Transcription
Ely Lily blooms; that set is so beautiful. It looks nothing like this set. This one is so beautiful too, and that's what I think is special. We talked about it, um, at another time with Colleen: everyone has a different vision or interpretation of what that is, and that's what I love. I'm actually thrilled that this set isn't an exact replica of that one because every reader had a different Lily blooms in their head. I hope that we get to continue to have different Lily blooms popups here and there, because there's going to be a different take on her creativity and who she is. So, no, I didn't find the rights of the book; I came into it once the movie was already, um, a reality. Colleen Hoover was such a great partner in that. She's an incredible author, but she's—some people—it doesn't also translate to filmmaking, but she's a great filmmaker. She's able to separate herself and say, "I know that it happened with one, two, three like this in the book, but what if we just went one, two, four here?" Ryan, actually your husband, Ryan Reynolds, wrote part of that rooftop scene. Is that true? Yeah, he—yeah, that's—I mean, felt murky to me that this woman who, you know, is both feet on the ground would fall for this guy without seeing anything. So you had to kind of see that tension a little bit more; you had to see that push and pull; you had to see that ball-busting and the way they were able to banter because she's probably seen a lot of attractive men, um, at this stage in her life. But so, why him, even though she knows that he's not the best idea because he's not a relationship guy?
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Hi friends, it's Katie from Without a Crystal Ball. Welcome back to my channel. I've been thinking—so many of you in the comments, which, by the way, are amazing—have been asking questions about and trying to get around this idea of why would two really successful people, Blake and Ryan, want the rights to a film or want to hijack a film? Why would this couple, who seemingly had everything, need to go into a company that's an up-and-coming independent film studio, Wayfarer, which has done quite a few projects and had a lot of success right out the gate, had enormous financial backing and a lot of support from others in the industry? Why would they target this new and up-and-coming production company and try to take over a film? And then it occurred to me, as I was digging through the amended complaint and looking into Ryan's background and taking a look at his company, Maximum Effort, I started to see a pattern with Ryan. I found an interview of him from, I think it was 2020, 2021, where he was talking about how he would be taking a hiatus from acting and he was going to try to focus more at home because he didn't want to miss this time with his kids. His idea was that he would become this like digital marketer, and Maximum Effort would be his company where he would not only make films and be a production company but also manage the marketing side of the production. So he would become kind of this boutique shop that had both production on one hand and they could handle the marketing on the other, so that they didn't have to rely on another company to manage the marketing. What if you could be good at both? Marketing and advertising is expensive, and if you can use your skills in film to become a marketer, why wouldn't that work? Add to that, Ryan was beginning to become this what's called a private investor, investing in companies that maybe needed equity or money to keep the project going or the product expanding, and he used his celebrity to kind of become a face of a company like Mint Mobile, where he didn't actually own a huge amount of the company, but he did all of their commercials, and his company, Maximum Effort, was the marketing branch of Mint Mobile, and they continue to be today. He also had a minority stake in Aviation Gin, which then shortly after that was purchased; they sold them to another company. So he walks into a company, buys a stake of it, and then, through that, is able to use his celebrity to become the marketer for the brand. He's basically taking a backdoor route to just become an influencer; he could just get brand deals, but he wants to actually own a part of the brand. And I guess if you're a control freak, this is what you want to do, and you have like exorbitant amounts of money—cool. But Ryan, because he wanted to make this brand, Maximum Effort, his thing, his new thing, he didn't want to just be an actor anymore; he wanted to do projects and create. Ryan had a vested interest in the possibility of a new client. Ryan wanted *It Ends With Us*. Ryan wanted a marketing job. Ryan wanted the opportunity to be a part of a project that had a big audience. Ryan wanted another client, not just a franchise, but a client. I was looking at what is Maximum Effort. Well, I found a website that talks about his strategy, and the business model is the importance of authenticity, which is why