NO MERCY FOR ANDREW LAU

Andrew Lau, one half of the directing team that brought the world INFERNAL AFFAIRS and which just wrapped up CONFESSIONS OF PAIN, shot an American movie THE FLOCK. Starring Richard Gere and Claire Danes, the film was slated for a Nov. 3 release date but has now been postponed indefinitely.

One problem is that its distributor, Bauer Martinez, is run by Philippe Martinez, a dude who did some time in France for fraud back in the 90's when he scammed some folks in a moviemaking venture. Now he's opened Bauer Martinez as an independent studio in Hollywood but he's having a lot of problems with his first releases - namely that folks are saying he's a liar and can't deliver on his financial commitments.

But to add to that, there's word popping up on the IMDB message boards (hardly the Bible, but...) that Andrew Lau has left the movie because the producers wanted to go in a darker direction. The film was turned over to the associate editor who gave it a darker ending. But Richard Gere apparently doesn't like the harder ending and is lobbying for them to bring the old ending back. The movie has been finished since late August, and I'm guessing it gets dumped on the market in February 2007.

(Thanks to the sharp-eyed reader who tracked this, gunned it down and sent it in all wrapped up like a baby deer)