The Writers Guild of America West is prohibiting its members from working with producer Steve Small and his company Fifty Feet Movie, LLC.
The union notified members on Wednesday that it had placed Small, a former Paradigm agent and Emmett/Furla Films executive who has produced the indies The Hungover Games (2014), Cash Out (2024) and the upcoming Armored, and his company Fifty Feet Movie, LLC on its Strike/Unfair List. The union’s rules bar members from working with individuals or companies on the list or risk a fine. Until this decision, Fifty Feet Movie, LLC was a signatory to the union’s main contract, called the minimum basic agreement.
The union provided multiple reasons for the move. The union claims it determined that Fifty Feet Movie, LLC “was not financially responsible and is unlikely to meet its MBA [minimum basic agreement] obligations” on several titles including Cash Out and the upcoming Alarum and The Epiphany, and so demanded a surety bond. “To date, Fifty Feet has failed to post a bond as required by Article 42,” the union stated.
John Travolta and Kristin Davis star in Cash Out, while Sylvester Stallone and Scott Eastwood front Alarum. Stallone also stars in The Epiphany.
The Hollywood Reporter has reached out to Small for comment.
Another factor was that Gotti and Silence producer Randall Emmett is a managing member of Small’s Convergence Entertainment Group, the corporate guarantor for Fifty Feet, according to the union. Emmett, the co-founder of Emmett/Furla Films and a longtime producer of low-budget action movies featuring aging Hollywood stars, was placed on the union’s strike list with producer and business partner George Furla in 2020. The union says that Emmett was introduced to the list at that time because companies he oversaw owed nearly $712,000 in wages, pension and health contributions and interest to four writers on the television series Pump.
Two years later, The Los Angeles Times reported that Emmett was facing allegations of inappropriate interactions with women, in one case allegedly offering to exchange work on a project for a sexual favor, and abuse of assistants. (Emmett denied those allegations.) Small told the Times at the time that he “never saw any unprofessional behavior” in his time working with Emmett. In April, the Times reported that Emmett was directing Cash Out under the pseudonym “Ives,” which is his middle name.
In its Wednesday message, the union urged any members approached by Small, Emmett, Fifty Feet Movie, LLC or Convergence Entertainment Group for work to contact its legal department.
Convergence Entertainment Group launched in 2023 with the goal of being a “a filmmaker and talent-friendly studio,” Small told Deadline at the time. The article noted that Small is a member of the California State Bar who previously worked as the president of production and development at Emmett/Furla Films.
