From the four posts here, it seem you are the one with a
misunderstanding. You feel this guy with the nice equipment
should be doing more work than he wants to do.
You want him to take care of finding the location for the
audition, he wants to offer script suggestions. You want him do
do specific duties but you don’t want to tell him what those
duties are. The fact is you don’t need this guy as a producer.
You need someone who will take on specific duties. So tell this
guy that you are happy to read his script suggestions and when it
comes time to shoot you would love to use his equipment. Work out
a deal for what the credits will read.
Then forget the thought that he is a “producer”. Find yourself
someone who wants to be a producer. Since YOU have specific ideas
of what a producer should do for your project, make sure you make
all the duties (ALL of them) clear from the start.
Problem is...I made I mistake in creating a casting call and everything. Auditions are supposed to be set for this weekend but now I'll have to tell all these actors that it's going on the backburner? I feel like a jerk. Is that a shitty thing to do?
This is all too common. A filmmaker gets so excited about their
movie that they are eager to involve other people. Long before
that’s a good idea. Yep, you’re going to look like a jerk to the
people who are planning to audition. Stuff happens. Cancel the
audition and start looking for someone to be the producer you
need. Then wait to post audition notices (and crew calls) until
you have firm shoot dates.
Making a movie is tough. As you know. Working with other people
is tough. Most of the time the biggest challenge is finding the
right people. The actual shooting of a movie is easy by comparison.