you hear them use that word so much. In an age where consumers are increasingly skeptical of traditional advertising, genuine and relatable content stands out by staying true to his personality and values. He's built a brand that audiences trust and admire. So what Maximum Effort actually is is it's him; Maximum Effort is Ryan Reynolds. It's Reynolds's personal brand; his charm, his wit, his relatability perfectly align with the brand he promotes. By using his star power, Reynolds adds credibility and appeal to the campaigns. So this is how Reynolds positions himself to brands that he might want to work with: that he has charm, wit, and relatability. That's kind of narcissistic, like he's so perfect without fault. You know, anyone that puts a mask on and that behaves as though they have no fault and that they're perfect, they're this thing—they're often not. But his benchmark for advertising is humor. Humor is a powerful tool in marketing, and Maximum Effort uses it masterfully. Reynolds's witty and self-deprecating style resonates with a broad audience, making the ads memorable and sharable. Brands looking to create a lasting impact should consider incorporating humor into their strategies, provided it aligns with their identity. So his whole thing is about making humorous content that's funny and relatable, which kind of matches what they put together for *It Ends With Us*. But I noticed it says, "provided it aligns with their identity." This was not a funny film; okay, this was not *Deadpool*; this is not a comedy; this was not a rom-com; this was a romantic drama; it's a romantic thriller; it's a whole different genre, and it's a challenging genre in book publishing, which is why a lot of books like this go self-published because it doesn't fit drama; it doesn't fit romance. It's a combination of both with thriller, and these hybrid genres are hard to market—equally hard to market to the masses for a film. This tells me that some of these script rewrites were not just about Ryan wanting control, but Ryan needed to make this on-brand for him so that his company then could handle the marketing. If you can add levity and light into the campaign, and levity and light and dimension and humor, you then can become a Mint Mobile; you can then become a customer of Maximum Effort. But their strategy is almost always using humor, and this is why this didn't work. But he was too arrogant to see the writing on the wall. He can't—he and Blake tried to infuse their brand into this film without recognizing that their brand was a complete and utter mismatch. Quite honestly, Blake Lively was probably the worst to be cast as Lily.
I took a look at the amended complaint to see how Maximum Effort became a part of this film and why Sony Distribution—who literally, it's their job to have marketing, and they're the distributors of a film—for Columbia Pictures, who was a co-production company along with Wayfarer—why would they need Maximum Effort to come in? They didn't; they could have done it themselves. But Maximum Effort took over for them. And incidentally, when the marketing is usually done in a film, the production company that handles it will get a credit. Interestingly, Maximum Effort again has no credit on the film. They're credited on other films of Ryan's; in fact, they're credited on *Deadpool* and *Wolverine* and *Deadpool 2*, and some of the recent films by him. In fact, Ryan has not made a film without his own production company since 2020. Ryan is his employer; Ryan has no production companies hiring him anymore. If he makes a film, he's the one making the film. This is someone who is obsessed with control, that needs to have their hands in every single silo, needs to be in charge of everything—a control freak, which is how Tim Miller described him. He's likely believing that he could infuse himself into this film and then take on another client. And the reason why he's talking about buying out Beldon is because he likely believes and is looking at this as like a private venture: "Well, I'll just pay him $20 million for the script, and then we'll go make the film," or whatever it is that he wanted to make, or whatever the price was for this script. And it's clear that whatever the offer was, Beldon wasn't interested in selling after what he had gone through. Yesterday, *The Hollywood Reporter* did an article, and they talked about the unprecedented way that Blake Lively brought Sony Distribution into the mix because all they were were the distributor, and they really had no say in the production of the film, and the production was through Wayfarer, which—through Wayfarer—they are a union-based production company; everyone on set is union; they're following all the guidelines for Screenwriters Guild, Writers Guild, for actors, Screen Actors Guild—I mean, all of the guilds are a part of this, and they've got guidelines they need to follow. Ryan was not a part of the contracts; Ryan didn't have a contract. In fact, Ryan violated the Writer's Guild guidelines and