More than a year and a half after his film Minamata debuted at the Berlin International Film Festival in February 2020, director Andrew Levitas is alleging MGM of 'burying' the film amid star Johnny Depp's legal turmoil.
MGM acquired the film in October 2020 through its newly-relaunched American International Pictures, initially scheduled for release in February 2021.
While a release in the U.K. and Ireland will happen on August 13, there is still no planned North American release, with the director claiming in a letter he sent to MGM and others that he was told the studio is 'burying' the film.
Turmoil: More than a year and a half after his film Minamata debuted at the Berlin International Film Festival in February 2020, director Andrew Levitas (right) is alleging MGM of 'burying' the film amid star Johnny Depp's (left) legal turmoil
Burying: While a release in the U.K. and Ireland will happen on August 13, there is still no planned North American release, with the director claiming in a letter he sent to MGM and others that he was told the studio is 'burying' the film
Levitas sent the letter on Monday to MGM along with Minamata's backers, The Eugene Smith Foundation and the Minamata Foundation, where he claims he was told by someone at MGM that Minamata would not be promoted at all by the studio.
'MGM had decided to "bury the film,"' Levitas says in the letter.
The film was picked up while Depp was battling libel charges, which he ultimately lost, the latest in a string of legal battles with ex Amber Heard.
Letter: Levitas sent the letter on Monday to MGM along with Minamata's backers, The Eugene Smith Foundation and the Minamata Foundation, where he claims he was told by MGM's acquisitions head Sam Wollman told him Minamata would not be promoted at all by the studio
Depp had also backed away from his role as Gellert Grindelwald in the Harry Potter spin-off movies Fantastic Beasts, which happened after Minamata was picked up by MGM.
Levitas is arguing that MGM should reconsider because the film's subject matter is more important than Depp's legal troubles.
Depp plays iconic photographer Eugene Smith, who helps expose Japan's Chisso Corporation, who were responsible for the mercury poisoning of the citizens from Minamata, Kumamoto, Japan in the 1950s.
Backed away: Depp had also backed away from his role as Gellert Grindelwald in the Harry Potter spin-off movies Fantastic Beasts, which happened after Minamata was picked up by MGM
