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Former Godzilla Producers Countersue Legendary Pictures
posted on by Lynzee Loveridge
Dan Lin (Sherlock Holmes), Roy Lee (The Woman in Black, The Grudge 3), and Doug Davison — the three producers Legendary Pictures let go in December — filed a counterclaim for breach of oral contact and asserted that the studio committed promissory fraud for not giving them agreed-upon compensation.
The producers state in their cross-complaint that Legendary Pictures tried to remove them from the film project after they refused to lower their previously agreed-upon fees. Included in the filed documents are reported e-mails from Legendary executives, promising that Lin and his partners would be treated well if they managed to obtain the rights from Japanese producer TOHO to produce the film.
The producers are citing an oral agreement for US$25,000 developmental fee, fixed compensation of US$1.3 million, and 3 percent of the first-dollar gross receipts of the film. Their documents further assert that a draft longform agreement was sent in 2011 but never signed; according to the defendants, Legendary Pictures attempted to remove them from the project under a provision of the unsigned agreement.
Legendary claimed the producers did little to prove their worth to project, were not "deemed to be engaged" as outlined in a March 2011 Producer Loan Agreement, and thus have no right to backend compensation. Legendary preemptively filed suit to prevent a temporary restraining order (TRO) that would halt the film's production and ask the courts to declare "that the written [March 2011 Producer Loan] Agreement is an enforceable contract that was accepted by Defendants."
Lin, Davison, and Lee are represented by lawyer Larry Stein and are seeking a jury trial.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
