A few years ago, the trailer for 'Knights of Badassdom' played at Comic-Con to a great deal of enthusiasm, with many people expecting that a release would be right around the corner. And then everything went silent and the movie seemed to drop off the face of the earth. Now, the full picture of what went down is starting to come into focus and it doesn't look pretty.

On the surface, 'Knights of Badassdom' has a lot going for it. It has a wonderful premise (a group of LARPers find themselves forced to fight off an actual supernatural threat) and a cast that feels like it was assembled by the internet itself, including Peter Dinklage ('Game of Thrones'), Danny Pudi ('Community') and Summer Glau ('Firefly' and 'Serentiy'). Its director, Joe Lynch, has built a small but loyal cult of fans and this was looking like his big moment.

And then it vanished.

Yesterday, the film's official site went through a sudden revamp, transforming into a blank white page with an open letter addressed to "what remains of the Board of Directors of IndieVest, the production company and manager of the film known as Knights of BADASSDOM." It appears that that Lynch (and several of his producers) had been kicked off his movie some time ago and it has been drastically re-edited and cut down to 70 minutes by producer Wade Bradley. This cut will be screened for potential buyers today.

The open letter (which has now been removed and replaced with additional information) accuses IndieVest and Bradley of all kinds of shady dealings and irresponsible behavior and that all of this is part of a grand plan to, as /Film's Russ Fischer describes, "...take total control of the movie as a business asset, and that IndieVest investors have not been privy to business decisions and deals." The people behind the message on the official website (who we're guessing are aggrieved producers) are hoping that getting the world out will allow allow someone who cares about the project to buy the film and put Lynch back on, letting him finish it as intended.


This is the kind of story that's way too common in Hollywood and has been for decades. We can only hope this one has a happy ending.

A tip of the hat to Badass Digest and /Film for bringing this one to our attention.

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