The White Hotel -

BGeisler@geisler-roberdeau.comMar 5th, 2007 - 00:03:27

From: 'Bobby Geisler'
To: 'Pamela McClintock'
Subject: D. M. Thomas's The White Hotel / Susan Stewart Potter + Simon Monjack
Date: Wed, 27 Sep 2006 11:08:09 -0500

September 27, 2006

Pamela McClintock
“Variety”

re: “The White Hotel”

Pamela --

I recently was made aware of your article entitled “A lot of ‘White’ noise/Duo
check into ‘Hotel’,” which appeared in “Variety” on August 17th (I was in the
hospital).

The story announced Susan Stewart Potter’s production of “The White Hotel,” to
be directed by Simon Monjack and start photography in Europe on October 23rd.

It is my understanding that the Potter-Monjack production has been abandoned.

Moreover: Susan Stewart Potter does not have the right to make a movie of
“The White Hotel.”

Night Hawk Limited (or its assigns) maintains sole and exclusive rights to
“The White Hotel” pursuant to its Agreement with author D. M. Thomas dated
July 11, 2001, as amended on January 22, 2002 and February 6, 2003 (the
“Agreement,” e-mailed to you under separate cover). The Agreement has been
extended due to 1) litigation brought in 2002 by attorney Barry Goldin on
behalf of his client Gerard F. Rubin against Thomas (among others) and 2)
Thomas’s own improper unilateral settlement in 2004 of same (in contravention
of paragraph 5 of Schedule I and paragraphs 1.G and 13.C of Exhibit A to the
Agreement). This lengthening of rights is in accordance with paragraphs 1, 2
and 3.H of Schedule I to the Agreement, as well as both amendatory letters
(under the 2002 letter, Thomas confirmed Night Hawk's right to toll the
Agreement; under the 2003 letter, Thomas confirmed that Night Hawk was not in
breach of the Agreement; see Dally letter to Nyman, attached). The Agreement
as amended has been filed appropriately with the U. S. Copyright Office.

I am advised by counsel that given his impermissible separate settlement of
the lawsuit brought against him (and others) by Rubin and Goldin, it may now
be necessary for Night Hawk (or its assigns and/or its third-party investors)
to bring suit against D. M. Thomas to “quiet title” --- the cloud continues to
hover.

Night Hawk (or its assigns) vigorously will defend any claim made against its
rights and will not stand for any interference whatsoever with its ongoing
development of a motion picture of “The White Hotel.”

I have an arrangement with Night Hawk to produce “The White Hotel.”

No doubt Goldin will stomp his feet like Rumpelstiltskin, but no degree of
bluster and flapping court documents out of context will change the situation
(see Verner Legal Opinion Letter to Berg, attached; among other things, it’s
worth knowing that Night Hawk Limited, a U. K. Corporation, has not submitted
to the jurisdiction of the New York Supreme Court, and note paragraph 20 to
Schedule I and paragraph 23 of Schedule A to the Agreement: “Any legal
proceedings arising out of this Agreement shall be brought in the High Court
of Justice in London, England and the parties hereto irrevocably consent to
the exclusive jurisdiction of such Court.” --- Goldin willfully exploits
unenforceable judgments).

Pamela, the contest between Gerard Rubin and my late partner John Roberdeau
and me has been about nothing but sour grapes: Rubin (ex-partner of Sidney
Kimmel in Jones Apparel Group; Rubin retreated before Jones Apparel went
public --- and Kimmel made a killing) pulled out of his limited partnership
with Roberdeau and me in 1994, convinced we “never would make anything out of
‘The Thin Red Line’ or anything else.” We didn’t hear from Rubin for 4+ years.
Well, he was 4 years and $800,000+ short (raised from later investors whose
contributions Rubin now won’t recognize), and he was wrong.

