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Is it really Robert De Niro who’s the “punk”? When an indie filmmaker was laid off from his day job because of the pandemic, he decided to put his energy into making a shoestring-budget flick about the virus. He even thought that his big break had finally arrived after years of making smaller movies when …
Is it really Robert De Niro who’s the “punk”?
When an indie filmmaker was laid off from his day job because of the pandemic, he decided to put his energy into making a shoestring-budget flick about the virus. He even thought that his big break had finally arrived after years of making smaller movies when legendary actor Mickey Rourke agreed to be in the film. Filmmaker Eric Rivas even used his stimulus check to pay part of Rourke’s $5,000 fee and scraped up money from friends to pay the rest.
But Page Six is told that the “Wrestler” star suddenly decided he didn’t want to be in the movie, and his manager returned the fee — minus $250 they’d paid an assistant to write up the contract. Rivas brushed off the debacle, telling us, “If they really need the $250, they can have a coronavirus gift.”
But New York gossip legend and occasional actor Michael Musto — who was also set to be in the movie, “Duke of York” — told us that it “was a good break for an up-and-coming indie filmmaker. But then Eric told me that after everything was negotiated and signed and paid, Mickey [dropped out]. That’s pretty unheard of, once a deal has been put in place and paid up.”
He added, “I feel they should have to suffer a financial consequence that comes from reneging rather than come up with this new charge for Eric.”
Rourke’s manager told us they wanted him to appear in the flick as much as Rivas did, but the shoot — with a complex system of actors filming in isolation and being edited together — became too complicated. After we reached out for comment, Rourke’s team repaid the $250, saying they wanted a peaceful conclusion.
This week, Rourke rekindled an old feud with De Niro, calling him a “punk ass.”
