The Louis C.K. #MeToo Documentary Is More Canceled Than Louis C.K.
The documentary detailing the downfall and deliverance of Louis C.K.’s career following a 2017 exposé from the New York Times on C.K.’s sexual misconduct toward five female comedians has been canceled — but it will probably be back in a year after we all stop talking about it.
Last summer, Paramount Global executive David Nevins revealed that an untitled project from documentarian Caroline Suh would tell the story of C.K.’s fall and rise following the scandal within the context of the larger #MeToo movement. In the year since the announcement, Nevins stepped down from his position and C.K. sold out Madison Square Garden.
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This morning, the film’s would-be network, Showtime, officially dropped the documentary. Suh and her producers will presumably start shopping their film to other networks, but much like the larger movement that she intended to examine, the project has lost its steam.
According to Nevins’ past comments, the untitled C.K. documentary would have been made with the collaboration of the New York Times reporters who first broke the story about C.K.’s now-infamous pattern of behavior toward women in comedy. Nevins explained that the project was meant to use the limited fallout to the C.K. scandal as the window into the murky, complicated and wholly unresolved impact of the greater #MeToo movement that arose in the wake of women exposing C.K. and other powerful and more predatory men for their behavior.
“I don’t think the social change that #MeToo has brought about is resolved at all,” Nevins explained when the film was first announced. “There’s a bit of backlash against #MeToo, who has to go away and who’s allowed to come back.” Nevins clarified that the film would not equate C.K.’s scandal to the sex crimes of other #MeToo subjects, saying, “Louis C.K. is a slightly different situation (to Harvey Weinstein) and a great, great comedian who has come back in his own way.”
C.K. himself has made no comment acknowledging the documentary’s announcement or its cancellation — he’s clearly learned the lesson that all he needs to do to get out of a sticky situation is to wait it out.
