Nicholas Cage and director Paul Schrader silently protesting their own film

Actor Nicholas Cage and Director Paul Schrader are silently protesting against their own film, The Dying of The Light.

Last month, Variety spoke with Schrader and Dying executive producer Nicolas Winding Refn, who claimed that the film’s producers decided to override Schrader’s rough cut of the film and were finishing it themselves, transforming it into something completely different from Schrader’s original vision.

The recently released trailer for the film proudly advertises itself as a Paul Schrader film, but he claims that the producers took the film away from him during the editing process.

Despite being contractually prevented from disparaging the finished result, he, Cage, co-star Anton Yelchin, and executive producer Nicolas Winding Refn have joined in what appears to be a silent protest. On Facebook, Schrader posted photos of the quartet wearing t-shirts that reflect his stance:

“We lost the battle. Dying of the Light, a film I wrote and directed, was taken away from me, re-dited, scored, and mixed without my input. Yesterday Grindstone (a division of Lionsgate) released the poster and the trailer. They are available online. Here we are, Nick Cage, Anton Yelchin, Nic Refn and myself, wearing our ‘non-disparagement’ T shirts. The non-disparagement clause in an artist’s contract gives the owners of the film the right to sue the artist should the owner deem anything the artist has said about the film to be ‘derogatory.’ I have no comment on the film or others connected with the picture.”

According to the producers, the film that will be released is 80 percent the same as what Schrader envisioned. Refn told Variety that the producers’ handling of the creative disagreement was an act of “creative disrespect.”