A notification on Vimeo said it was pulled offline due to third-party notification by stars of the film, DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire.
- Jan 28, 2016
AceShowbiz - The controversial film that Leonardo DiCaprio banned from ever seeing the light was released online and then pulled offline. "Don's Plum" was streamed for free on Freedonsplum.com but was quickly taken down on Wednesday, January 27 at 3:55 P.M. ET. after a third-party notification by DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire.
Historically, "Don's Plum" was an indie film which was largely made of improvisations. DiCaprio and his so-called P***y Posse gang including Maguire and Kevin Connolly shot the indie film in the mid 1990s around the time DiCaprio had claimed his fame through "Romeo & Juliet" as well as "Titanic". It follows a group of young people being rowdy at a Hollywood diner over one night.
Two years after the production of the film was completed, producer David Stutman filed a lawsuit against DiCaprio and Maguire for carrying out "a fraudulent and coercive campaign to prevent release of the film." Maguire feared his improvised performance "revealed personal experiences or tendencies." In DiCaprio's argument, the project was supposed to be a short film but it was eventually edited to be a feature film.
Years went on without the film being released but producer Dale Wheatley decided it was time the film to be out of the closet. "Although the film remains banned in the U.S. and Canada, as a writer and producer I am making the film available under my copyright for the sole purpose of promoting my work as an independent filmmaker," Wheatley wrote in a statement on the website.
In 2014, Wheatley also wrote a lengthy open letter to DiCaprio whom he accused of being "publically and unapologetically shamed his director and then went on to destroy his work." Upon the taking down of the film's free streaming, Wheatley expressed his disappointment, saying, "It's a sad commentary that in 2016 we witness the suppression of film and art by one of America's most beloved actors."
