'Iron Cross' director threatens to sue Variety (DEF)

By Nancy Tartaglione

Joshua Newton, the director of "Iron Cross," forced Variety to spike a critical review of his film from the web because he'd purchased a $400,000 Oscar campaign in the paper. Now, says Defamer, he's considering suing. "We are currently reviewing our options," Newton told Defamer. "I can't comment on the legalities, but suffice it to say - how can I put this? There are issues. There are valid issues."

Newton told the Web site that he and his investors are contemplating a lawsuit against the trade for selling them on the campaign only to turn around publish a review calling the film "hackneyed," "preposterous," "mediocre," "choppy," and "uncertain." Variety pulled the review in December.

Newton's version of the story, according to Defamer, is that Variety considered him an easy mark in a shakedown scheme. "We were put on a short list of Oscar contenders by the editor himself," Newton told the Website. "The sales department - on the same day the column ran - rang me up and said, 'Hey, did you know you're on our list of Oscar contenders?' I won't say anything else, but you get the gist of what went on."

Newton and his investors made the buy, but the deal went sour when a scathing review was published in December. "They made a very big fuss over us," Newton told Defamer. "So you can imagine how I felt when, on the day of the San Francisco screening, I got a phone call from my publicist reading that review. I was quite taken aback. It just didn't make sense. It was completely contrary to the campaign."

Newton got Variety to take down the review, but although he says "editorial considerations" never came up during negotiations over the ad buy, he feels that $400,000 should have bought him a more solicitous review than the one he got.