Date: 25th November 2019

Apple Officially Delays "The Banker" Release.


Apple TV+ has revealed that they are indefinitely delaying the release of The Banker. The AFI premiere was also abruptly canceled earlier this week. The movie was supposed to be released theatrically on December 6th, but that isn't happening now due to sexual assault allegations, amongst other things, against the project's co-producer, Bernard Garrett Jr.

Set in pre-Civil Rights Act America, the film follows two black men in Los Angeles who recruited a white man to front their growing real estate business. Garrett Jr. was a co-producer on the film and was to be part of the film's press tour helping discuss his father's work.

Now Garrett Jr's half-sisters, roughly 15 years his junior, have made Apple aware of their claim that Garrett Jr. sexually molested them over the course of a few years. There are also separate allegations that the film's timeline was tweaked to leave the girls and their mother out of the story.

Instead, the film focuses on Bernard Garrett Sr.’s first wife, even though he had already divorced her by the time of many of the events depicted in the film. Cynthia Garrett, the older of the two girls and a veteran in Hollywood who has worked for decades at MTV, VH1 and NBC as a talk show host, tells Indiewire:

"Yes it's true. They omitted my mom and my siblings and I entirely. Stole our mom and our life story and did so with our abuser. It hurts. Deeply. HOLLYWOOD needs regulations that make filmmakers way more responsible and accountable for taking people’s life stories and with whom they work."

Source: Press Release