The cast and crew of The Banker broke their silence this week over the abuse allegations that prompted Apple TV+ to delay the film’s release.
Starring Samuel L. Jackson as Joe Morris and Anthony Mackie as Bernard Garrett, The Bankerchronicles the efforts of these businessmen in the 1960s to support African Americans in pursuit of their own American dream. At the end of November, Cynthia and Sheila Garrett came forward with sexual abuse allegations against their half-brother Bernard Garrett Jr., the son of the film’s subject and a co-producer on The Banker. They claimed he molested them for years when they were children. Garrett Jr. denied the allegations in an earlier statement to Deadline, but his name has since been scrubbed from the film’s credits.
On Monday, director/screenwriter George Nolfi, Jackson, Mackie, and 50 other individuals across the production signed a joint statement “from the filmmakers” that addressed the situation… After the allegations were initially made, Apple TV+ removed The Banker, its first planned theatrical release, from the AFI Fest one day before its scheduled screening. It was eventually pushed from its Dec. 6 release slot in theaters for a still-undetermined future premiere.
Via: Entertainment Weekly