Exclusive: One week after Georgia prosecutors sought a new arrest warrant for Midnight Rider director Randall Miller over probation violations stemming from the 2014 on-set death of Sarah Jones, the filmmaker’s lawyers are fighting back to stop potential return to jail for their client.
“The defense urges the court to deny the application for a warrant,” proclaims a June 2 memorandum from the Atlanta firm of Garland, Samuel & Loeb that was made public by the Peach State courts today.
As exclusively reported by Deadline on May 27, last year Miller was the director of the independent feature comedy Higher Grounds in Serbia, UK and Columbia. On the surface, the DGA sanctioned gig seems to be in contradiction to the terms of Miller’s 2016 probation from his involuntary manslaughter conviction that appeared to not allow him to direct anything for 10 years.
Miller’s attorneys have argued that he was well within the rules...
“The defense urges the court to deny the application for a warrant,” proclaims a June 2 memorandum from the Atlanta firm of Garland, Samuel & Loeb that was made public by the Peach State courts today.
As exclusively reported by Deadline on May 27, last year Miller was the director of the independent feature comedy Higher Grounds in Serbia, UK and Columbia. On the surface, the DGA sanctioned gig seems to be in contradiction to the terms of Miller’s 2016 probation from his involuntary manslaughter conviction that appeared to not allow him to direct anything for 10 years.
Miller’s attorneys have argued that he was well within the rules...
- 6/5/2020
- by Anthony D'Alessandro and Dominic Patten
- Deadline Film + TV
Exclusive: The parents of Sarah Jones are calling on the DGA to kick Randall Miller out of the guild after learning that he recently directed a new movie, Higher Grounds, in Serbia and Colombia last summer — this despite the special conditions of his probation after he spent a year in jail for the death of their daughter, Sarah Jones.
Jones was killed by a speeding freight train on the first and only day of shooting on the Miller-directed Midnight Rider in Georgia in 2014.
In a statement provided to Deadline tonight, Jones’ parents, Richard and Elizabeth, said that “The legal system will decide whether Mr. Miller violated the terms of his probation when he produced and directed the feature film Higher Grounds. But in our opinion he most certainly violated the moral and ethical standards that informed his court sentencing. To us, his actions were blatantly defiant and egregiously disrespectful to the entire creative community,...
Jones was killed by a speeding freight train on the first and only day of shooting on the Miller-directed Midnight Rider in Georgia in 2014.
In a statement provided to Deadline tonight, Jones’ parents, Richard and Elizabeth, said that “The legal system will decide whether Mr. Miller violated the terms of his probation when he produced and directed the feature film Higher Grounds. But in our opinion he most certainly violated the moral and ethical standards that informed his court sentencing. To us, his actions were blatantly defiant and egregiously disrespectful to the entire creative community,...
- 5/28/2020
- by David Robb, Anthony D'Alessandro and Dominic Patten
- Deadline Film + TV
Exclusive: Due to ambiguity in probation documents, disgraced Midnight Rider director Randall Miller is back behind the camera and making movies – despite an involuntarily manslaughter guilty plea that many believed forbid such work for up to decade.
Deadline has learned that Miller directed the comedy Higher Grounds in Serbia and Colombia last year. The completed feature follows a vegan barista, played by Glow‘s Kate Nash, whose coffee shop is sinking, and gears up as the underdogs in the World Barista Championships. Higher Grounds was produced by Miller and his wife Jody Savin, who was also an initial defendant in the Sarah Jones death case, with charges eventually dismissed.
Jay Karandikar, Satish Karandikar, Zak Kristofek and Michael Melroy Smith are also executive producers on Higher Grounds.
Some talent reps who had their clients involved in the new movie wanted to vet Miller’s current situation to direct, we’ve learned.
Deadline has learned that Miller directed the comedy Higher Grounds in Serbia and Colombia last year. The completed feature follows a vegan barista, played by Glow‘s Kate Nash, whose coffee shop is sinking, and gears up as the underdogs in the World Barista Championships. Higher Grounds was produced by Miller and his wife Jody Savin, who was also an initial defendant in the Sarah Jones death case, with charges eventually dismissed.
Jay Karandikar, Satish Karandikar, Zak Kristofek and Michael Melroy Smith are also executive producers on Higher Grounds.
Some talent reps who had their clients involved in the new movie wanted to vet Miller’s current situation to direct, we’ve learned.
- 5/27/2020
- by Anthony D'Alessandro, Dominic Patten and David Robb
- Deadline Film + TV
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