Key Points
A new documentary purports to expose how Stan Lee’s former manager, Max Anderson, allegedly swindled the comics legend out of millions.
Stan Lee: The Final Chapter features testimony from several of Lee’s former confidantes, as well as footage shot by Lee assistant (and the film’s director) Jon Bolerjack over four years.
An EW exclusive clip purports to show Anderson pocketing stacks of cash Lee earned at various signing and fan events.
The story of Stan Lee‘s turbulent last years is finally getting the documentary treatment.
Stan Lee: The Final Chapter, out July 28 on VOD, features footage shot over the course of the comics giant’s last four years, before his death at age 95 in 2018. Though the Marvel Comics co-creator is the film’s subject, his fractious relationship with a former road manager named Max Anderson is its focus.
Last June, Anderson was sentenced to a year and one day in prison on tax fraud charges, after he failed to report $1.2 million earned through work for Lee. The month prior, Lee’s daughter, J.C. Lee, settled a lawsuit she brought against Anderson, which accused him of stealing over $21 million from her father.
A new clip from the documentary that Entertainment Weekly can exclusively premiere provides an inside view of Anderson’s alleged scheme. “How much money did I make here tonight?” Lee asks Anderson in the clip after a well-attended merchandise signing. “Not enough,” he responds. “It’s never enough, Stan.”
The clip features testimony from Alex Barajas, a producer on the film who helped Lee for years on merchandising; Jerry Blank, Lee’s former business development manager; and Bolerjack.
“Once the signing was finished, if you were one of Max’s chosen few that he trusted, you would go in the back and count money,” Barajas explains. The Final Chapter contains numerous scenes showing Anderson and his associates counting hundreds of bills, including 20s, 50s, and even 100s after fan events.
Stan Lee in ‘Stan Lee: The Final Chapter’
Credit: Convrsly Productions
“When you see that much money so easily obtained, you never forget it. Honestly, it changes you. There was no oversight. We were just handed tons and tons of cash and told to count it and we just handed it over to Max,” Barajas says.
Blank notes that he, Barajas, Bolerjack, and others “would always count in the money. Then I would leave and then whatever happens to the money at that point, none of my business. It’s not my thing to ask.”
Entertainment Weekly has attempted to reach out to Anderson for comment.
Bolerjack recalls once driving back from a convention with Lee, who turned and asked him, “‘How much money did I make?’ I was just like, ‘What do you mean?'” Bolerjack said Lee asked how much money he had made in total from all the events. “He just had no idea.”
When asked what Anderson told Lee when he asked him the same question, Lee reported: “‘I asked Max, but he said he didn’t have the total yet. He was going to tell me later.'” That stunned Bolerjack, who insists, “I know Max knows how much money he made. I was in the room when they were counting it, you know. I know it’s written down. I know it’s a real number. It’s there.”
One scene shows Lee outside an event talking to what one associate described as his “entourage.” Lee tells them, “He had a bag full of money — Max. He must have been paid in cash for something. He went to the bank with me and it took about an hour and then I signed something. Then the next day he took it out of that account and put it somewhere else. It’s very confusing to me. It had to do with him buying a house. And all I said was, ‘I’d like you to just write down what you did so I’d understand it.’ But he hasn’t done that. And he’ll say he hasn’t got time.”
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Poster for ‘Stan Lee: The Final Chapter’
Credit: Convrsly Productions
Anderson met Lee in 2007, and quickly rose through the ranks of his personal operations to exert near-total control of his public engagements. He also acted as a caretaker for Lee, arranging both medical and financial services in his latter years.
Anderson said he was never compensated for his work for Lee.
J.C. Lee eventually accused Anderson of stealing at least $11.1 her father earned by signing autographs, and at least $10.2 million in appearance fees. Anderson denied ever handling money at these events.
Stan Lee: The Final Chapter will screen July 23 at San Diego Comic-Con, before releasing on VOD on July 28.
Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly
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