Speaking over Zoom to the assembled audience, Hall stated, “It feels terrible because this is definitely a film and a performance that I’m incredibly proud of, and I know that it means a lot to a lot of people. So the idea that it could just sort of disappear is insane to me.” The film, which also starred Michael C. Hall, J. Smith-Cameron, Tracy Letts and Maria Dizzia, earned just around $300,000 in its limited theatrical release.
The film, which traces the last days of Florida TV journalist Chubbuck before her on-air suicide, received near-universal praise, especially for Hall’s performance. But the 2019 demise of film’s distributor The Orchard and a whole lot of changing ownership and bankruptcy issues have thrown Christine‘s fate into doubt. (In 2022, the rights were obtained by a company improbably called Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment, which promptly went into Chapter 7 liquidation.)
Christine‘s writer and producer Craig Shilowich echoes Hall’s concern that the award-winning film’s fate is now in the uncaring hands of commerce and legal squabbling. “There was essentially no one to talk to about the fate of our film except for government-appointed bankruptcy trustees in two different countries,” said Shilowich at the same event. With obvious frustration, the writer continued, “If the creditors aren’t claiming it, I want to know, ‘Well, can I have it? Can I buy it? Like, what can we do here?’ We’re not only unable to get a satisfactory answer, but really to receive any response. So the movie’s in limbo now, and it’s not clear how it’s going to be resolved.”
As with other movies sharing the same nebulous state as Christine, the only options are to ferret out an increasingly rare DVD or Blu-ray copy of the film, or to sit anxiously with Hall and the filmmakers as they wait for the lawyers to decide whether their film is worthy of preservation.
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