code of conduct because he ghostwrote part of the script, which is actually a violation, and he worked on the film without a contract, which is another violation. Ghostwriting can get you kicked out of the Writer's Guild; so can working without a contract. He didn't care about that because he probably believed that his power and his influence and his quote-unquote genius would supersede any possible consequence. But Beldon and Sony—the reason why they got so concerned about Ryan writing—is because they can get on the blacklist, or the list of production companies and distribution companies that the guild will no longer work with because they violated the rules. Because if a director knows or if a producer knows that someone's working on a project and they're not under contract or they're a writer that is working without a contract, they can get violated and disciplined by the guild themselves. If you're on their blacklist and you're no longer allowed to work with the actors, the writers, the screenwriters, or the producers, you're so—so, in a way, Ryan was not only flipping the middle finger at all of these guilds and the union by bypassing the rules, but he was putting these companies at—in—at risk of losing everything, like basically sabotaging them. Think of it as you're a competitor, and that's what Ryan was. Maximum Effort is a production company; this is a hostile takeover where there's no joint partnership, and he's intentionally doing things that are against the rules that could potentially get him kicked out of the Screen Actors Guild and the Writer's Guild, and same with Blake, and then they could get—with Wayfarer—kicked out too. Huh, that's amazing. But see, because they leveraged their star power and they forced Sony to take a position and back them, I think they didn't think that anything would happen. I don't think they got caught, and I think they had to sue for sexual harassment and create this ridiculous smear campaign allegation because they are actually in trouble. And it's not just, "We tried to hijack a film"; what actually happened is illegal; we could have our careers completely be destroyed; we're done in Hollywood. I mean, if you aren't a part of the guild, you're not on any production set. If you're not in the Writer's Union, you're not on a production set. If you're a studio that's blacklisted, you're not on any production sets, and union members of SAG and WGA and the Producers Guild, they cannot work on non-union sets; that's a code of conduct bylaw of being a member of the union. Ryan and Blake feared that their careers were over because of what they had done, and they thought that they could get away with it. And then this is when the lawsuit happens. So they've broken rules; they've bypassed the union; they've worked outside of contracts; they've written without a contract; they've ghostwritten. And then, as the film marketing bombs after Maximum Effort takes over the marketing from Sony and demands payment from Sony and Wayfarer, despite them not actually needing Maximum Effort on set, and Blake previously saying that Maximum Effort would work for free on this—even though they didn't—and you understand now that Blake's constant promotion of Betty Buzz and her hair care line is being done because Ryan's clients are the Blake Lively line of hair care and Betty Buzz; he's their marketer. So Ryan is really Blake's employer; so she's not only being marketed by him for the film, but then he's also using this opportunity to have her market the other brands that they both benefit from selling. The reason why they keep purchasing brands is it's a way for them to keep working and working from home and having more flexibility with their kids. But what they're actually doing is unethical and immoral, and quite frankly, if I were the Beldon crew, I would be like calling the DOJ and being like, "This is criminal extortion; it's not just civil extortion; it's criminal extortion," because this is a project that made $350 million; this isn't a tiny heist; this is stealing a third—a third of a billion dollars. When you read through *The Hollywood Reporter's* article from yesterday, you see just how serious of an issue this is and how more media are starting to pay attention to the fact that something actually really did happen with this film, and why did it happen, and how did this happen, and what's going to happen to Sony, and is Sony going to get dragged into this too because Sony enabled the extortion of the film from Wayfarer? She had no contractual right whatsoever to make a cut of the film herself; the Sony cut wasn't even a real cut. *The Hollywood Reporter's* article states that, as such, Blake Lively is lying in her lawsuit when she says that she led the Sony cut; there was no Sony cut; she simply demanded a cut, just like Justin Beldon and Wayfarer have alleged in their complaint. They forced Sony to give them a cut or else she wouldn't sign her contract, and she 100% threatened to pull the Taylor Swift song from the film, which