In the hit documentary \u201cYou Can See Everything,\u201d one of the big controversies is that Elizabeth Holmes\u2018 fianc\u00e9 pushes the filmmakers for profit participation in the movie.<\/p>\n
Multiple outlets wrote about the incident as outrageous, casting the move as inappropriate, and reporting that Billy Evans, the film\u2019s \u201cvillain,\u201d winds up forgoing the fee.<\/p>\n
But, sources tell us, there may be more to the story after the cameras stopped rolling. <\/p>\n
Page Six Hollywood has learned that Evans has been seeking legal representation, and recently contacted one of the town\u2019s highest powered attorneys saying he expects a cut of profits.<\/p>\n
Billy Evans is trying to get a payout for \u201cYou Can See Everything.\u201d Getty Images<\/p>\n
The buzzy film had the best premiere for doc in more than 20 years last weekend. Courtesy Everett Collection<\/p>\n
The high-flying legal eagle did not take the gig, we hear. \u201cHe wanted to stay away from that one,\u201d a source told us of the prominent litigator who met with Evans.<\/p>\n
It is not clear exactly why Evans is lawyering up, but the insider added that Evans is looking for a legal representation because he is meant to get a certain percentage of the profits of the film, and that he might give them to charity.<\/p>\n
In the hit documentary on Holmes, the convicted Theranos scammer\u2019s fianc\u00e9 (who\u2019s been called \u201cthe film\u2019s marquee villain\u201d and other variations of a movie bad guy) is portrayed as brazenly trying to profit from the film in conversations with the filmmakers.<\/p>\n
According to a NewsNation report about the movie: \u201cIn one of the film\u2019s more jaw-dropping dramatizations, an actor portraying Evans explains he and Holmes would participate in the documentary if they received a share of the profits, which isn\u2019t standard practice for documentaries.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the film, Evans allegedly demands a percentage of the film\u2019s profits in a meeting with Nathan Fielder. Courtesy Everett Collection<\/p>\n
(Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim\u2018s movie mixes documentary footage and reenactments.)<\/p>\n
Reports in other outlets also clutched their pearls over Evans, the scion of a wealthy San Diego hotel family, asking for dough to be in the doc, saying that would be \u201ctypically reserved for a promotional piece commissioned by a musician, not a nonfiction film extensively interviewing a notorious subject,\u201d according to the Guardian. \u201cEvans is the one who violates documentary norms by asking for profit participation\u2026\u201d, says the report.<\/p>\n
An LA Times report on the film says that Evans\u2019 being paid is \u201can arrangement Fielder fears could compromise the project\u2019s integrity. Evans ultimately agreed to forgo payment.\u201d<\/p>\n
The film from Fielder and Lance Oppenheim features a mix of footage and reenactments. Getty Images for FLC<\/p>\n
But doc insiders tell us that\u2019s not always the case.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the big reveals of the movie is, \u2018Can you believe how ridiculous it is\u2019 [that Evans asks to be paid],\u201d says an indie film producer whose movies are regularly the darlings of the festival circuit and have won major awards. \u201cI\u2019ve been involved with 25 documentaries where subjects get back end,\u201d aka a piece of the profits. \u201cThere are docs all the time where people are paid up front.\u201d<\/p>\n
Doc insiders tells us it\u2019s not that uncommon for subjects to get paid on documentaries about them. Bloomberg via Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople get paid every day,\u201d the source said. \u201cYes, there\u2019s an argument in this \u2018journalistic purity way’\u201d that subjects should not be paid. \u201cThis is an argument that\u2019s been going on forever [in the documentary world] if you\u2019re following the formalistic rules.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the source said, \u201cThere\u2019s also a difference between paying [Evans and Holmes], and splitting the money if the film becomes profitable. It\u2019s gonna make an obscene amount of money.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then again, \u201cI salute the filmmakers for acting like this is just outrageous.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou Can See Everything\u201d could challenge Michael Moore\u2019s \u201cFahrenheit 9\/11\u201d as the top grossing non-fiction film ever. Courtesy Everett Collection<\/p>\n
(We have reached out to Evans for comment and have not heard back.)<\/p>\n
The film on disgraced tech founder Holmes certainly has been minting cash at the box office so far, opening to $15 million in its limited release and expanding to 2,600 screens this weekend. Box-office tracking suggests it could knock off Michael Moore\u2018s \u201cFahrenheit 9\/11\u201d as the top grossing non-fiction film ever.<\/p>\n
It remains to be seen if any of that goes into Evans and Holmes\u2019 pockets. Stay tuned..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the hit documentary \u201cYou Can See Everything,\u201d one of the big controversies is that Elizabeth Holmes\u2018 fianc\u00e9…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":892171,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[17979,10167,136209,88,211652],"class_list":["post-892170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-a24","tag-documentaries","tag-elizabeth-holmes","tag-entertainment","tag-page-six-hollywood"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/892170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=892170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/892170\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/892171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=892170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=892170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=892170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}