Shirley MacLaine film People Not Places production goes awry as crew says they’re owed $245K: ‘This whole thing is really a disaster’

People Not Places, an independent film starring Shirley MacLaine, is at the center of a controversy in which crew members say they’re owed around $245,000 after they were sent home two months ago.

‘This whole thing is really a disaster,’ a crew member told Variety on Thursday. ‘This has been insane.’

The outlet described the situation surrounding the indie film as ‘a case study in the desperate state of the business.’

Crew member Andy Zolot told the outlet he was hesitant to accept the job in the first place, and passed on the first few offers, but was ultimately motivated to work on it due to a slow time in the industry, and a chance to work with the Oscar-wining Terms of Endearment actress, 90.

‘F*** it,’ Zolot said. ‘It’s Shirley MacLaine. And I need the check.’

An independent film starring Shirley MacLaine, 90, appears to be at the center of controversy, with crew members saying they’re owed around $245,000 after they were sent home two months ago. The Academy Award-winning actress was pictured in LA in October 2023 

Zolot told the outlet that he and a few dozen crew arrived in Atlantic City, New Jersey this past March to commence with work on the motion picture.

The outlet cited information provided by ‘five other crew members’ who asked not to be named to ‘avoid being sued.’

The film’s director Brad Furman, the five crew members told the outlet, was frequently tardy, absent at critical meetings, rude to people and slowed down on script cuts that would have saved budget.

The film’s main financier Jeff Katz stepped back from the project a few weeks in, according to the outlet, citing problems with the budget and Furman’s behavior.

The crew members said they were told to go home in mid-April, according to the outlet.

Furman’s lawyer Marty Singer called the filmmaker a ‘consummate professional’ and said there was no misconduct on his part while working on the movie. Meetings Furman missed were due to his recovery from a surgery on his gallbladder, Singer told the outlet in a letter.

Furman has resumed shooting the movies ‘using money from his family to pay the new crew,’ according to Variety.

The original crew has filed complaints with multiple entities, including their unions and New Jersey state.

The iconic actress was pictured at an event in LA in February of 2019 

The film is directed by Brad Furman, whose credits include 2011’s The Lincoln Lawyer and the 2018 movie City of Lies. Pictured in France in 2021 

According to the outlet, the original crew didn’t understand how the Directors Guild of America was allowing production to continue amid the preceding events.

The DGA said in a statement it is ‘aware of this situation’ and ‘working to ensure that both the DGA members who performed the initial work and the DGA members who are now working will receive everything they are entitled to under our collective bargaining agreement.’

Furman has been in touch with union officials to oversee everyone getting paid, Singer told the outlet.

The responsibility to pay the crew ‘solely’ falls on Katz’s shoulders, the lawyer said.

Furman’s credits include films such as 2011’s The Lincoln Lawyer starring Matthew McConaughey and the 2018 movie City of Lies starring Johnny Depp.

The filmmaker recently concluded production on the Jamie Foxx-Robert De Niro action-thriller Tin Soldier, Variety reported.

People Not Places is a passion project Furman has been working on for years, according to the outlet.

The storyline of the film, according to a logline on iMDb, follows a ‘sprightly woman in her twilight years [who] strikes up an unlikely friendship with a local homeless man’ played by by actor Stephen Dorff. MacLaine’s character struggles ‘to mend a troubled relationship with her son.’

In the movie MacLaine plays the role of a ‘sprightly woman in her twilight years [who] strikes up an unlikely friendship with a local homeless man’

MacLaine and Dorff said in a statement that they were ‘both honored to be part of the film under the direction of Brad Furman whose talent and passion to tell this story moved us tremendously.

‘We look forward to bringing it to the screen.’

The film looked to be on budget last autumn, with the Philadelphia-based Katz agreeing ‘to put up the entire cost,’ with initial estimates in the range of $2.6 million-$3.4 million, according to the outlet.

Crew members told Variety that following production delays and disagreements, the budget would need to be ‘at least $5 million’ if sticking to the original script.

While Furman said he would pare down the script, an initial revision was 10 pages shorter, a paltry amount which crew members said was offset by a potentially-expensive addition scene involving a car crash and explosion.

Crew members told the outlet that ‘fights raged’ over monetary and logistics issues after Furman said the revised script could be filmed on budget in a 24-day span.

Amid the film’s pre-production period, Katz demanded to be contacted for approval on additional budget expenses, the outlet reported. The investor ‘began to fear that he wasn’t being told everything,’ sources told the outlet.

Katz decided to scuttle the project due to the numbers involved, as he didn’t feel he could profit if the budget reached $5 million.

Furman has been at odds with financier Jeff Katz over the latter’s departure from the project. Pictured in September of 2021 in France 

Actor Stephen Dorff, pictured last year in Utah, joins MacLaine in the cast of the film 

Katz told the outlet in a statement: ‘We agreed to finance the production under certain budgetary terms and conditions initially presented by Mr. Furman.

‘Upon realization during the pre-production period that those budgetary terms, including the proposed schedule, were not plausible, and the underlying conduct by Mr. Furman in regard to such, we pulled out of the production.’

Katz said that Furman has used assets paid for during the film’s pre-production period ‘without our permission or reimbursement in his current film.’

Furman said that he had been making further revisions to the script to cut costs when Katz withdrew from the project, sources told the outlet.

Katz and Furman ‘contend the other is at fault’ for the first crew not getting paid for their work, according to the outlet.

A crew member said that the troubles plaguing the film are reflective of a difficult timeframe for workers in the industry.

‘This is what happens when work gets slow,’ the crew member. ‘People start considering projects like this because they have no choice.’