Unfortunately, all is not well for the Entourage movie. Though fans have been clamouring for it for years now, various setbacks and delays have plagued the project, and it doesn’t look like things will be resolved anytime soon.
We heard a few days ago that “greedy people” were the cause for most of the problems, and now we’re learning some more details on exactly what that means. We know that contract negotiations are the main hold up as a few of the cast members aren’t happy with what they are being offered. In fact, star Adrien Grenier recently said that he wants everyone to be fairly compensated for the movie. So who exactly is getting the short end of the deal?
Well, THR has discovered that at the source of all this is Mr. Jeremy Piven, who played Ari Gold on HBO’s hit show. Apparently, he’s already signed his contract and it includes what’s known as backend pay. This means that if the film is a hit, Piven will see some extra dough. It’s a common thing in Hollywood and people like Robert Downey Jr. have used this tactic to make extraordinary profit. On The Avengers, Downey Jr. made $50 million due to backend pay alone. So, that combined with the fact that Piven’s contract in general is paying him more than any other member of the cast, is causing issues with getting the other guys to sign on.
Now, while Grenier may be the star, Piven’s Ari Gold is hands down the best thing about Entourage, and one of the most memorable characters to ever grace our television screens, so it would make sense that he has a better deal. We don’t have specifics on the exact numbers that everyone is being offered but apparently, the rest of the cast is negotiating for backend pay as well, which is why things are taking so long to get off the ground.
Admittedly, I can see Warner Bros. just getting so frustrated with this that they end up pulling the plug on the whole thing, because it really is getting a bit ridiculous at this point. If it came to that though, I would hope that the other cast members would just swallow their pride and take what they’re being offered. It’s not like these guys are really doing anything now anyways. How often do you see Grenier or Kevin Connolly or Jerry Ferrara pop up on screen anymore? They’re not exactly in high demand.
Anyways, apparently Warner Bros. is hoping to have the film in production by January 2014, so in the coming months we should hear more about this. In the meantime though, tell us, have you lost faith in the fact that we’ll ever see an Entourage film?