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Hollywood Dreams Turn Into Nightmare in PSL

Posted by , September 7, 2012 Print

The New York Mets' Digital Domain Park

Digital Domain bought naming rights for the New York Met’s spring training ballpark in Port St. Lucie (Special to Gossip Extra)

John Textor, who peddled dreams of Tinseltown East in exchange for millions in aid from the state and the strapped-for-cash cities of Port St. Lucie and West Palm Beach, abruptly resigned as CEO of the animation studio Digital Domain this morning.

The palatial special effects production facility off I-95 in Port St. Lucie suddenly shut its doors, causing the lay offs of 200 hired less than a year ago, reports tcpalm.com.

Witnesses said PSL cops were on stand by in the parking lot in case of trouble.

The studio blew the minds of fans at California’s famed Coachella music festival in April with a truer-than-life virtual concert on stage by dead rapper Tupac Shakur (see video below).

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The smoke and mirrors, however, didn’t protect Digital Domain from creditors. The company, which bought naming rights to the New York Mets’ spring training stadium nearby, defaulted on a $35 million-loan this week.

When Textor was interviewed Tuesday by Gossip Extra on an unrelated matter – his complaint about two cyberstalkers scaring his family —  Textor said the loan situation would be settled by today, partly with cash from Dubai.

The company’s film school downtown West Palm Beach, meanwhile, remains open.

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3 Comments

  1. Hollywood Dreams Turn Into Nightmare in Port St Lucie | Broward News and Entertainment Today, 8 months ago Reply

    [...] The studio blew the minds of fans at California’s famed Coachella music festival in April with a truer-than-life virtual concert on stage by dead rapper Tupac Shakur (see video here). [...]

  2. john, 8 months ago Reply

    The writing was on the wall with this one, came in with tons of pomp and circumstance, false promise, etc.. the cracks could start to be seen when they were grasping for new business models…when a CEO publically declares that going public was a huge mistake, you know you have to run for the doors as fast as you can and the wrong man is at the helm.

    Hopefully everyone can find employment again soon,always sad to see something so promising go up in flames…

  3. Toni, 8 months ago Reply

    Another one of those “job creators” that the Republicans want to give more tax breaks and money too. This guy and his company came here, ripped the state and county off (which was pretty easy since they were both more than willing to throw money at him) and then left. The same thing will happen to the insurers that Republican Governor Rick Scott is going to hand $350 million out of the Citizen’s Ins. surplus fund and as soon as a storm looks like it might come to Florida these companies will take the money and run.


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