Sunday, June 14, 2009
Film The Devil Is in The Details
Posted by Dominic Holden on Sun, Jun 14, 2009 at 2:08 PM
Daphne Tomchak, 56, knew that letting a film crew use her house on the edge of the arboretum through July would be a drag. But the sacrifice would reap a huge reward—or so she thought. Producers of The Details, a dark comedy starring James McAvoy, offered her a contract in May that would allow them to tear out walls to convert two bedrooms into one large room; in exchange, crews would restore the house to her liking. “They were going to install French doors in the back and a new garden,” she says. Crews would also redesign the rear bedroom, install new walls, and refinish the floors.
But on the afternoon of June 3—after the 1914 Craftsman house was gutted—crews called Tomchack. “They said, ‘You need to come home right away; we lost our funding so we are pulling out.’”
In the place where they agreed to install French doors, “It is just a dirty wall,” says Tomchak. Some of the walls are stripped to their structural elements, and holes are in the floor in the place where heat ducts used to be. In one room, she says, “the plumbing is exposed, but you can’t see it very well because the power is out in that room.”
Here are two pictures:
The Details, which was due out next year, is about “a couple whose disagreements over how to deal with their raccoon infestation leads to an escalating series of events,” according to IMDb. “It’s the worst movie script I have ever read,” Tomchak says.
The film's producers had initially instructed Tomchak to use $13,000 that they gave her for temporary lodging to renovate her house. But Tomchak, an architect, says restoring her house would cost at least $25,000. Anything else, she says, they told her to pay for herself. “They said to send them a bill and they would add it to their pile.”
But she can’t get any more information. “They are not talking to me,” Tomchak says. Calls from The Stranger to the location manager, Doug du Mas, have gone unanswered. And attempts to reach the film's producer, Jennifer Roth, President of the Northwest Film Forum, have also been unsuccessful.
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But it boggles my mind that anyone would allow a studio to come in and gut the house. Why?
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She might be able to fight it out in court, but that would end up costing her thousands, if not tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees, and of course there's no guarantee she'd win the case, which could drag out for years.
Unless the producers eventually get their film refinanced, or, do the right thing and somehow cough up the money to at least restore her home to something resembling its original condition, it would seems she's basically screwed.
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Also, the estimated costs to repair/renovate should have been paid into an escrow account in advance, and subject to disbursal under those contract terms.
Now she's going to have to sue to get anything.
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Ye gods - Who in their right mind would've agreed to that, especially in this environment, and especially from a nobody production.
Though that they're not returning her calls at all raises quite a bit of suspicion.
Y'all don't get it. As long as she has her lawsuit hanging out there, seeking oh, say $3 million for cost of repair and emotional distress damages, the film company cannot get refinancing. Their lenders will tell them to resovle the suit first. So they will freak out. so they will settle with her for about $50K or $150K and pay it out of the next round of financing.
She basically has them by the balls, but she has to sue to have that grip.
My god, the loser thinking is so prevalent, get a clue please.
That will be $450 & late payments beyond 30 days accrue interest at 1% a month.
Also, from what local film people said, this film's investors were finance people from NY. Ummmm..... wonder why they don't have any money?!?!?! She could try to sue, but if there's nothing to take... it's a waste of time.
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but the plot DID sound inane...more like a late '80s Tom Hanks comedy...maybe with Shelly Long or Daryl Hannah.
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If you had actually ever been in the house you would know this.
The "homeless" guy you speak is a friend and a friend of mine. We helped move her stuff because the production moving folks never showed up and Daphne was told the furniture needed to be gone by the following Monday for construction to continue. Daphne did everything she could to accommodate these people and keep costs down by pitching in. She was excited about having her house the stage for "The Details". The money was for finding alternative accommodations because the bathroom and main floor was going to be unusable. Movie crew? Lights? Equipment? Having your house torn apart and then abandoned with breach of contract is no friggin' picnic. Now she has to put her house back together using the 13K. Wow! Sounds super fun. F-off!
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