In Rubin’s and Goldin’s shakedown, along with John and me they also have sued
Terrence Malick; Mike Medavoy and Phoenix Pictures (I was deposed in this case
again recently); our partner Samuel Myers (the former head of the European
office of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison; Myers owned the
screenplays to “The White Hotel” commissioned by John and me of Joan Juliet
Buck, Charles L. Mee, Dennis Potter and D. M. Thomas); Myers’s daughter,
Claudia (John’s and my former assistant, sued for her part in the “conspiracy”
against Rubin); our previous entertainment attorney, Thomas D. Selz (of
Frankfurt, Kurnit, Klein & Selz); and our previous litigator, Paul W. Verner.

Soon after rendering his original Order in 1999 illogically against John and
me -- which, by the way, doesn’t affect the rights to “The White Hotel” and
which Goldin distorts ad infinitum -- the presiding judge, Harold Tompkins,
was “barred” from the bench, New York Supreme Court Chief Administrative Judge
Jonathan Lippmann instructing that Tompkins undergo medical testing to
ascertain if in fact he was “‘unable to perform’ his judicial duties” [“New
York Law Journal,” April 26, 2000].

I believe it was the strain of this never-ending, unjust litigation brought by
Rubin and Goldin which caused John -- my partner of twenty-five years, with
whom I earned Tony and Oscar nominations -- to die in May 2002 at age 48 of a
sudden heart attack.

(On July 8, 2002 Goldin stated in court that he didn’t think John really had
died. As D. M. Thomas wrote in his “Bleak Hotel” [a recounting of the
“nonmaking” of “The White Hotel”], “Astoundingly, the Goldin team opposed a
request for a short postponement of the next hearing; and referred in a
submission to the ‘purported’ death of John Roberdeau. As though in reality he
had been smuggled off in a cargo ship to some Robinson Crusoe island to hide.
They also did their utmost to blacken his obituaries with their outrageous
accusations of dishonesty. Their credo, nothing but ill about the dead.”)

And Goldin persists in trying to have me thrown in jail -- literally -- for
“failure to produce documents” which he full well knows long-since have ceased
to exist (and of which over the years he has been provided multiple copies;
per paragraph 18.4 of John’s and my Limited Partnership Agreement with Rubin
we have not been under any obligation to keep the damned documents since 1998,
anyway).

I’m flattered I am such a threat to Rubin and Goldin that they need to have me
locked out of sight (Rapunzel to Rumpelstiltskin).

In passing:

I’m sure you’re aware that but for Rubin’s and Goldin’s intrusion “The White
Hotel” could have been made twice already: In 1999 John and I signed a
contract with Emir Kusturica to direct the movie from Potter’s screenplay (and
personally paid Kusturica $200,000 of our well-deserved producers’ fee from
“The Thin Red Line”); Constantin Film agreed to finance the picture; Giuseppe
Rotunno committed to shoot the picture; Ken Adam to design the picture; Hal
Willner to supervise the music for the picture; Balsmeyer & Everett to create
the effects for the picture; and Nicole Kidman was very interested in starring
in the picture. And in 2003 I signed a contract with David Cronenberg to
write and direct the movie (and had $100,000 ready in escrow to make his first
payment); Cronenberg received an intimidating letter from Goldin exactly one
day after he executed his contract (see Dally Affidavit, attached).

