If you’ve been reading here at LRM Online for a good while, you’ll know that we generally don’t cover many outside-of-industry scandals — stuff like celebrity gossip and stuff. However, there are times when exceptions have been made, and I think this is the type of story that falls clearly under that umbrella. It may be nearly two years since the Me Too movement took off, but that’s not to say Hollywood has been fixed completely when it comes to its treatment of women.

In the past, there have been accusations against Bright and Chronicle screenwriter Max Landis regarding his general s***tiness as a human being, as well as his treatment of women, but in a new report from The Daily Beast, they state that eight women have accused him of emotional and sexual abuse. This wasn’t the first time he was accused. Back in 2017, actress Anna Akana called Landis a “psychopath who sexually abused and assaults women,” but not much came from that.

One of Landis’ former girlfriends, Ani Baker shared her own experiences when hearing from other women.

“It gets worse every day. Every story I hear, I’m like, how did I think I knew this person? It’s horrifying. But I just feel like I need to be as honest as possible, since my goal in this is to help other people to not be in the same position.”

Another ex-girlfriend, who the article named Julie, had more specific accusations.

“He trusted that we wouldn’t ever say anything, worked actively to discredit people who were saying things, and was just as consistent in the abuse as he was with covering it up and manipulating us afterwards. I didn’t realize that I had been raped consistently and deliberately by this man for two years until today, when I wrote it down.”

The majority of the report runs down all the emotionally abusive stories surrounding him, as well as Landis’ allegedly destructive and dehumanizing nature when it comes to the women he is around.

“He showed me abuse and humiliation porn and constantly tested my boundaries—this became murkier and murkier as our relationship got more tumultuous, as I grew to view sex with him as the only way to receive love and connect,” Julie wrote in her statement. “This lead to me allowing myself to become more and more abused. He claimed that seeing me cry was a turn-on—this later turned into a routine of him yelling and humiliating me until I cried, then having sex with me while I continued to cry with no regard or effort to make things right. He’d instigate fights, belittle and upset me, just so he could have sex with me, and the real, legitimate fights ended the same way. He choked me until I passed out and did humiliating, degrading things to me that I still can’t manage to write out on paper.”

Then Julie continued:

“Max Landis is a serial rapist, gaslighter, physical and psychological abuser who tormented me for six years, long after our romantic relationship, both directly and behind my back.”

The original piece goes into much greater detail, but regarding all this, one man has since taken to Twitter to speak out regarding this: Josh Trank. Yes, Trank may currently still be in “director jail” in the eyes of many fans, but he also directed the film Chronicle, which was written by Landis. Apparently, though, Trank isn’t a huge Landis fan himself.

Here’s what Trank said:

“I 100% believe every word of this article about Max. I banned him from visiting principal photography of Chronicle, and I haven’t spoken to him since 2012. To read about the terror he’s inflicted on so many women since then makes me sick to my stomach. Heartbroken beyond measure.”

https://twitter.com/joshuatrank/status/1141043649456877568?s=19

Suddenly, it’s starting to make sense why he’s no longer involved with Bright…

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SOURCE: The Daily Beast, Josh Trank