Exclusive:California Schemin' producer pursued in US courts tells Glasgow festival he worked alone to finance hit film
Danny Page, who is now employed by Scottish production company Blazing Griffin, spoke at an event in Glasgow
The Scottish producer of James McAvoy film California Schemin' - who is at the heart of a legal row in the US over the project - has told an audience in Glasgow he worked alone at the beginning of the project.
Danny Page, who produced the film about a pair of Scottish rappers who pretended to be American to gain success, told delegates of an industry event at Glasgow Film Festival that "it was very lonely" working as a young producer to gather financing for the film before sending an email on spec to McAvoy asking for his involvement.
Scotland on Sunday revealed last month that Page is the subject of legal action by veteran Hollywood producer Guy Louthan, who claims he worked closely with Page, who was his assistant at the time, in the early days of production of California Schemin', which will be released in cinemas on 10 April.
Louthan claims in court documents filed in California that he held investor meetings and introduced Page to McAvoy, before the producer transferred rights to the story to another company he wholly owned - and ousted Louthan from the project without payment or credit.
The veteran producer also claimed he had incurred $30,0000 to $35,000 in personal expenses, including for a number of trips to Scotland from his LA base for location scouting and investor meetings.
Speaking at an industry event hosted by his employer, Glasgow-based production company Blazing Griffin, ahead of California Schemin' closing the Glasgow Film Festival on Sunday, Page said he had come up with the idea for the film after someone told him the story of the rappers in a bar.
The plot is based on the life story of Silibil N’ Brains - a pair of rappers from a Dundee council estate, who ended up touring with Eminem.
Page, who is currently producing another film, Faith, told the audience: “California Schemin’ was my first film. I didn’t have much behind me, I didn’t have much credibility, like many filmmakers, it came from literally an idea in a bar. It was just an idea.
“I had nothing backing me, I didn’t have a bunch of finance behind me, I had literally zero, but I had to pretend I didn’t have zero as many filmmakers do. The first obstacle you’re going to have to face, when you have nothing behind you, you don’t have a company behind you as an option, you have to figure out ways to do that.”
“It’s very lonely when you at the start of that journey of being that filmmaker with a crazy big idea, but with not really a clear idea how to execute [it].
Blazing Griffin chief operating officer Colin McLeod, who was chairing the talk, asked Page how he managed to raise the “hundreds of thousands of dollars” he said he had spent in development.
”Anyone I knew, I was having meetings with them, coffees with them and I was telling them about my passion and my belief,” he said. “And really what they were buying into at that time was just me, because we had nothing in the package.”
He said he had “punted” an email to McAvoy, who directed the film, detailing his idea.
“I was very lucky to punt an email to a young gentleman named James McAvoy,” he said. “Wildly enough, after months of waiting, I got an email back from his agent saying ‘do not send this script to anyone else. Can you come and meet James McAvoy in London?’.
“It was one of those ‘pinch me’ moments. I met James and we just clicked instantly as people connecting on a human level, talking about art.”
A development deck created by Page’s company Homefront Productions, cited in the lawsuit and used to promote California Schemin’ - then using the working title of Straight Outta Scotland - to potential investors, describes Louthan as the “critically acclaimed producer” of the film, as well as already naming McAvoy as director. Page’s name is not mentioned in the deck as a member of the production team.
Page told delegates it was a week after his meeting with McAvoy, but before the star had signed the contract, that he had purchased the option for the film.
“Once James got involved, that was the key to the package,” he said.
He said he believed the key to quickly obtaining financing for his new film, Faith, this time starring McAvoy in the lead role in a co-production between Blazing Griffin - where he took a position as head of pictures last year - and his own Homefront Productions, was that he “has a reputation of playing a straight bat”.
“People trust you,” he said. “My investors now believe in me.”
The legal papers were served to a New York address believed to be occupied by Page in January, however he has denied the person who accepted them was him. Louthan said at the time he was pursuing an international process to have the papers served to Page's home address in Scotland.
Page refused to comment on the case or Louthan's involvement in the film when approached by Scotland on Sunday at the Glasgow Film Festival event.
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