War of Words Over Eclipse Director

Just when you thought the SAG infighting was the worst mudslinging in town, there’s a good, old-fashioned, media slug fest going on featuring Nikki Finke, the LA Times, and Eric Feig.

So last week Nikki Finke, Variety and several others report that Juan Antonio Bayona was offered the job to direct Eclipse. As Nikki and Variety tend to get their stuff right, everyone else publishes this.  Granted, some outlets misquoted and said the ink was dry on the contract and it was studio official, but the fact they all agreed on was that the offer was out there.

Then, Patrick Goldstein of the LA times publishes a blog that quotes Summit executive Eric Feig (if that’s not getting a quote from the horse’s mouth, we don’t know what is) as stating:

“The ‘Eclipse’ directing job hasn’t been offered to Juan Antonio or anyone else,” he told me. “We’ve met with three or four talented filmmakers and we’ll be meeting with three or four more other candidates before we make any decision. No one has been offered the job.” Feig added that no one even bothered to call to check out the rumors before printing them, something that has become an all-too-often occurrence in the Wild West free-for-all that constitutes today’s Web-based entertainment coverage. “Nikki never called Summit or any of the producers, and Variety ran it off her blog without calling us either, which I find doubly irresponsible.”

Nikki Finke after having been bad-mouthed big time in public has now fired back at both the LA and Feig:

Summit Entertainment’s president of worldwide production and acquisitions Erik Feig is accusing Los Angeles Times blogger Patrick Goldstein of misquoting him today about the accuracy of my reportingI’m still waiting for Goldstein to publish my response today that I stand by my story, which I worded very specifically to say: “I can confirm that Summit Entertainment is telling Hollywood privately that Juan Antonio Bayona will direct Eclipse.”…I look forward to Feig demonstrating that being a Hollywood exec, and doing the right thing, are not mutually exclusive.

OKKKKAAAYYYYY….so, how about that Forks weather?  *cricket* *cricket* *cricket*

At this point, your guess is as good as ours.