Director Mathew Cullen's "London Fields' was delayed for more than three years before finally being released this past Friday. Cullen’s feature film debut had what The Playlist dubbed as one of the worst box office debuts in history, not to mention its 0% score on Rotten Tomatoes — suffice to say, you don't want to be Mathew Cullen right now. Not just that, he is also contractually obligated to do press for the film. And so, with all being said, do you blame him for admitting that, yeah, the bad reviews are well-deserved? Yep, in a new interview, Cullen not only agrees with that 0% RT score, but he also says that he should be the scapegoat for the film’s failure.
“I’ve read the reviews. I agree with them,” says Cullen in a new interview with THR. He later added, “There’s a reason why they said that Amis’ book was unadaptable.”
“London Fields,” which stars Billy Bob Thornton, Amber Heard, and Jim Sturgess, was supposed to premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. However, a dispute between Cullen and the producers and studio resulted in the film being pulled before the premiere. That was just the start of what would be three years of multiple lawsuits, which delayed the film even further and up until its release this past weekend.
The version of the film that was released in theaters was a version edited together by the distributor, not Cullen He says, “Under DGA rules, I could have used a pseudonym, but in that process, I wouldn’t ever be allowed to talk about the film again and I wouldn’t have had the ability to release my version of the film.” Yikes.
I'm a sucker for bad movies, I love to give them a shot, even when 99% of the time I end up agreeing with the reviews. I will no doubt visit "London Fields" very soon.