Rudin turns page on 'Reader' (VAR, TBP, THR, BIZ)

By Nancy Tartaglione-Vialatte

In what's become a Hollywood squabble for the ages, Scott Rudin is leaving Stephen Daldry�s �The Reader� and taking his name off the film. The news is fallout from a battle that has been raging between Harvey Weinstein and Rudin over �The Reader�s� post-production schedule and release date. Donna Gigliotti remains as a producer with the late Anthony Minghella and the late Sydney Pollack also credited as producers.

Rudin had first tried to push the Kate Winslet/Ralph Fiennes romance back to 2009 because he didn't want to end up campaigning against himself for an Oscar along with his other potential nominees, "Doubt" and "Revolutionary Road," which also stars Winslet.

Rudin fought to get more post-production time and support for Daldry but when Weinstein insisted on holding the director to a promise to release the movie in 2008 if it tested well enough, Rudin and Daldry finally agreed to deliver the film for a Dec. 12 release. Those negotiations led to Weinstein putting up more money for round-the-clock editing and other post work.

In recent days, however, The Big Picture blog reports that negotiations had taken a turn for the worse. And, there have been constant rumors that the Weinstein Co. has financial problems which may have contributed to Rudin's departure. It's also possible that the two men simply can't put their personal differences aside long enough to get the movie into theaters, says TBP.

The back and forth resulted in bigwig lawyers being hired while squawking letters and emails were leaked to the press � a situation which ultimately resulted in Weinstein possibly having to cough up $1 million to charity.

Also during the ugly squabble, both sides have tried to invoke the post-mortem support of late producers Pollack and Minghella.

The Weinstein Co. described the situation to Variety as "unfolding" and said that Gigliotti was "capable of finishing the movie." The Risky Business blog notes that TWC �seemed genuinely surprised by the Rudin move late Thursday night.