It appears that Rebel Wilson‘s directorial debut has been dealt another blow after a new lawsuit alleged that the Bridesmaids star “deliberately undermined” the release of her movie, The Deb.
In a messy twist of events for Wilson’s The Deb, the production company behind the star’s directorial debut — A.I Film — has filed a lawsuit against the comedian in the NSW Supreme Court on Thursday morning, The Sydney Morning Herald reports.
Per the publication, A.I Film, which has half the rights to The Deb with Wilson and her company Camp Sugar, alleged that the comedian spread false information online and breached her contract, as a result, affecting the film’s release.
“Wilson threatened the Australian distributor of the film that she would obtain an injunction to prevent its release, when the contractual documents plainly prevented her from obtaining an injunction,” the lawsuit alleged, according to documents obtained by the publication.
“As a result of that threat, the Australian distributor withdrew its proposal to distribute the film.”
This recent lawsuit is the latest addition to the big legal battles surrounding Wilson’s directoral debut with The Deb.
In July 2024, three of The Deb’s producers — Amanda Ghost, Gregory Cameron, and Vince Holden — filed a defamation lawsuit against Wilson in the Los Angeles County Superior Court after she released an Instagram video accusing them of sabotaging the movie’s premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September of that year.
“To have the joy of the movie being selected is one thing, but then to have the business partners involved in that movie turn around and say that, ‘no, the movie can’t premiere’ is just beyond devastating,” Wilson claimed in her video.
“Why are they saying this? Why are they stopping it from premiering at Toronto? Well, this dates back to October of last year when I discovered bad behaviour by these business partners,” the comedian continued.
“I reported their bad behaviour when I found out. Not minor things, big things. Inappropriate behaviour towards the lead actress of the film.”
In court documents obtained by the Los Angeles Times last July, the producers accused Wilson of being a “bully”.
“Rebel is a bully who will disregard the interests of others to promote her own,” the LA lawsuit reportedly alleges.
“Rebel tried to intimidate Plaintiffs into giving her what she wanted by leveraging her persona and platform, with many millions of followers, to spread malicious lies about the Plaintiffs.”
Wilson then shared an Instagram photo of The Deb cast on set in response to the 2024 defamation lawsuit.
“It’s not defamation if it’s the TRUTH (those ‘producers’ who I mentioned in my last post have just filed a defamation suit against me and sent to the press),” she wrote.
At the time, a spokesperson for the producers slammed Wilson’s claimed and told Deadline, “RW’s allegations are false, defamatory, and disappointing”.
The Deb did end up premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2024, but has yet to be officially released.
In November 2024, The Deb star Charlotte MacInnes claimed Wilson falsely accused the three producers of sexually harassing and abusing her, even though MacInnes denied the claims.
“I was deeply disturbed by this behaviour, and felt very bullied and harassed by Wilson, who was the director of the film and in a position of authority over me,” MacInnes alleged in the court filings, per The Guardian.
“I also understand [there were] claims that I was subjected to ‘depraved sexual demands’ and that ‘MacInnes remains captive by Ghost and Cameron as she is shuttled from city to city with them including Boston, New York and London’,” she said per Us Weekly.
“These statements are completely false and absurd. I have no idea what could cause Wilson and her attorney to make up such lies about me.”
In response to the lawsuit, Wilson countersued the producers, alleging that they had a pattern of intimidation and threated against her. However, the legal team representing the producers alleged that Wilson’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman, had sent email sthreatening to “blow up” one or more of the plantiffs in a public filing which included refrences to “sex trafficking”.
The producer’s legal team also alleged that the comedian threatened Hannah Reilly, the film’s writer, who recieved a sole screeplay credit for The Deb.
Per the Guardian, Reilly allegedly refused to give Wilson writing credits for the film. The comedian then allegedly reacted by going to Australian Writers’ Guild for arbitration and sent an email to Reilly’s agent.
“Moving forward with an arbitration puts your client at significant financial risk and also destroys any remaining relationship or support that your client would receive from me and my associates in the industry,” the email allegedly read, according to the publication.
Speaking to The Sydney Morning Herald, MacInnes said she just wants the film to be released. The publication reports that the Australian lawsuit is seeking damages, and apology and for Wilson and Camp Sugar to pay for corrective advertising.
Wilson has yet to publicly respond to the recent lawsuit.
Image source: Getty Images.
