A Variety report alleges Tesla owner Musk was “threatening” the studio amid rumors his ex would be fired from the DC sequel.
Elon Musk allegedly came to Amber Heard‘s defense amid talks his former partner would be fired from “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom.”
Per a new Variety report, the Tesla and X (formerly known as Twitter) owner is reported to have strong-armed Warner Bros. into keeping Heard cast as Mera in DC’s long-delayed “Aquaman” follow-up.
According to Variety, Warner Bros. and “Aquaman” director James Wan sent a letter to Heard’s attorney Karl Austen after the film‘s 2018 release to share the decision that Heard would be dropped from the sequel, citing a lack of chemistry with star Jason Momoa.
However, per Variety, Warner Bros. decided not to fire Heard after her former boyfriend Musk and his attorney sent a “scorched-earth letter to Warner Bros. threatening to burn the house down” if Heard was not back in the sequel.
DC Studios could not immediately be reached by IndieWire for comment.
Rumors that Heard would be fired from the “Aquaman” franchise resurfaced amid the defamation trial with Heard and her ex-husband Johnny Depp, with the suit filed in 2019 followed by televised court proceedings in 2022. Heard alleged Depp led a PR “smear campaign” against her, resulting in a “very pared-down version” of her original “Aquaman 2” role.
“I fought to keep my job and the biggest movie opportunity I had to date [with] ‘Justice League’ with the option to [star in] ‘Aquaman.’ I had to fight really hard to stay in ‘Justice League’ because that was the time of the divorce,” Heard said while on the stand. “I was given a script [for ‘Aquaman 2’] and then given new versions of the script that had taken away scenes that had action in it, that depicted my character and another character, without giving any spoilers away, two characters fighting with one another, and they basically took a bunch out of my role.”
Reportedly, Heard appears in only 10 minutes of the sequel. Wan told Entertainment Weekly earlier this year that the sequel was never meant to focus on Heard’s character.
Also during the trial, notes of Heard’s therapy sessions were included in court documents, which Depp fans later paid to access and shared online. Heard claimed while in therapy that “Aquaman” co-star Jason Momoa drunkenly harassed her on set, including, per her point of view, dressing up as Depp.
Heard’s notes read, “Jason said he wanted me fired. Jason drunk — late on set. Dressing like Johnny. Has all the rings too.”
A DC spokesperson told Variety, “Jason Momoa conducted himself in a professional manner at all times on the set of ‘Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom.'”
An insider who was on the London set in 2021 told Variety, “He isn’t dressing like Johnny Depp. He has always dressed in that bohemian style.”
“Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” is set for a December 20 release date.
Not a hard question to answer when you remember how ridiculously stupid he is. I've been calling him stupid for a decade and I'm finally cashing in. Dude has accidentally succeeded a couple times and thinks he's tony stark. Of course he's going to say the dumbest shit imaginable because he thinks he's smart so how could his thoughts be dumb?
His "accidentally succeeding" is really just him buying companies, he's not remotely creative or good at designing or building or anything really beyond hyping himself up and spending money he initially got from his dad, which is more or less the case for a lot of them.
These were therapy notes, never meant to be made public. She never accused him of this, she was talking something through with her therapist. That does not a narcissist make.
The more I know about Musk, the more I long for the day he is no longer of this existence. What sucks the most is he will probably live longer than me and I'll have to learn new and existing things about how his influence has changed the world... Usually not in a better direction.
He used to go to the same saloon in Seattle that I frequented. I met him right before he started filming Conan. He was a funny guy. I bet he was hilarious mocking Depp to irk Heard. Wish I could have seen that!
Johnny Depp was a toxic boyfriend and a chronic substance abuser. So was Heard, but the fact she's a dumpster fire of a human being doesn't make Depp a saint despite what the internet tried to tell you.
Just two shitty human beings who made each other miserable.
I was going to ask this. Feel like people hate him because it was a he said she said of who originally was the abuser, unless I missed something. Don't really follow celebs so it's possible.
No hate because it's the working class plight, but technically... their efforts are still acting as a detriment guided by rich investors. I chose that word somewhat carefully, you see.
Some of my own work has been detrimental to a sustainable planet - there's nothing wrong with recognizing the rat race we are stuck in, the bullshit jobs we occupy, or the harm it causes.
no need to hate on union riggers, drivers, gophers, sparkies, chippies, LX, steadycam ops etc
they’re just doing their job. and a good one
Super hero movies are just a fad that overstayed its welcome and studios are going to have to think of something else now. No need to read anything more into them than that.
I don't agree they have to be, but I do agree they almost universally are, especially modern ones. None of them do anything new or interesting, and none of them try to address complex topics.
How is the production on almost every DCEU film such a shitshow behind the scenes. We had all the Justice League stuff, The Rock throwing his weight around and cratering Back Adams chances and now this.
She never shit on the bed. Or did a ton of things that were claimed by falsified evidence.
We're all going to look back on this trial as a modern crucifixion of a woman in a highly publicized trial, a la Anita Hill and Monica Lewinski, and so so many more. The worst part is that we as a culture would probably claim to have grown since the 90s, but here this is happening right in front of us. The vitriol I've seen spewed about Amber Heard on the internet...many serial killers don't get as much hate. And hers wasn't even a criminal trial. Just a defamation suit.
Right? It says he went "scorched-earth", but that implies he has any sway over WB decisions. What would he do if they don't listen to him? Whine about it on Twitter?
The entire market cap of WB Discovery is less than he’s already lost on Twitter. Their cap is about $25B. Musk spent $44B on Twitter and has absolutely destroyed it like a bull in a china shop to the point that it’s now worth less than $10B, with some estimates coming in between $4-5B.
That said, the far right movement in this country is such that he can hang a legitimate threat over people and companies just by his outsized media presence.
Welcome to America, the land of paying your own court costs.
To put it another way, you can set a pile of money on fire, and your opponent either has to do the same or give you what you want. You can only make the other guy pay you back in certain types of lawsuits, and the process can go on for years if you burn enough money
Musk is a billionaire with anger issues currently going through some kind of mid-life crisis, and has spent months dancing around the largest money fire in history, regularly loudly throwing on more fuel (just in case some of the money remains unburnt)
And btw, you can sue anyone for any reason... the judge just might throw out the case if it's too dumb
He could always just publicly massively overbid on a hostile takeover of WB to push his weight around which backfires when he realizes he's paying way too much and gets sued into going through with the purchase anyways because its a massive golden parachute for the top brass at WB that far exceeds any profits they had planned to produce in the next 10 years. Then he can make movies any way he wants.
Honestly, i don't care if it's him wasting his money on shit like this that doesn't cause harm (except for the poor guy having to craft a response letter) on other people. His money, his and Warner Bros' problems.
Now if he could simply fund Tesla, SpaceX and Starlink quietly without going retard for once...
Musk is a piece of shit and detriment to society, Heard is a run of the mill rich cunt, and Aquaman is a dumb superhero so I was never going to watch anyhow.
This is one of those "wut?" moments. I wouldn't be surprised if WB just said f it and kept her in because this movie will bookend the current iteration DCEU franchise so it hardly matters one way or the other.