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New Godzilla Film's Legendary Pictures Sues 3 Producers
posted on by Lynzee Loveridge
Deadline reported that Legendary Pictures' is suing three of its producers to remove them from the film production and cutting any producing fees and backend compensation.
Dan Lin (Sherlock Holmes), Roy Lee (The Woman in Black, The Grudge 3), Doug Davison, Lee Pictures, and Vertigo Entertainment are named as defendants in the case.
Legendary Pictures let go of Warner Bros. producers Lin, Lee, and Davison in late 2012. The producers responded that they are "entitled to substantial producing fees and backend compensation on the Film,” while Legendary Pictures maintains that those fees are only applicable "if the Film were ‘produced substantially under the supervision’ of Defendants." The production company maintains that the defendants are only entitled to the US$25,000 development fee as agreed upon in the March 2011 Producer Loan Agreement.
The agreement outlined that the producers would only be asked to remain on the project if they were "deemed to be engaged" to produce the film. Legendary asserts that it did not find that the trio fit the requirement.
"Defendants efforts on the project consisted only of introducing a screenwriter to Legendary and contributing notes to a screenplay which Legendary subsequently decided to not utilize," the lawsuit states. "Legendary judged that Defendants offered little to the ongoing production of the film, and that their likely role (if engaged) would not warrant the substantial fees and backend compensation that they could potentially earn as producers."
The defendants threatened to see a temporary restraining order (TRO) to halt the film's production. Legendary preemptively filed suit to prevent the TRO and ask the courts to declare "that the written [March 2011 Producer Loan] Agreement is an enforceable contract that was accepted by Defendants, such that the arbitration clause contained therein is enforceable and this dispute is subject to mandatory arbitration.”
The film is currently slated to open on May 16, 2014.
Source: Deadline, The Hollywood Reporter
