The Writers Guild of America has banned its members from working with controversial Hollywood film producer Randall Emmett, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Emmett has partnered with Oscar-winning filmmaker Martin Scorsese for “Wall of White,” a film about a 1982 avalanche near Lake Tahoe, but due to his “failure to pay writers for work on past projects,” Emmett has been on the guild’s strike list since 2020, the Times reports.
Emmett has also been accused of business misconduct and mistreating his staff, allegations he has denied.
“Emmett has a long history of refusing to honor obligations to writers and the Guild has filed numerous arbitration claims against companies owned by Emmett over the last decade,” the WGA reportedly said in an email.
Emmett told the Times that “we are fully financing this movie, and we have every intention to settle this dispute in the coming weeks.”
“Our representatives will be reaching out to the Writers Guild so we can put this matter from six years ago behind us,” he added.
However, Leila Azari, a senior WGA attorney, told the Times that Emmett “has stated multiple times in the past that he would pay and never has.”
IMDb says Petter Skavlan, whom the Times identifies as a WGA member, is working on the film. A request for comment to a representative of his was not returned before publication.
A request for comment from Scorsese’s representative was also unreturned.
