It looks like David O Russell is up to his old tricks again. On the set of Three Kings the director and star George Clooney nearly came to blows. Video of the director stridently berating Lilly Tomlin during the shooting of I Heart Huckabees made its way to the internet. Now the director’s difficult demeanor may have struck again, leading to James Cann quitting his new movie, Nailed.

“James Caan did amicably part ways with this production due to creative
differences. He wished all of the actors and production crew well when
he departed,” Caan’s publicist confirmed to the NY Post. Creative differences! This is the great catch-all excuse in the movie world, and it could mean almost literally anything, including Caan having differences about the way the director was creatively yelling at him.

Nailed sounds like one odd movie, but I expect nothing less from this volatile genius. Apparently Jessica Biel plays a small-town waitress who gets a nail lodged in her skull; this leads to erratic behavior which in turn leads her to Washington DC, where she meets up with a young senator (Jake Gyllenhaal) who supports her efforts to get justice (against what or whom I don’t really know). Interestingly, this news of James Caan quitting the movie is the first I’ve heard about him even being in it.