

  7. This whole scenario makes me wonder why we never hear directors making a rukkus about the Weinstein brothers buying their film and then not releasing them. I’m not sure how the system works, but when a company purchases a film at a festival surely there’s a part in the contract and states somewhere that the film must be released, right? I still can’t believe why any filmmakers would sell their movie to that company. Why hasn’t some filmmakers come out and publicly whipped these guys?
    Nevertheless, back to ThinkFilm and Taxi to the Darkside.

  8. jeffmcm says:

    KCamel, this is why there are a lot of films that play in places like Encino and Irvine for one week and never anywhere else. Contractual release obligation fulfilled, they move on.

  9. I don’t know what those “Encino” and “Irvine” places are, but I get your meaning. Still doesn’t explain why any self-respecting director/producer would give their film to them anymore.

  10. jeffmcm says:

    Sorry, they’re suburban areas of Los Angeles. As for your other question, I’d say ‘money’ and ‘seduction’.

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It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?

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