Is 'Don's Plum' Leonardo DiCaprio's worst movie?
Starring Kevin Connolly and Tobey Maguire, the film was shot over a few days between 1995 and 1996.
"The Wolf of Wall Street" and "Catch Me If You Can" are just some of the incredible films in the rich filmography of Leonardo DiCaprio. However, there's one movie he made that you've probably never heard of because the actor spent more than 20 years trying to prevent it from ever seeing the light of day.
"Don's Plum" is considered the worst film in the acclaimed Hollywood career of this forty-seven-year-old actor. The improvised black-and-white indie film tells the story of a group of 20-somethings who gather every Saturday night at a restaurant in Los Angeles to discuss the mishaps in their lives.
Starring Kevin Connolly and Tobey Maguire, the film was shot over a few days between 1995 and 1996, a year before DiCaprio became a global star thanks to his role in ‘Titanic’. But interestingly, the film has been banned from showing in America and Canada, according to the New York Post.
The film's director, R.D. Robb, filed a $10 million lawsuit against DiCaprio and Maguire. In statements filed as part of a 1998 lawsuit, the actors claimed they never intended the homework-like project to become a feature film. They also claimed that they made the film as a favor and were only paid $500 a day and believed it would only be screened at independent film festivals.
Shortly after DiCaprio's rise to fame, Maguire was cast as the superhero Spider-Man, prompting the film's director R.D. Rob to set up meetings with distributors in the hope that the film will reach a wider audience. But after the actors blocked the film's release, producer David Stutman sued them for allegedly launching a "false and coercive campaign to prevent the film's release", claiming they feared it might "reveal personal experiences or tendencies". However, the film was briefly released online in 2001 in Germany, as it did not make it to cinemas, and received mixed reviews.
One of the film's producers, Dale Wheatley, created a site in 2016 and shared a link to stream the entire film on Vimeo, but the video was removed after "a third-party notification from Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire."
“I can't be silent anymore. I can no longer allow the slander and lies you have leveled against the film to harm a large part of the artists who created it. I am no longer afraid of you or your lawyers. I have endured enough. I will speak with the freedom that our Constitution gives me. I will stand up for our film and for all the people who helped make it” - Wheatley said then and added:
“I don't know you anymore, Leo, but I hope you've learned something about film preservation and your responsibility to protect and contribute to the ongoing filmmaking experiment. You are not greater than art, Leo” - concluded the producer.
Post by: Rinna James
