Eva Green has won her High Court battle with a production company over the collapse of a sci-fi film.
The Casino Royale star was due to play the lead role in dystopian thriller A Patriot, but the production collapsed in October 2019.
The 42-year-old later sued the production company behind the project after the film was abandoned, claiming she is entitled to her million-dollar (£810,000) fee under the terms of their agreement
White Lantern Film and lender SMC Speciality Finance brought a counterclaim against Ms Green, alleging she undermined the independent film’s production and renounced the contract.
In his judgment on Friday, Mr Justice Michael Green ruled in her favour, deciding she was entitled to the fee, and dismissed the counter-claim.
He said: ‘In particular, I find that Ms Green did not renounce her obligations under the artist agreement; nor did she commit any repudiatory breaches of it.
Edmund Cullen KC, for Ms Green, previously told the court that the actress had been subjected to a ‘character assassination’, adding it was ‘based on some of the cheapest and nastiest sorts of stereotypes around’.
During the trial, the court heard that the actress described potential crew members as ‘s***ty peasant’ and the production itself as a ‘B-s***ty-movie’, as well as describing executive producer Jake Seal as ‘pure vomit’.
During two days of cross examination, she told the judge that she had a ‘very direct way of saying things’, while she also said she was not called to the studio for either rehearsals or stunt training.
She described it as ‘so strange’ and later ‘absurd with a capital A’, adding: ‘If I had been called to set, I would have done this film even though it would have been a disaster.’
The French actress later denied undermining the production, telling the court: ‘I didn’t have to do anything to make the film fail… they made it fail on their own with their incompetence.’
Max Mallin KC, representing White Lantern, said Ms Green had shown a ‘categorical and unequivocal refusal to perform’, while the company also alleged that she made ‘excessive creative and financial demands’, as well as having expectations ‘incompatible’ with the film’s low budget.
Mr Mallin added it was not up to Ms Green whether or not she was called to set, saying: ‘What is within her control is whether she responds to that call or not and, in my submission, she is making quite clear that she was not.’
He added that she ‘was so concerned about what would happen if she were expressly called upon to perform’ that she had suggested her agent ‘invent a story about Ms Green being hospitalised’.
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