had already been used in the trailer, and she threatened not to promote the film; she threatened the entire time, and then she got a cut. But this is completely unprecedented, and insiders in the industry said they've never seen anything like this before. So she's lying; she's also lying in her amended complaint where she said that she made a call to Sony about inappropriate and unwelcome behavior. So here's what it says: "The angst on set escalated quickly on May 26, 2023, just a few weeks into production. Lively called Sony production executive Angie Janetti to log concerns over unwelcome, inappropriate behavior by Beldon and Wayfarer CEO Heath on set, according to her amended complaint. She cited several examples of feeling sexually harassed or uncomfortable. Janetti explained that any formal HR complaint must be lodged with Wayfarer as it was the production company, and Sony was only the distributor. Lively said she was concerned that Wayfarer would not take proper action since it was run by the two men involved. However, sources close to the matter say Lively did log several calls with Janetti, but contrary to what she claims in her complaint, the May 26th call was about her filing a complaint about onset COVID protocols. So she wasn't going to be calling about feeling uncomfortable on set. They have insiders telling them it had nothing to do with that; she called about COVID protocols." The amount of lying in her amended complaint—I don't know if she even understands perjury. And despite all of these uncomfortable situations that she claimed to be in, she refused to file a formal HR complaint with Wayfarer. Instead, she bypassed the HR department; she bypassed even SAG—SAG has a guideline where all complaints for sexual harassment need to be reported to the union so that SAG can come in to help mediate and advocate and remedy the situation to make sure that the set remains compliant. So she bypassed the union, which she was supposed to do, and she also bypassed filing an HR complaint. So there was no actual record of her making these complaints outside of her lawyers telling them they had to agree to this or else she wouldn't come back, and they didn't actually agree to anything; they simply signed a document that said this is what the workplace will be; they didn't actually admit they did anything wrong. And when it comes to the director's cut, I just want to explain to you what they wrote in the article, and I'll read it to you: "But another saga was about to unfold. According to Beldon's amended complaint, Beldon informed the filmmaker in late February that Lively wanted time in the editing room with him for two days, a highly unusual request because the DGA rules that allow a director unencumbered time to deliver their cut. A source close to the matter on Lively's side says there had been so many script changes, Lively was concerned about selling a movie she hadn't seen, particularly considering the subject matter. She also had sign-off rights on a sex scene involving the younger version of her character, played by Isabella Ferreira. Beldon went along with the ask out of concern that she would use the 170 document against him and because of pressure from Sony, according to his amended complaint. Beldon connected with a Sony exec to discuss the unusual situation, and they said, 'We are in it with you.' At the end of this pain is a big win. She did join him in the editing bay on March 12th with seven pages of script notes, which his editor incorporated, but she did not show up the second day. Then, in April, Sony, ever in the role of mediator, informed Wayfarer that Lively wanted solo time in the room with her own editor, saying she once again raised the specter that she wouldn't promote the film. She then brought in an editor, Shane Reed, to come in and edit. Wayfarer relented, and so, from April 22nd through May 1st, she worked on her cut while Beldon proceeded with his. And they said this is how Lively positions this: 'The story of the edit of the film is not relevant to Lively's claims of sexual harassment and retaliation; it's a red herring designed to distract the public away from the grave misconduct by the defendants.' The Sony cut is the film that was chosen to be released in theaters. Miss Lively led the Sony cut with their support, working in close collaboration with Sony and Colleen Hoover. She backs this up with several emails from Sony executives praising her work on the trailer and film. Now this is where it gets interesting: while Lively calls it the Sony cut, Beldon and Wayfarer contend otherwise. In a timeline that's attached to their complaint, they state: 'In reality, Sony did not have a studio cut. Rather, Wayfarer and Sony shared a studio cut. Should the director's cut not perform well in audience screenings, the studios collectively held the right to recut the film. However, this never occurred as Lively used her promotional efforts to secure the final cut.'" So, under the contracts with their distribution, there was no