Finally, I can’t keep from pointing out the paradox of the facts that Barry
Goldin’s co-counsel in this litigation, Deyan Ranko Brashich: 1) represented
Stevan Todorovic, “a Bosnian Serb police chief indicted for involvement in the
ethnic cleansing...of more than 15,000 Bosnian Croats and Muslims” as well as
Bosnian Serb leader Momcilo Krajisnik, who “stands accused of being involved
in planning and ordering ethnic cleansing of non-Serbs from various parts of
Bosnia during the 1992 - 95 war” (go to: Institute for War and Peace
Reporting: http://www.iwpr.net/index.pl?archive/tri/tri_312_1_eng.txt and
http://www.iwpr.net/index.pl?archive/tri/tri_380_2_eng.txt; how unimaginable
that defenders of the genocide of Croats and Muslims should assert
participation in Thomas’s great story of the Holocaust!); and 2) was disbarred
in 2002 because he “overcharged a client and never paid her back. The bar said
that the matter by itself would not have merited suspension, but that Brashich
had been ‘admonished’ seven times in the past in other matters. [...] ...the
New York court said it took such drastic action because Brashich had a history
of overcharging his clients and a prior record of disciplinary actions” (go
to: Associated Press:
http://www.balkanpeace.org/hed/archive/may03/hed5766.shtml and Institute for
War and Peace Reporting:
http://www.iwpr.net/index.pl?archive/tri/tri_312_1_eng.txt; and Goldin and
Brashich accuse John and me of duplicity! By the way, Brashich spent “nearly
1.5 million US dollars of the [Hague] Tribunal’s money preparing Krajisnik’s
defense” [Institute for War and Peace Reporting]).

It’s been hard for me since John Roberdeau died in 2002, and I haven’t always
acquitted myself with honor and pride. I’ve made many mistakes (mostly
monetary, which Rubin and Goldin ensured were detailed in the press ad
nauseam).

But if “The White Hotel” is going to be made, Pamela, it is going to be made
by me.

I’m the best person for the job, and owe duty to those who’ve looked after me,
and am entitled to do it, and will fight fiercely for it.

I am sorry to be late in addressing your article.

I appreciate your attention.

-- Bobby Geisler

attachments [D. M. Thomas “Elegy” in memory of John Roberdeau dated 5/9/2002;
Night Hawk Limited-Thomas “The White Hotel” Option and Rights Agreement dated
7/11/2001 (as amended 1/22/2002 and 2/6/2003) (e-mailed under separate cover;
not sent to those copied on this letter); Paul Verner Legal Opinion Letter to
Jeff Berg (w/ chronology of rights) dated 5/12/2003 (exhibits available on
request); Peter Dally Affidavit dated 2/2003; Dally letter to Bernard Nyman
dated 9/1/2004]

P. S: Without doubt Rubin and Goldin were effective in generating an
impression that Roberdeau and I have been barraged by “lawsuit after lawsuit
from disgruntled Hollywood collaborators.” [“The Hollywood Reporter”]; you
won’t find one single such suit. Check out our payment practice with the
Estate of James Jones (in a letter to “The New York Times” dated May 16, 2002,
Gloria Jones wrote, “I have had the pleasure of dealing with Bobby Geisler and
the late John Roberdeau for many years and I have never had to question their
financial integrity. These are...good men.”) or Malick or Buck or Mee or
Hector Babenco or Kusturica or Film Four International (with which we
co-financed Potter’s movie “Secret Friends”). In a letter to the “Times” dated
May 16, 2002, Barbara Kopple wrote, “As a filmmaker who worked with Bobby
Geisler and John Roberdeau -- and as a friend -- I have found Bobby and John
to be passionate about their work and devoted to giving filmmakers great
opportunities. As filmmakers, they turned over worlds to do the things they
believed in. Their passion attracted some of the great artists of our time....
[...] I hated the fact that Bobby and John went through all their legal
strife.... [...] But throughout all of their troubles they remained wonderful
friends and dedicated filmmakers. [...] I feel devastated by the loss of John
Roberdeau. The film community has lost a very important person, and I have
lost a very important friend and collaborator.” John and I hardly had “fallen
into legal disgrace” -- had had any financial problems at all -- until at the
last moment in fall 1993 Gerry Rubin broke his promise to fund our workshop at
BAM of Terry Malick’s play, “Sansho the Bailiff.” Rubin babyishly knocked down
the dominoes, but that’s another story. . . .

Geisler-Roberdeau
511 Avenue of the Americas, #368
New York City 10011
BGeisler@geisler-roberdeau.com

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