{"id":622758,"date":"2026-09-21T10:32:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-21T10:32:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/622758\/"},"modified":"2026-09-21T10:32:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-21T10:32:12","slug":"rebel-wilson-back-in-court-as-the-deb-producers-sue-star-over-allegedly-blocking-film-australia-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/622758\/","title":{"rendered":"Rebel Wilson back in court as The Deb producers sue star over allegedly blocking film | Australia news"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hollywood star Rebel Wilson<\/a> had a \u201clast chance\u201d phone call with her film\u2019s co-producers over a dispute about up-front costs and her $1m fee, a judge has heard.<\/p>\n

The Pitch Perfect and Bridesmaids star appeared in the New South Wales supreme court in Sydney on Monday in the latest lawsuit over her directorial debut, a musical comedy named The Deb.<\/p>\n

The film\u2019s release was shelved in 2024 after Wilson fell out with co-producers.<\/p>\n

Vince Holden, Gregor Cameron and Amanda Ghost claim Wilson and her company, Camp Sugar, breached consumer law concerning misleading conduct and breached various contracts when making allegedly defamatory statements about them to her 11 million Instagram followers in July 2024.<\/p>\n

The producers claimed Wilson accused them of inappropriate conduct toward the lead actor in the film, embezzling funds and trying to block its release.<\/p>\n

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Wilson was accused of preventing the release by undermining negotiations with potential distributors and threatening an injunction against showing the film in Australia.<\/p>\n

In a cross-claim, Wilson and Camp Sugar allege Ghost, Cameron and Holden\u2019s involvement in the film was marked by \u201ca troubling pattern of illicit egregious behaviours, including theft, bullying and sexual misconduct\u201d.<\/p>\n

Wilson claimed Ghost broke verbal agreements over writing credits and a soundtrack album deal and Cameron and Holden embezzled $900,000 from a joint venture company set up to make the film.<\/p>\n

Wilson sat in the back row of the small courtroom, frequently typing on her phone, as her barrister, Dauid Sibtain SC, questioned one of the film\u2019s producers.<\/p>\n

Holden, part of AI Film Production Limited, which brought the lawsuit, was asked about a series of budget and financing emails regarding the 2024 film.<\/p>\n

Holden agreed he asked for a \u201clast-chance call\u201d in October 2023 over AI Film\u2019s requests for increased fees and Wilson\u2019s offer to reduce her acting and directing fee to $1m.<\/p>\n

Sibtain asked if Wilson had been incredibly upset and angry at AI Film\u2019s proposed $300,000 fee rising to more than $650,000 plus finance costs without consulting her.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would not say upset,\u201d Holden said.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe didn\u2019t like the fees being there.\u201d<\/p>\n

After he cut off further money towards the film, Holden told fellow producers: \u201cthe clock has stopped ticking and I\u2019m waiting for the boom.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAI Film had advanced considerable funds to keep the production on time and we didn\u2019t have a final agreement on fee levels,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

AI Film had planned an \u201cextremely bold investment\u201d toward producing The Deb before securing a share of the rights to the film.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou accepted that $15m was a lot of money to risk on a first-time director, do you agree?\u201d Sibtain asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cCorrect, yes,\u201d Holden said.<\/p>\n

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Holden agreed AI Film was \u201cquite content to risk that money and see where it ended up\u201d and that the risk increased when the budget \u201csubsequently went up to over $20m\u201d.<\/p>\n

AI Film company directors claimed these alleged statements breached contracts and Wilson\u2019s obligations as production company director.<\/p>\n

That allegedly caused economic loss, a potential film distributor to withdraw an offer and reputational damage to the producers.<\/p>\n

Wilson and her company had an initial fee of six per cent of the film\u2019s budget, shared 50-50 with AI Film.<\/p>\n

The Deb \u2013 eventually released in April 2026 \u2013 had multiple estimates for its potential worldwide revenue, starting from a predicted loss of $4.5m if it performed poorly.<\/p>\n

If successful, the film could \u201cbreak even\u201d or make a multimillion-dollar profit, Justice Elisabeth Peden heard.<\/p>\n

As a musical comedy with an Australian theme, The Deb\u2019s predicted revenue was based on films Pitch Perfect, Muriel\u2019s Wedding, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert and Strictly Ballroom.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were all breakout successes but some of them came out 15 to 30 years ago,\u201d Sibtain said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen people went to cinemas, before streaming.\u201d<\/p>\n

The hearing continues.<\/p>\n

The equity case comes after a blockbuster defamation trial <\/a>in May involving Wilson and the star of her directorial debut.<\/p>\n

Australian actor Charlotte MacInnes claimed she was defamed in four social media posts by Wilson but a judge in July dismissed the case.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hollywood star Rebel Wilson had a \u201clast chance\u201d phone call with her film\u2019s co-producers over a dispute about…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":622759,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[146,85,46],"class_list":["post-622758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=622758"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622758\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/622759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=622758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=622758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=622758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}