Bordertown

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  • Directed By: Gregory Nava
  • Written By: Gregory Nava
  • Release Date: January 29, 2008
  • Domestic Distributor: ThinkFilm
  • Cast: Jennifer Lopez, Martin Sheen, Antonio Banderas

Box Office Info:
Budget: $20 million Financed by: Möbius Entertainment; New Mexico State Investment Council
Domestic Gross: $0 Overseas Gross: $8,329,799


It was announced in March 2000 that Bordertown was in development at New Line, but the project eventually was put into turnaround.  MGM then picked up Bordertown, which had a starring role commitment from Jennifer Lopez, but again the project fell apart.  Eventually Bordertown landed at David Bergstein and Ron Tutor’s Möbius Entertainment — which financed the $20 million production with a $15 million loan from New Mexico State Investment Council, who would take 10-11% of the film’s profits — only if there were any.

Bordertown was filmed in 2005 and premiered at the Berlin Intl Film Festival in February 2007 and was booed.  It never attracted a US distributor, so it was released by David Bergstein and Ron Tutor’s distribution company ThinkFilm.  A limited theatrical release was planned, but ThinkFilm dumped Bordertown straight to video.

The film saw a release overseas to a poor $8.3 million across numerous distributors, with $2.8 million from Spain as the strongest showing and it went straight to video in Russia and most smaller markets.

David Bergstein had made a habit of not paying cast and crew for their work or paying residuals to union members and in 2007 the DGA brought Bergstein to arbitration and won.  Gregory Nava was never paid his $450,000 salary for writing and directing Bordertown and as of 2010, he still was never paid despite the court order.  In June 2018, David Bergstein was sentenced to 8 years in prison for defrauding investors out of $26M.  Good riddance.

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