'The Butler' Battle: Director Lee Daniels Pleads His Case To Warner Bros.' Kevin Tsujihara

Further ratcheting up the Weinstein Company’s campaign to force Warner Bros. into granting it permission to call its upcoming Lee Daniels’ film The Butler, the director has sent a letter to Warner Bros. Entertainment’s new CEO Kevin Tsujihara in which Daniels argues that if TWC has to change the movie’s title “it will most certainly hurt the film.”

On Tuesday following an arbitration, the MPAA’s Title Registry Bureau ruled that TWC could not use the title because it’s also the name of a pre-existing 1916 short film that now resides in the Warner Bros. library.

In response, attorney David Boies, who is representing TWC in the dispute, fired off letters to the MPAA and Warners earlier Wednesday threatening litigation.

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Daniels’ letter takes a different tack, pleading his case by describing the film, which stars Forest Whitaker and is based on the true story of Eugene Allen, who spent 34 years working at the White House until he retired as head butler, as a film he made “so I could show my kids, my family and my country some of the injustices and victories African-Americans and their families have experienced in the fight for Civil Rights.” The movie, he continued, “tells the story of the Civil Rights Movement from the sit-ins and the Freedom Riders, to Selma, Martin Luther King’s assassination and the election of the first Black president.”

Daniels wrote that while working on the film “is the proudest moment of my professional career, I am heartbroken as I write this letter.” He explained that the modestly budgeted movie is not intended to be a blockbuster and “if we were to change the title a mere six weeks before we open, it would most certainly hurt the film by limiting the number of people who would ultimately see this important story.”

Offering to screen the movie for Tsujihara, Daniels said, “I truly believe that once you watch it, you would not want to cause this film any harm.”

Daniels concluded the letter by adding he has the support of its stars Whitaker, Oprah Winfrey, Cuba Gooding, Jr., and David Oyelowo as well as screenwriter Danny Strong. Copies also were sent to Warners executives Sue Kroll, Greg Silverman and Dan Fellman.

Kevin Smith on Why 'Clerks 3' Kickstarter Didn't Happen: 'I Have Access to Money'

Even with the success of the Zach Braff and Veronica Mars movie projects, Kickstarter just isn't for Kevin Smith right now.

"I love the idea and I want to do it so desperately, but I think I've missed the window based on the fact that I do have access to materials, I do have access to money," he said to The Hollywood Reporter's Kim Masters on KCRW radio. "I don't know, I feel like I should leave that for the cats that really need it at this point."

Smith was elaborating on why he decided against using the crowdfunding website to help finance Clerks III. The Weinstein Co., he was informed by his lawyer, has the first look rights for the possible sequel.

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"It feels like me trying to have a second bite at the apple by going, 'All right man, now I'm going indie again with this Kickstarter thing.' Like, the truth of it is, after all this time, 20 years later, I have access to money," Smith said in the interview. "If I don't use my own money, I can always hit up some of my famous friends."

The director, Masters noted, made a point to explain that he wasn't criticizing other celebrities' Kickstarter projects.

In April, Braff launched a $2 million Kickstarter to fund his Garden State follow-up, Wish I Was Here, that ended up receiving $3.1 million in pledged funds. The revival of Veronica Mars, meanwhile, closed with $5.7 million in pledged donations from fans.

But even though Smith decided against going the crowdfunded route for Clerks III, he said it probably would make for a successful Kickstarter project.

"If our Kickstarter video had been me just walking out in front of a blackboard and writing Clerks and then III after it, without much more than that, we probably would have easily cleared $5 million to $7 million bucks," Smith said. "And not because people like me, but they love Clerks, man."

Smith's breakout film, Clerks, was released in 1994. A sequel, Clerks II, arrived in theaters in 2006 and grossed $24 million in the U.S.

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Prime Minister Julia Gilliard Ousted By Kevin Rudd

 Prime Minister Julia Gillard during question time at Parliament House Wednesday in Canberra, Australia.

In a move designed to salvage upcoming elections, Australia's Labor party ousted Prime Minister Julia Gillard in favor of Kevin Rudd.

Reuters explains the politics:

"Rudd, a former diplomat who speaks Mandarin, won a Labor Party ballot with 57 votes to Gillard's 45. Gillard promised to quit politics if she lost the ballot.

"The leadership change followed a series of opinion polls showing Gillard's minority government could lose up to 35 seats at the looming elections, giving the conservative opposition a massive majority in the 150-member parliament.

"But polls also show Rudd is more popular with voters and his return to the prime ministership, which he lost to Gillard in June 2010, could stem the size of Labor's election loss."

Following the vote, Gillard gave an emotional televised speech, saying she respected the decision of her party.

She also addressed the fact that she was Australia's first female prime minister.

Her gender, she said, "doesn't explain everything, but it doesn't explain nothing."

But one thing is for sure, she said, "it will be easier for the next woman and the woman after that."

According to the Sydney Morning Herald
, Rudd, said his premiership would not be marked by retribution against the Gillard camp.
"If I win this ballot, every effort I have in my being will be dedicated to uniting the Australian Labor Party. No retributions, no pay backs, none of that stuff. It's pointless, it's old politics," he said according to the paper.