More on Killing Satoshi https://puck.news/is-joel-silver-ba…

More on Killing Satoshi
https://puck.news/is-joel-silver-back-in-business/

The Kavanaugh Comeback

Anyway, all the chatter about Silver’s ostensible deal got me wondering: What kind of flashing yellow lights does it take these days to make people conclude that dealing with certain individuals might not be worth the pain? (I don’t want to pile on Jeff Shell here, but we saw what we saw.)

After all, producer Ryan Kavanaugh, who faded from the Hollywood scene in 2018 after a long history of broken promises and litigation, has reportedly resurfaced with a film starring Pete Davidson and Casey Affleck, with Doug Liman directing.

One might think it should have aroused suspicion, back in 2003, when Kavanaugh’s Relativity Media claimed to have an algorithm that could predict the profitability of movies. I remember talking to Kavanaugh about his company in its heyday and thinking he sounded a lot like Master Thespian (look it up, kids). The magic algorithm would have been great if it were real, but in fact, the company made many not-profitable movies before going bankrupt.

Maybe it’s fitting that Kavanaugh’s potential comeback film, Killing Satoshi, deals with the mysterious creator of Bitcoin (who may or may not have become less mysterious last week, with John Carreyrou and Dylan Freedman supposedly unmasking him in the Times). And that, according to a casting notice, not only were locations for the film to be generated using artificial intelligence, but A.I. could be used to “change, add to, take from, translate, reformat or reprocess” performances. (The notice also warned that actors “may be sharing scenes with A.I.-generated performers,” though apparently that didn’t happen.) A source told me that the talent had contractual as well as union protections regarding their performances, and Kavanaugh has said the production is being “very cautious, sensitive, and overly protective of our actors.” The film has no distributor yet, but Patrick Wachsberger’s foreign-sales company will be seeking deals at the upcoming Cannes film market in May. (Kavanaugh’s rep declined to comment.)