A Michigan woman is suing the distributor of the critically acclaimed Ryan Gosling film “Drive” because the film wasn’t what she expected based on its marketing. Sarah Deming is suing the film’s distributor, FilmDistrict, and Emagine Novi Theater because the movie “bore very little similarity to a chase, or race action film … having very little driving in the motion picture,” according to the filing. Deming, who claims the distributor and theater violated Michigan’s Consumer Protection Act, wants “an end to misleading trailers” — and a refund.
Metro caught up with film producer Graham King, co-founder of FilmDistrict, to get his thoughts on the lawsuit. “That’s amazing, right? You cut trailers and TV spots to get people in the theater. It’s called marketing, you know?” he says. “If she wins that lawsuit, we’re all in trouble.”
But King isn’t too worried about that happening. As a producer for the likes of Martin Scorsese, Tim Burton, Johnny Depp, Ben Affleck and Leonardo DiCaprio, he’s grown accustomed to attention of the litigious sort. “I can’t tell you the amount of lawsuits we’ve had from people. There’s nothing you can say about it, you just have to go through it and put your legal on it,” he says.
“There’s always crazy people coming at you. I had a woman who claimed she was Howard Hughes’ girlfriend — she was about 85 years old when she called me,” King remembers. “And my lawyer’s calling me while I’m on the set shooting [‘the Aviator’] with Marty and Leo and asked, ‘What do you want me to do?’ You deal with it. Especially when you make biopics, you’re always going to find someone coming out of the woodwork somewhere.”
