Is the end in sight for the Gadhafi family’s Hollywood spending spree?
Just a year and a half ago, Natural Selection LLC, the company headed by producer
Matty Beckerman and
Al-Saadi Gadhafi, son of Libyan strongman
Moammar Gadhafi, announced plans to fund 20 movies with budgets less than $15 million — including
The Ice Man with talks of
Mickey Rourke to star, and a project including
Eva Amurri, who is
Susan Sarandon‘s daughter, according to the
New York Times.
But now the company is weathering a storm in the wake of unrest in the North African country.
“That’s over because they froze every f—ing dollar,” says a film-finance agent, referring to international government sanctions, in the
new issue of The Hollywood Reporter.
Since announcing a $100 million production fund in July 2009, Natural Selection has produced movies like The Experiment (starring Adrien Brody, Forest Whitaker and Twilight‘s Cam Gigandet) and put money in several others, according to sources. But it was unable to secure a deal to invest in major studio pictures despite help from William Morris Endeavor’s global finance group, led by Graham Taylor.
“Why would any studio take his money?” the rival agent scoffs about the elder Gadhafi. “He’s a Jew-hater.”
Insiders say WME only represented Natural Selection on a film-by-film basis and has not had any connection with the company for at least a year.
Beckerman and the firm’s attorney, Schuyler Moore, declined comment, as did WME.
