Paul Feig, director of A Simple Favour, has given a scathing reply to speculation that Blake Lively’s ongoing lawsuit has impacted the sequel.
In a rare move, Feig, 62, took to X to directly address the ‘total BS’ reports that Amazon had ‘indefinitely shelved’ A Simple Favour 2.
A viral post claimed Lively’s It Ends With Us lawsuit had caused ‘tension’ with co-star Anna Kendrick and forced the studio to put the film on hold.
The messy legal battle involving Lively, Justin Baldoni, Ryan Reynolds, and the New York Times has continued to escalate.
Originally, the Gossip Girl star accused Baldoni of sexual harassment as well as orchestrating a smear campaign against her.
The Jane The Virgin actor has sued the New York Times and reportedly plans to countersue Lively, claiming he was bullied by herself and her husband.
While the legal drama unravels, Feig defended A Simple Favour 2 and said: ‘This is total BS. Sorry. The movie is finished and coming out soon.’
The Freaks and Geeks creator added: ‘Don’t believe anything you read on social media these days.’
The original poster, Eric B, hit back at Feig and doubled down that it had been cancelled, leading to the Bridesmaid director giving him a schooling in post-production.
Feig wrote: ‘My friend, it’s called post-production, which generally takes over half a year at least when you factor in editing, scoring, special effects, sound mixing, close captioning and all the technical quality control that has to be done.
‘Our post schedule always had us finishing everything by mid-January. Movies don’t come out the second they’re finished because the studio spends the previous year deciding the best date to release it.
‘We’ve always planned on something in the spring/summer of this year. That’s how movies work. I hope this helps.’
A community note was added to the original post to fight against the misinformation, with Eric B appearing to have no credible sources for his claims.
In a bizarre twist, Bryan Freedman has recently claimed Baldoni had been told to hide in a basement during a premiere for It Ends With Us.
He appeared on an episode of the podcast The Megyn Kelly Show and played a voice message said to be from Baldoni’s team.
Meanwhile, in the legal complaint, Lively alleged she told producers that she was concerned about Baldoni’s behaviour on set and claimed that he improvised ‘physical intimacy’ scenes without rehearsal or an intimacy coordinator.
It was also claimed that Baldoni entered Lively’s trailer when she was nude several times, treated her like a ‘sexual object’, let his ‘friends’ watch Lively film sex scenes, ‘routinely degraded’ her appearance and demanded she lost weight, and caused Lively ‘severe emotional distress.’
Reportedly, Baldoni and producer James Heath signed a document promising to abstain from behaviours that made cast and crew uncomfortable.
Baldoni and his team have denied the allegations.
Metro previously reached out to Lively and Baldoni’s teams for comment.
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