Sony cut; his cut was supposed to be what was distributed, and it only would not be distributed if it didn't perform well in screenings. And throughout the process, while she's demanding that she gets her own cut, she's threatening them by withholding Taylor Swift's song, by not promoting the film, by basically—she's saying she's going to breach her own contract if they don't let her do this. And they were literally in the last stage of the film, and then they're going to have someone refuse to promote it. And by June, she had convinced all of the cast to no longer promote the film if Beldon was involved, and they wouldn't—if Beldon's cut was released, they wouldn't promote the film. And here's what I think happened: because Ryan's company was involved, Maximum Effort, with the marketing, and he's the one that filmed all of the marketing and did all the marketing efforts, the reason why Beldon is not involved and why he's not allowed to be there is because of Ryan's jealousy and anger, his rage, his envy, his insecurity. They fabricated all of these allegations, but they didn't take the proper channels to report an HR complaint, to file a grievance with the SAG Guild, to file a complaint with the Producers Guild; they bypassed all the channels to make this a formal complaint, which tells me that they never intended to file a complaint because there was nothing there; there was nothing that happened; it was just being used as a way to get what they wanted. Because if this really did happen, any other actor would have gone to the Screen Actors Guild Union and gotten help; they would have filed the HR complaint; they would have not gone to Sony and then used what happened—that they claim happened to them—as leverage to get the film. And then, once they get the film cut through this extortion, Ryan's able to completely ice Beldon out because he's told everyone he's a sexual predator and he's dangerous. Meanwhile, they're making *Deadpool* and *Wolverine*, and they're murdering pool, and Ryan's enjoying it. In their amended complaint—Lively's amended complaint—claims that she's getting threats, but you know why she added that? Because in Wayfarer's amended complaint, they spoke about death threats that Justin Beldon and other members of the parties were receiving; Melissa Nathan received a death threat, anti-Semitic death threats. But again, Lively's now bringing up death threats on her side. So you have someone from *The Hollywood Reporter*, literally with insiders telling you that this is what actually happened, and it's only Blake's side that are saying that, you know, they violated the law; she's a victim. They're playing—they're using the abuser playbook when Ryan and Blake are the abusers. And Ryan and Blake literally tried to steal $350 million, and I think they believed they could, and it just astounds me that they think that people are ignorant and can't find—like, follow their breadcrumbs, and you know they knew that they were—because their own rep told *The Daily Mail* that she was afraid that her career was over. In August, an insider told *The Daily Mail* that the *Gossip Girl* alum is terrified that the immense backlash will impact her ability to land jobs in the future. She believed this was going to be her moment to shine; now she's worried it's the end of her career. Well, it's not the end of her career because of the backlash; it's because the backlash was in response to how poorly it was marketed, leaving out Justin and the obvious issues at hand. It said, "Blake is definitely saddened by the hate she's getting and trying not to let it affect her. She thought this was her moment to shine, but now looking at it like the end of her career, she's fearing no one will want to work with her after this. She really wants to continue producing and directing and acting, but she knows she needs to take a step back for a minute to reassess the future." What kind of actress would think it's the end of their career just because they got backlash for the promotion of one film? I think the reason why she feared it was the end of her career is because she knew what they had done, and once the truth came out, no one would want to work with her. Who's going to hire her on a set anymore? Who's going to hire Ryan Reynolds? Ryan has his own production company, probably because at this point, no one's going to work with him either. And they vilified Beldon just because Ryan thinks he's a marketing genius. So it's really a tale of a competitor named Ryan Reynolds stealing a movie and punishing a man who he believed was in his head, some kind of romantic rival, even though he wasn't, and a sexual predator. So what are your thoughts? Do you think this could ever get turned into some sort of criminal case? Do you think the DOJ and FBI will get involved? Maybe not, but do you think it could happen? Let me know in the comments below. Thanks so much for being here. Thanks to all of you that are subscribing, and tell me all of the things in the comments below. Bye, guys.