{"id":1876089,"date":"2023-03-13T22:42:26","date_gmt":"2023-03-14T02:42:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/visual-effects-lead-righteous-dude-brendan-fraser-fought-for-artists-when-studio-refused-to-pay-up\/"},"modified":"2023-03-13T22:43:28","modified_gmt":"2023-03-14T02:43:28","slug":"visual-effects-lead-righteous-dude-brendan-fraser-fought-for-artists-when-studio-refused-to-pay-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/visual-effects-lead-righteous-dude-brendan-fraser-fought-for-artists-when-studio-refused-to-pay-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Visual Effects Lead: \u2018Righteous Dude\u2019 Brendan Fraser Fought For Artists When Studio Refused To Pay Up"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">32<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fvisual-effects-lead-righteous-dude-brendan-fraser-fought-for-artists-when-studio-refused-to-pay-up%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1876089&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p> Actor Brendan Fraser has just won his Academy Award for Best Actor in Leading Role. &#8220;The Whale&#8221;) \u2014 but according to visual effects artist Dave Rand, the &#8220;Encino Man&#8221; Star was a &#8220;righteous dude&#8221; That little gold statuette was long before he took it home.<\/p>\n<p>Rand told the story in a lengthy tweet, explaining that Fraser had been the one to step up when a studio bankruptcy resulted in his entire visual effects team getting stiffed for three weeks of work on a major film \u2014 to the tune of $1.3 million.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/BrendanFraser?src=hash&#038;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#BrendanFraser<\/a> Is a decent man.<\/p>\n<p>In November 2007 our paychecks stopped. I was the FX leader. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/JourneyToTheCenterOfTheEarth?src=hash&#038;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#JourneyToTheCenterOfTheEarth<\/a> Meteor Studios Montreal asked me to convince my crew that we would all be paid overtime. We had\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/DmQUIEAkMQ\">https:\/\/t.co\/DmQUIEAkMQ<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/1jegFlWECd\">pic.twitter.com\/1jegFlWECd<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Dave Rand (@daverandla) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/daverandla\/status\/1635127342019346432?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 13, 2023<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;<span class=\"r-18u37iz\">#BrendanFraser<\/span><span class=\"css-901oao css-16my406 r-poiln3 r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0\"> Rand stated, &#8220;Is a righteous guy.&#8221; &#8220;In November 2007 our paychecks stopped. I was the FX lead on <\/span><span class=\"r-18u37iz\">#JourneyToTheCenterOfTheEarth<\/span><span class=\"css-901oao css-16my406 r-poiln3 r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0\"> for Meteor Studios in Montreal and was asked to convince my crew to stay and finish the picture with a guarantee we&#8217;d all get paid with overtime.&#8221; <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"css-901oao css-16my406 r-poiln3 r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0\">&#8220;We had a handful of shots left. As soon as we delivered the last shot, we were escorted out. It was two weeks before Christmas and we&#8217;d soon learn there was no money. Meteor was declaring bankruptcy. They owed us 1.3 million dollars,&#8221; Rand continued \u2014 and he said that he immediately contacted the press.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Variety spoke to Rand&#8217;s crew, but eventually passed the story on to Rand. Rand was informed via email. &#8220;The paper has decided that another visual effects company going bankrupt, however sad, is really not news worthy at this time.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Rand shopped the story to a number of other outlets in Hollywood, getting similar results every time \u2014 and he began to believe that it was coordinated. &#8220;My guess was the studio had put pressure on them to bury it,&#8221; He said.<\/p>\n<p>He then issued a press release by himself. This prompted a threat email and phone call from Variety, as well as a warning from the labor division, telling him that if he went to the press, it could end any case they had.<\/p>\n<p>He said that he tried to reach Fraser \u2014 the star and producer of the movie \u2014 through his people, but failed to make contact.<\/p>\n<p>Then Page Six called and asked him to help. <a href=\"https:\/\/pagesix.com\/2008\/08\/01\/a-journey-in-search-of-pay\/?_ga=1.128297740.1084022795.1394818778\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">A wider reach<\/a>. The story went live August 1, 2008.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;My phone rang as I was reading the piece, a 212 area code,&#8221; Rand said that he believed it to be the Page Six reporter who published the piece. &#8220;I answered to thank the girl, but a man answered and he said, \u2018Is this Dave Rand?&#8217; I said, \u2018Yes.&#8217; \u2018This is Brendan Fraser, what the f*** is going on?&#8217; He had no idea that artists were not paid on his movie. He listened intently, asked a lot of questions and promised he would call me regularly until this was solved.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Page Six posted an update on the matter two days later. <a href=\"https:\/\/pagesix.com\/2008\/08\/03\/to-the-rescue-2\/?_ga=1.85880601.1084022795.1394818778\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Statement<\/a> Fraser&#8217;s representative said that &#8220;Brendan just heard about this for the first time. He&#8217;s on it. He thinks what happened is awful, and he&#8217;s extremely upset.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We finally got 80% of our money almost 2 years later,&#8221; Rand concluded. &#8220;To quote the great Steve Hulett: \u2018What runs the world isn&#8217;t what&#8217;s right, or who&#8217;s the richest, it&#8217;s leverage, and who has it.&#8217; We&#8217;d had none, but Mr. Fraser gave us wings. He&#8217;s a righteous dude.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>&#8220;From <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/visual-effects-lead-righteous-dude-brendan-fraser-fought-for-artists-when-studio-refused-to-pay-up\">Visual Effects Lead: \u2018Righteous Dude&#8217; Brendan Fraser Fought For Artists When Studio Refused To Pay Up<\/a>&#8220;<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p><span style=\"font-size:11px\"><em>&#8220;The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author of the article and not necessarily shared or endorsed by Conservative News Daily&#8221;<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Actor Brendan Fraser just won his first Academy Award (Best Actor in a Leading Role, \u201cThe Whale\u201d) \u2014 but according to visual effects artist Dave Rand, the \u201cEncino Man\u201d star was a \u201crighteous dude\u201d long before he picked up that little gold statuette. Rand told the story in a lengthy tweet, explaining that Fraser had<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":93,"featured_media":1891287,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[541],"tags":[21562,9396,8619,12530,10439,6604,8617,6961,5280,6635,11192,5632],"class_list":["post-1876089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-daily-wire","tag-righteous","tag-artists","tag-brendan","tag-dude","tag-effects","tag-fought","tag-fraser","tag-lead","tag-pay","tag-refused","tag-studio","tag-visual"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1876089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/93"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1876089"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1876089\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1891287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1876089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1876089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1876089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}