Leonardo DiCaprio Fought To Keep His Own Movie From Worldwide Release

When it comes to independent films, there's always something in the way of their success. It's almost a law of nature.

So when we tell you that there’s an independent drama with Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire as leading stars that was never released in the United States and Canada and almost everywhere in the world, you wouldn’t be as much surprised, would you?

The thing is, somewhere in between 1995 and 1996 after moving to Los Angeles from Canada, aspiring filmmaker Dale Wheatley became fast friends with a circle of young actors that included Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire, and several others.

Together, they decided to make a movie. That's how Don's Plum was born. But the strangest thing with the movie was the fact there actually was no full screenplay written. Sounds like an independent film at its core, right?

And that's when the difficulties started. Every member of the movie creating gang felt they had enough power to demand things on the set. For example, DiCaprio wanted one of his co-stars to be fired. Just because he felt like it was the right thing to do.

But even after almost getting what he wanted, he still felt it wasn't enough and simply walked off the set. A few months later, however, the filmmakers decided to shoot additional scenes, mostly involving Tobey Maguire. That helped them finish the movie and make it a full length feature film. But that wasn't what the actors agreed for.

Nevertheless, the filmmaking team went ahead and completed the cut with the full intention of having Don's Plum seen by powerful Hollywood players. But that never happened because of new legal problems at the time.

As DiCaprio and Maguire made lots of attempts to try and stop the director and the producers from pursuing the movie, Dale Wheatley and Co filed a $10 million lawsuit against the actors.

After a long and acrimonious legal battle, the two parties reached a settlement. Most of the actors' dialogue would be removed, and Don's Plum would only be released in several European countries and in Japan.

What was so bad about the film that DiCaprio was so determined not to show it to the world is still unclear. But maybe this independent flick, banned almost everywhere, is the reason he ended up as a big Hollywood star?