Tiff: Row as Amis novel comes to screen

It is a complex, darkly comic, swirling kaleidoscope of a novel, featuring a vivid cast of characters all trying to outfox one another. But a bizarre turn of events that could have been invented by the author himself is threatening to overshadow the film adaptation of London Fields, Martin Amis’s tale of sex, death and darts.

Producers are worried that the film’s stars, who include Johnny Depp and his wife Amber Heard, may not turn up to the world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival (Tiff) following a bitter row about the final cut of the movie. Heard plays Nicola Six, a clairvoyant femme fatale who knows she will be murdered a few minutes after midnight on November 5, 1999 — and goes in search of her killer. Billy Bob Thornton plays the narrator, Samson Young, while Depp has a small cameo role. The cast also includes Jim Sturgess and Cara Delevigne. Depp, Heard, Thornton and Sturgess have all written to the producers of the film, objecting to the avant-garde edit — which has swerved away from the original plan, and features violent imagery in scenes that could be interpreted as dreams, flashbacks or premonitions.

Matthew Cullen, the director of the film, is so angry at the edit that this week he filed a law suit in Los Angeles against Chris Hanley, the producer. He claimed that Hanley and his associates “secretly prepared their own version of the film”, which includes elements that were never discussed — including “incendiary imagery evoking 9/11 jumpers, edited against pornography.”

To complicate matters, Hanley’s wife Roberta wrote the script. The director and producer also have decidedly different pedigrees. Cullen has never made a feature length film before, and was best known for his work on commercials. Hanley, on the other hand, is a prolific indie filmmaker who masterminded American Psycho. Jovan Ajder, a sound mixer who worked on the film, said that Hanley’s version was “radically different” from that created by Cullen and “was certainly more puzzling and confusing”. He also claimed that both Hanley and Cullen had prepared their own versions and the actors had been asked to record their lines for both. The film was supposed to be completed for last year’s Tiff. When that deadline was missed, it was aimed at Cannes in May, but once again was not ready in time. Heard and Thornton are both contractually obliged to support the film, but The New York Times reported that Depp did not want his name to be used to promote it. Hanley, however, was philosophical about the row. “I have been through creative battles with every film we have made with every director,” he said. And Amis has said he was delighted with the film — although he did not specify which edit he meant. “I thought it had a lot of atmosphere, terrific performances,” he added. “It keeps the darts, and it keeps the doomy atmosphere of mutual assured destruction.”