- Report: #1472132
Complaint Review: Marie Pizano Nicholas Celozzi and MVP3 Productions/Media - Memphis Tennessee
Reported By:
John Writer -
Los Angeles, California, United States
Submitted:
Updated:
-
Author Confirmed
Why?
Marie Pizano Nicholas Celozzi and MVP3 Productions/Media
Memphis, Tennessee, United States
Phone:
901-634-1724
Web:
http://mvp3media.com
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Marie Pizano, Nicholas Celozzi and MVP3 Productions/Media Nick Celozzi, Nikki Celozzi, Nicki Celozzi These two STOLE money from the production and paid themselves 30% of the budget while not paying others. The LIE about their experience, and jeopardized the entire production. RUN! Memphis Tennessee
Report Attachments
Marie Pizano and Nicholas (Nick/Nikki/Nicki) Celozzi at MVP3 Productions are liars and thieves.
I was hired by Marie to write a screenplay for her at WGA scale (about $25k). Not only did she only pay me $8k, but she paid HERSELF and Nicholas over $150k from a budget of $450k, so again, she paid HERSELF and Nicholas a THIRD of the entire budget of the film as producers. Nicholas also paid HIMSELF $11k to do a polish on the script. So, the WRITER, me, was only paid $8k, and Nicholas paid HIMSELF, $11k to do a polish of the script. (The script didn't need polishing and everyone agreed the original was way better, Nicholas just wanted to be able to charge the production company so he "polished" the script, paying himself well for it)
Unfortunately, as my contract state, Marie does not get the rights to my script UNTIL I AM PAID IN FULL, so Marie made a movie THAT SHE DID NOT OWN THE RIGHTS TO, which means i can sue her and there will be a lien against the project. Anyone in the entertainment industry knows you cannot make something unless you acquire the rights, but Marie has NO IDEA WHAT SHE'S DOING.
When called out on her paying HERSELF and Nicholas 30% of the budget she was unable to produce an orginal line budget for the project to weight budgeted expeses against actual payouts (to prove clear mis-appropriation of funds). A clear example of which is her failure to pay ME.
So:
*She made no line budget for the film (probably because she didn't want to pay a line producer and line her own pockets instead)
*She just continued to pay herself and Nicholas out fo the budget a sum of $150K, again, with no receipts or reasons for these payouts.
*The Executive Producers were never provided the accounting books (because there were none, and if there were, it would have shown her massive fraud)
*In her cheapness, she didn't pay me, the writer, so NEVER ACQUIRED THE RIGHTS to the film, meaning the entire production in jeopardy, exposing her to a lien on the production
*She was forced to go to arbitration, at which time she revealed she only has $3k to her name and was forced to pay it to the Executive Producers towards the money she stole because it was all she had (the attorneys and mediator had to check her banking statements).
*Once her attorney and mediator checked her bank acoounts and realized she only had $3k, and had to pay that to the Executive Producers, they both because infuriated because Marie had not paid THEM yet, so they didn't know how they were going to be paid! Marie had to immediately borrow money from someone to just cover the costs of the arbitration. WHAT HAPPENED TO THE $150K? Appraently she had been living off of it the past two years since the production. Squirreled it away for herself.
*She also would brag about having a huge team of lawyers who she called her "Knights of the Round Table". At arbitration, when pressed about the expense of these lawyers (because the Executive Producers were trying to recoup their money she stole) she admitted that it was all lies. Exagerations to make herself seem like a big deal. Run form this woman. SHE IS ALL LIES.
*Everything this woman does is a half-truth or outright lie. She does things to make her seem like a bigger deal than she is. Recently trying to make money off doing workshops (that's not what working people do. working producers are busy producing - that should be a warning flag)
RUN, RUN from Marie Pizano and Nicholas Celozzi unless you want a complete unorgainzed, unprofessiona, undocumented disaster, where the people who profit are the two of them who will pay themselves as much money as they can, while shafting other people and putting your entire production in jeopardy for their lack of experience of even the simplest and most basic things about filmmaking
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Nick
Canyon County,California,
United States
John Writer: Follow The Facts
#2General Comment
Thu, January 31, 2019
In reading this, you're identifying yourself as a writer and rights holder. I don’t know you. I never met you. Never saw you on the set. Never negotiated his your deal. Apparently, your deal was done about a year before they brought me on board to re-write a script. I am not part of the production company. I do not live or work in Memphis. I do not own the movie. I do not own a point.
I have no idea what revenue has been earned nor do I know what Marie had made since it was she who cut the checks. I have no access to the account nor have I seen any accounting since it’s none of my business. I’ve been in the business over 25 years but am not part of this overall production you claim I stole money from.
I did not steal money from anyone nor make the numbers you claim I made. MVP paid me 11k to re-write a script that needed to sell. I had a contract as a work for hire and my contract was honored. As a work for hire, I also became an essential element to getting the film produced and sold. People put a value what they think they’re worth and try to sell that value. That’s life in general.
Complaining about what other talent makes in the entertainment businesses in beneath our peers. They earn it because they deserve it. Your complaint has nothing to do with me. It has to do with the deal you negotiated, apparently a year before I got involved. Normally one works off of quotes. I suggest you should’ve worked off yours or refuse the job you made with Marie. I suggest you ask for forensic accounting and you’ll figure it out.
