Rumor Has It: Rosemont Production Delayed

February 28, 2010

SAXON, Wis. — Rumor has it that Enderby Entertainment again has delayed the production of Rosemont, formerly Winter Roses, which was to star Shirley MacLaine. According to a Hollywood inside source, the picture suffered the same fate for the third year because of Shirley MacLaine's attempts to control the entire enchilada of production staff and casting. Shirley MacLaine has been in and out of the project for five years and, at one point, had attempted to plagiarize the original screenplay, written by Bill Rebane.

Rebane, working through Hollywood agent Gerald Wolff, had secured funding in amounts of five to six million dollars for the picture several times, only to be told that the budget was not high enough to attract the major stars, including Shirley MacLaine. Subsequently, Wolff and Associates, in cooperation with Jack Jilardy of ICM, claimed they had set the budget at 23 million and then proceeded to start production in Santa Fe, New Mexico… only to find out — after all sets were built and a crew of fifty union people hired for the production — that Gerald Wolff's money source was fake and that Wolff's investor had been arrested for stock fraud.

Finally, after more numerous attempts to sort out the overall problems and issues, Rebane sold the screenplay to Enderby Entertainment and Rick Dugdale, having been assured the picture would go into production no later than 2009 — and then the winter of 09/10. Finally, Rebane disclosed, just prior to the sale of the screen property, that both Shirley MacLaine and Daniel Petrie Jr. had jointly begun to make changes to the original screenplay, prior to having any permission and/or rights to same.

In closing, Rebane calls this a typical example of Hollywood under-the-table dealings and unscrupulous business practices. •••